God Keeps Me Standing Strong

My mother, Carole, is 65 years old. Approximately 1 1/2 years ago, she went to the emergency room for severe pain in her right abdomen. She was told she was having an appendicitis attack. We informed them that she had already had her appendix removed 14 years earlier at this very hospital. It was determined she had an abscess and needed strong antibiotics and the abscess needed to be drained. She was admitted and spent the next 12 days in the hospital. She was pumped full of saline, antibiotics, pain killers, and whatever they could think of to kill this infection. She also had a tube inserted to drain the abscess. Her body swelled up so much, she could hardly move. Slowly, her body responded, swelling went down, and she was on the road to recovery, so we thought. Once she was released, she continued more IV antibiotics and had the drainage tube for another month. It seemed her ordeal was over. She continued with follow-ups and feeling her infection was coming back, with the doctors reassuring her they would not let that happen. However, 9 months later, two more abscesses appeared. So again she was admitted in the hospital, this time for 2 weeks, 2 drainage tubes and more IV antibiotics and pain killers. At this point the doctors decided to remove part of her colon and do a complete hysterectomy so infection would not keep returning. Surgery was scheduled February 2014 and doctors found the infection to be cancer and not the abscesses that she had been treated for the past year. During surgery, while trying to remove the cancer, they nicked an artery and damaged nerves in her leg, resulting loss of use. Surgeons decided cancer could not be removed because it was intertwined with arteries and nerves. Carole spent 2 weeks in the hospital this time and three weeks later from when she had surgery she had a massive saddle pulmonary embolism almost killing her and another week in the hospital.

Carole is a God fearing, loving grandmother, mother, aunt, sister and friend to many of us. Carole's life was instantly changed when she was diagnosed with T4 or Stage 4 cancer in February 2014 and a life expectancy of 2 years. Since then, Carole requested a second opinion at the Mayo Clinic and has been undergoing rigorous chemo treatments in her home town through the direction of her oncologist at the Mayo Clinic. Once those treatments are complete, she will have CT scans to check progress and either have additional treatments or leave for Mayo to proceed with radiation/chemo treatments in Rochester, MN, followed by surgery to finally remove the cancer she was told could not be removed due to being too difficult.

As many of you know, cancer care requires a lot of money and there are things that are not thought of such as lost wages, therapies, homecare, medical supplies, co-pays, motels stays, etc. Carole has missed a lot of work and is now unable to work because she cannot drive anymore and I, Stephanie, have had to also take a lot of time off work and will have to take 2 months off to be with my mom while at the Mayo clinic.

Please help Carole in alleviating some of this financial burden by donating any dollar amount you wish to help her fight against this battle. We ask that you keep Carole in your thoughts and prayers whenever possible. Thank you for all of your love, support and well wishes.

God Bless & Sincerely,

Stephanie 

Carole's Family
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