Betty's Cancer Fund

Betty went into the hospital on Nov. 19th - the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  She was in a lot of pain in her lower-right abdomen - which made us all think her appendix was either about to rupture or had ruptured.  Unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be so straight-forward.  What ruptured was a cancer tumor just above her appendix and she had a second tumor on the other side of her cecum/ascending colon (the part that connects our small intestine to our large intestine).  Betty went into surgery on the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 21st - thinking the surgeon was there to remove her entire cecum, her appendix and whatever the other thing was on the other side (at the time they thought it was just an abscess caused by infection).  She came out of surgery that day with all of that removed and a cancer diagnosis (Mucinous Adenocarcenoma).  The ruptured (or perforated) tumor means that she needs chemotherapy ASAP to attack the free-floating cancer cells that were released into her abdomen when all of this happened.  Of course, this means medical bills, time off from work for all of her family members - at different times (we're taking things in shifts)!!  Her chemo treatments start on 12/19 and will last 3-6 months - depending on how things go.  Then, of course, re-scan/re-test/re-evaluate to figure out if the treatment was successful or if more needs to be done.  Betty's insurance has a very large deductible (well over $6000) followed by an even larger out-of-pocket max after that before the insurance will start paying at 100%.  She just met her deductible for the year at the beginning of her hospital stay here in Nov, but all of that will reset come Jan. 1st.  We are hoping for help from all that know and love Betty and the selfless person that she is!  I don't want her to survive this just for her and Dad to end up bankrupt at the end of treatment!  Any help will be greatly appreciated - not to mention help getting her to chemo appointments when none of our schedules will allow us to take her and any other niceities you think she might appreciate on her road to recovery (and prayers - lots of prayers).  Know that mom believes that everything will turn out just fine in the end - we're just trying to make sure that means financially as well.  Thank you in advance for any assistance that you may be able to provide!

Betty's family:
Karl, Ken, Kara & Kirk