Carol's Second Fight Against Cancer

Carol’s story:

In October 2010, Carol received a heartbreaking diagnosis that she had stage 3 breast cancer. The tumor was in her right breast and the cancer had spread to several lymph nodes in her right arm. Carol had a lumpectomy and the surgeon removed 22 lymph nodes from her arm. Following the surgery, she went through 6 rounds of chemotherapy, at which time her hair fell out and she wore her super stylish red wig until her hair grew back. Carol also had 30 rounds of radiation treatments, which resulted in severe burns on her body.

Carol never gave up this fight against cancer and with lots of prayer, positive thinking and a fighting spirit, she won that battle! She was cancer free in 2011! She still has severe lymphedema in her arm from having the lymph nodes removed, but never complains and always wears a smile!!

Nearly 3 years to the day in October of 2013 she noticed a painful lump growing in the same breast as before. After going in for a screening, she was in fact diagnosed again with breast cancer. Treatments were different this time around. She will need a mastectomy. Her treatment plan this time involved 4 chemotherapy treatments every two weeks and then switching drugs and doing 4 more chemotherapy treatments every 3 weeks, followed by the surgery. This was to shrink the tumor to make sure all margins are clear for surgery. The cancer has spread to one lymph node under her sternum. Because this lymph node is so difficult to get to in surgery, the doctor will radiate that area following surgery.

As she was receiving the 4 chemo treatments she started noticing her eyesight was getting worse by the day, not sure if this was chemo related she went in to her eye specialist in Dec 2013. She was told she had a macular hole in her retina and that it was just “bad luck”. She would have to have eye surgery with in the month. Her oncologist and eye specialist decided she would have to have the surgery in between the chemo sessions. So, off she goes to have eye surgery. There was a gas bubble injected in to the eye and she had to stay face down 24 hours a day for 7 days. This caused her excruciating pain on her neck and shoulders by the end of that week. She was so compliant the whole time and again never complained! The hole is still in the process of healing. So many prayers her way for this please!! Following eye surgery, she started back with her chemo treatments and has 3 more to go until surgery!

Carol has been through a tremendous amount of adversity. She is in a dire need of financial assistance to be able to pay for all of these treatments and surgeries she has had. She is the most caring, loving person and is always thinking of how she can serve others even while going through such hard times herself. If you want to help and are not sure what you can do or how you can help Carol, please donate to her medical fund. Your donation will help pay for medical expenses and that will be a huge help! Thank you for reading and sharing Carol’s story!! Thank you for your donations!! May God bless you!