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It was supposed to be a hernia surgery.
On October 26th of last year, the anesthesiologists administered the drugs to sedate my 26-year-old nephew Taylor Teets. He went to sleep.
Everything at that point was routine.
But when he woke up, Taylor knew something wasn’t quite right. That’s when he learned that while he was sedated, the surgeon had been meeting with his mother and my younger sister, Brenda Teets, to discuss a word that no mother ever wants to hear uttered about one of her children.
That word was cancer. Testicular cancer.
My name is Donna Hewell. My two children, Zach and Paige, as well as my sister Brenda’s three children, Kevin, Kenneth and Taylor all grew up together in Woodlawn Tennessee.
Taylor is the youngest of the five cousins and between a multitude of prayers, visits from his hunting buddies and family members and the unwavering love of his mother, Brenda, who has spent each night in the hospital with him, Taylor has not battled cancer alone. Taylor and our entire family are extremely grateful to those who have prayed for him, visited him and sent thoughts of healing and comfort his direction.
Many of you know that days after the hernia surgery was scheduled, Taylor was back in the hospital to have lab results confirm the suspicions that the surgeon suspected were true. Taylor wouldn’t be spending November December and January duck and deer hunting with his friends and family like he would normally do.
This time, those winter months and months well into the Spring would be spent fighting for his life.
After months of chemo and two hospitalizations in Clarksville, TN, Taylor was referred to Vanderbilt University where he would undergo an eight hour surgery to remove his lymph nodes. The doctors told him that the chemotherapy has shown progress, but the best defense to ensuring that the cancer would not spread would be to remove the lymph nodes located along side his spine but only accessible by surgically cutting from his sternum to lower abdomen to remove those lymph nodes associated with his specific type of cancer.
The good news that we are all very grateful for is that lab results from the lymph nodes show Taylor to be cancer free. We thank God for this and again are appreciative of all the prayer requests Taylor has received.
But this surgery has had complications. He has twice been admitted back into the hospital because of infections. And today he remains under the care of Home health nurses and still has tubes coming from his body both from his kidney and from his abdomen related to complications after this surgery.
Despite five different hospitalizations and more than 20 days total being in the hospital, Taylor remains someone with a positive outlook on life. He has even found a girlfriend amidst this bad news thanks to one of the nurses, Camille Knight, that was caring for Taylor as he went through chemo treatment, suggesting that Taylor should meet her daughter, Sam.
Sam and Taylor begin talking through social media, then started dating and we are also thankful that Sam has been by Taylor’s side in the hospital as often as she can.
Faced with the devastating c-word, a reminder of each of our mortality, Taylor has also found Christ and he, his brother Kenneth and his mother Brenda have each secured their own eternal life by accepting Christ’s love and salvation and were each baptized since that 26th day of October where a hernia surgery turned into a battle against cancer filled with health complications and many financial hurdles.
That is one of the many reasons why I have created this GoFundMe account. We are thankful that Taylor’s employer offered health insurance, but he has been unable to work for months now. And as we all know, health insurance does not cover everything.
We are setting and ambitious goal to help Taylor cover his out-of-pocket expenses and lost income. If you are able to give, please do.
If you make a donation, and even if you are financially unable to, we ask that you please continue to keep my nephew, Taylor, in your thoughts, your prayers and wish him well for a speedy recovery.
God Bless,
Donna Hewell
On October 26th of last year, the anesthesiologists administered the drugs to sedate my 26-year-old nephew Taylor Teets. He went to sleep.
Everything at that point was routine.
But when he woke up, Taylor knew something wasn’t quite right. That’s when he learned that while he was sedated, the surgeon had been meeting with his mother and my younger sister, Brenda Teets, to discuss a word that no mother ever wants to hear uttered about one of her children.
That word was cancer. Testicular cancer.
My name is Donna Hewell. My two children, Zach and Paige, as well as my sister Brenda’s three children, Kevin, Kenneth and Taylor all grew up together in Woodlawn Tennessee.
Taylor is the youngest of the five cousins and between a multitude of prayers, visits from his hunting buddies and family members and the unwavering love of his mother, Brenda, who has spent each night in the hospital with him, Taylor has not battled cancer alone. Taylor and our entire family are extremely grateful to those who have prayed for him, visited him and sent thoughts of healing and comfort his direction.
Many of you know that days after the hernia surgery was scheduled, Taylor was back in the hospital to have lab results confirm the suspicions that the surgeon suspected were true. Taylor wouldn’t be spending November December and January duck and deer hunting with his friends and family like he would normally do.
This time, those winter months and months well into the Spring would be spent fighting for his life.
After months of chemo and two hospitalizations in Clarksville, TN, Taylor was referred to Vanderbilt University where he would undergo an eight hour surgery to remove his lymph nodes. The doctors told him that the chemotherapy has shown progress, but the best defense to ensuring that the cancer would not spread would be to remove the lymph nodes located along side his spine but only accessible by surgically cutting from his sternum to lower abdomen to remove those lymph nodes associated with his specific type of cancer.
The good news that we are all very grateful for is that lab results from the lymph nodes show Taylor to be cancer free. We thank God for this and again are appreciative of all the prayer requests Taylor has received.
But this surgery has had complications. He has twice been admitted back into the hospital because of infections. And today he remains under the care of Home health nurses and still has tubes coming from his body both from his kidney and from his abdomen related to complications after this surgery.
Despite five different hospitalizations and more than 20 days total being in the hospital, Taylor remains someone with a positive outlook on life. He has even found a girlfriend amidst this bad news thanks to one of the nurses, Camille Knight, that was caring for Taylor as he went through chemo treatment, suggesting that Taylor should meet her daughter, Sam.
Sam and Taylor begin talking through social media, then started dating and we are also thankful that Sam has been by Taylor’s side in the hospital as often as she can.
Faced with the devastating c-word, a reminder of each of our mortality, Taylor has also found Christ and he, his brother Kenneth and his mother Brenda have each secured their own eternal life by accepting Christ’s love and salvation and were each baptized since that 26th day of October where a hernia surgery turned into a battle against cancer filled with health complications and many financial hurdles.
That is one of the many reasons why I have created this GoFundMe account. We are thankful that Taylor’s employer offered health insurance, but he has been unable to work for months now. And as we all know, health insurance does not cover everything.
We are setting and ambitious goal to help Taylor cover his out-of-pocket expenses and lost income. If you are able to give, please do.
If you make a donation, and even if you are financially unable to, we ask that you please continue to keep my nephew, Taylor, in your thoughts, your prayers and wish him well for a speedy recovery.
God Bless,
Donna Hewell