Hey Y'all,

     My name is Niquie and these past 2 months have been very difficult.  I live in Bakersfield, Ca and have been flying and driving back and fourth to Washington State to care for and help my mom who has been Diagnosed with Stage IV Squameous Cell Lung Cancer.  This has been a huge burden to my entire family as medical expenses, travel expenses, and loss of work have put our families in a finacial struggle.  I am truly humbling myself and going against my nature and asking for help financially to assist with medical costs and travel.

     Let me say that this situation has been a very difficult one.  Back in August of last year, Mom called to let me know that she was having a biopsy because a 3mm mass was found on her right lung.  So the week of the 8th was quite excutiating.  Many thoughts ran through my head.  Is this Cancer?  What could this mean for my mom?  Was this curable?  Will mom make it?  From the moment that there may have been a speck of worry, I have been in prayer mode. The day we recieved news mom was in the clear, it was a happy day!  I praised God for sparing mom from pain and worry.  We just had no idea that things would take a turn for the worse.

     Come October and November, mom was having a real hard time with breathing and coughing a lot.  I thought, well, she's a smoker and this is part of what smoking brings.  However, she had deep, hard, and painful cough.  She had hid from me a lot of things most of all that she was spitting up blood.  Her doctors said they could remove part of her lung.  Remove her lung?  I mean why would that be needed if there is nothing wrong with her.  Her doctors were treating this small NON Cancerous Mass as an infection, all the while it's growing and spreading like wildfire in her body.
My cousin, Mathew finally put a stop to all the nonsense between mom and the doctors and requested she be seen by a UW Medical Doctor.  He demanded this with force and never backed down.  

     By end of December, Mom was being seen by a World Renowned doctor with the UW of Washington.  I remember the day that she met with this doctor.  She called and was so happy that this doctor finally listened and heard her.  He truly listened to all that mom had been going through.  My first response is this Doctor Ragou is a HUGE blessing for my mom.  He's going to be the answer to our prayers and there's a reason why he was seeing my MOM.  So the doctor made another appointment and this time is was to do a full work up on mom.  There were CT Scans, Colonoscopy, Endoscopy, PET Scan and blood tests were ran.  

     By January our fears became our living nightmare.  Mom's doctor had let her know that she indeed had cancer and that a scheduled lung removal was no longer an option for her.  The Cancer had spread to both of her lungs, all Lymph Nodes, Throat, and Stomach.  He stated that there was nothing further he could do for her as he was is a pulmonary doctor.  His next step was to refer her to Oncology.

     On January 26th, mom had her first oncology appointment.  I flew up the day before to make sure that she had the support and love her child with her.  We saw Dr. Santana-Davia, and mom was given a 6month to a year prognosis.  Two options were given as a course of treatment.  Mom could do Chemo or the alternative is Immunotherapy.  Chemo was not an option as mom wants quality of life over quantity of life.  Before leaving the first oncology appointment, we scheduled her second appt to be before I left to be home with my family.  In this appointment we went over the secondary option of immunotheapy.  The doctor was pretty hopeful this would help in moms journey.  One hurdle needed to be met, and that was mom needed to have a particular protien in her system to be a candidate for this therapy.  

     Testing day came and went.  Blood was withdrawn and another CT Scan was completed.  By Monday of the next week, Mom was schedule for her first therapy session was on February 16th.  Joy was in the air and our hearts were hopeful.  As the week leading up to her first session arrived, Mom took a turn for the worse.  She was unable to hold food or water in her system.  She was throwing up uncontrollably and was rushed to emergency.  Her pain was through the roof and was told that she had pneumonia.  This situation caused Mom to temporarily hold off on therapy treatment.  The Seattle Cancer Care Alliance center scheduled another therapy session.  Praise Jesus! Mom's out of the hospital and sounds good.  The week leading up to her first therapy session was difficult.  Mom's boyfriend and only means of financial support wasnt able to be with her for the entire therapy session and all my cousins were working.  Mom and I had major anxiety as this was really happening.  The days prior to her session, mom was having a hard time breathing.  She showed up to therapy on Thursday, February 24th only to find out that her session had been rescheduled for the next day.  UGH!  Since she was having a hard time breathing, she asked to be admitted to the hospital. 

     This leads me to today.  I'm sitting in the 8th story of Providence Hospital where Mom is in Hospice Care.  My family rushed up her by car to be with her as things had taken a turn for the worse in her.  I was told that they drained 1200cc's of fluid from her lungs.  We also learned that the cancer had spread to her bones.  It's moving like a wildfire in her body.  

     Mom has since decided to forgo the the Immunotherapy treatment and be on Hospice Care.  My husband and daughter were with me as we weren't sure what the next 24-48 hours would hold for her.  Kailey, my daughter spent the past 3 days loving on Grandma and saying "Goodbye", not knowing if it would truly be the last time she would see her Grammie.  

   The love and support of our friends and family has been very overwhelming.  We have had many text messages and an outpouring of support through Facebook.  We are trusting in God that this path for Mom is the best.  My hope is that we can see mom for Easter and have at least ONE MORE holiday with her.  

   My family and are thankful for any assitance financially.    If you are unable to donate, please pray for us.  This has been a very sad time all of our lives.  

    Thank you from the bottom of my heart!  God Bless the gift and the giver!

LOVE,

Niquie Dahl