Team Shari - kicking GBM tuchus

I want to tell you about my dear friend named Shari. She's the short one. 

It was early 2014, Shari was going about her daily routine. It included:

~ Helping her husband run their small business;
~ Acting has a foster mom to four-legged-fur-babies;
~ Losing weight and feeling sassy;
~ Teaching Sunday School and Confirmation classes;
~ Doing fabulous grandmotherly things for her adorable grandchildren;
~ Attending Jimmy Buffet concerts when they were close by;
~ Cheering for her OKC Thunder (THUNDERUP!!!);
~ Accepting a job as the Program Coordinator for her house of worship.

In fact, all was going splendidly - until she started feeling like her brain was "scrambled". That's what she told us - and we would all laugh and joke about it. That was until one morning her husband found her on the bathroom floor unable to get up.

I could share with you her concerns as to where her panties were when the ambulance arrived. And whether or not the EMS crew had clean shoes on before they entered the house... But the real story was that Shari had a brain tumor the size of a baseball in her little noggin. And it needed removed immediately. If she survived the surgery, she would need chemo and radiation to treat any residual cancer cells. Shari took all of this with a smile and proclaimed to us, "I'll be OK."

Three noggin surgeries later and 33 chemo/radiation treatments to go - Shari is in good spirits (even after having lost most of her vision due to an infection she received after the first surgery and having to have part of her skull removed in the 2nd surgery). The Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) mass has had no new growth. The prognosis is positive.

In fact, the only thing that has grown and has a not good prognosis are the expenses. 

Shari's husband has cut back on his work to help care for his beloved bride of nearly 40 years. Shari's daughter (a nurse) has taken time away from work to help care for her mother. Friends and family have volunteered to help here and there - but financial help is needed to cover daily household and mounting medical expenses.

See, a lot of the medical costs happened before Shari had medical insurance and to keep their heads above the financial waters - her and her dear husband need help.

We are trying to raise enough to help cover medical expenses and to help ease the burden until Shari doesn't need in-home care. Please give what you can to help - or feel free to look over the wishlist and contribute to one of these monthly expenses.

Also, enjoy the picture of Shari in a cute hat she got for Mother's Day. Seriously, how cute is that?