Cancer recovery assistance for Karen
Donation protected
Hi Everyone,
I hope you all are staying safe both physically and mentally healthy during this extremely trying time. It feels weird asking for any assistance during this time, but I am reaching out to get some help and support for my beloved mother. Most of you know her story, but I will still briefly sum it up. As of mid-2019 my Mom was on disability from her job as a paralegal. The only good thing out of that was that she was placed on Medical, she decided to made the most of it and take the time to pursue her health since she had the time and actual coverage for the first time in years. After she made this decision, I was proud of the fact she was going to various Dr’s appointments 2-3x a week for months. In late August 2019 she started to develop serious stomach problems, after weeks of misdiagnosis and continual problems she landed in the Stanford ER, where an attentive ER doctor noticed her concern and going against protocol requested an MRI on her intestines, during this scan they found a spot in her rectum, which ironically had nothing to do with her issues, but definitely needed attention. This spot then promoted a quick response by a habitually slow and often unresponsive Valley Medical Center, called VMC from here on out (our county hospital, where us with little to no coverage must go) to finally expedite a colonoscopy. That is where this journey of the 6 letter C-word began.
Seven months to this current day was 10/18/2019, also, ironically 11 years to the day of my grandfathers (my mom’s dad) death (side note: he didn’t die from it, but had colon cancer), my mom went to VMC after a very difficult night spent in my guest room prepping for her colonoscopy. I live close to VMC, so after dropping her for her procedure I went home to clean the guest bed and get ready for her to get back, no sooner did I put bedding in the washer did I receive a phone call saying that she was done and that I needed to return immediately to get her and that I MUST BE THERE TALK TO THE DR. My heart sank and I knew right away something was not right. I immediately hopped in the car and remember driving the 3 miles down Bascom ave literally shaking. The C-word was having a field day in my brain. I popped half an anxiety med and just told myself, not she, not me, but “we got this!” I got there, parked in a loading zone, and ran upstairs, as soon as I got there, she seemed alert and happy and I was petrified to tell her that ‘WE’ had to talk with the Dr.; 15 min later her very young and kind Surgeon came and delivered the news everyone is terrified of hearing; “I see something that is most likely Cancer, we won’t know until it comes back from Pathology, but ya…..” My heart sunk. WTF!!!!!!!!! Will She die? Will She live? How long do WE have? I was mad she pooped my bed earlier…. Now I am mad she may die! This is so wrong! In this moment I felt so selfish… It became about me, not her! That is so wrong! I did not give her grand kids, I did not graduate from college, I was lost, none of this mattered… She was stoic, but resilient as ever and said, “Okay, I knew it, what happens next?” I found an odd calm and strength from her demeanor. I quickly checked back in and realized it was not about me, it was about my mom. So, I put my big girl pants on, braved a strait face and took her to Mc. Donald’s and put her bed.
So where, are we today? 7 months later… we went from thinking she had stage 3 rectal cancer to stage 1. Thank God! It has been months of HELL! Between both of us initially navigating Medical coverage like a full-time job for weeks so she could be seen at Stanford to the hellish complications from a stoma for 8 weeks (nothing like living until you are cleaning up your mom’s poop from her tummy!! Talk about circle of life!) to 2 surgeries, including her being alone in the hospital for the second one for days during COVID and not being able to visit her, it has been rough.
Our family has a hard time asking for help, but frankly my mom needs some financial help right now. Her disability has run out and she still has bills, car reg, Metamucil, prescriptions and more to buy. I know this is something that is keeping her up at night and I just want her to be able to focus on healing. She still has a lot of recovery time and given our current economy and Pandemic I cannot imagine her working anytime soon. Anything you guys can contribute would be huge.
Thank you so much!
Jekara
I hope you all are staying safe both physically and mentally healthy during this extremely trying time. It feels weird asking for any assistance during this time, but I am reaching out to get some help and support for my beloved mother. Most of you know her story, but I will still briefly sum it up. As of mid-2019 my Mom was on disability from her job as a paralegal. The only good thing out of that was that she was placed on Medical, she decided to made the most of it and take the time to pursue her health since she had the time and actual coverage for the first time in years. After she made this decision, I was proud of the fact she was going to various Dr’s appointments 2-3x a week for months. In late August 2019 she started to develop serious stomach problems, after weeks of misdiagnosis and continual problems she landed in the Stanford ER, where an attentive ER doctor noticed her concern and going against protocol requested an MRI on her intestines, during this scan they found a spot in her rectum, which ironically had nothing to do with her issues, but definitely needed attention. This spot then promoted a quick response by a habitually slow and often unresponsive Valley Medical Center, called VMC from here on out (our county hospital, where us with little to no coverage must go) to finally expedite a colonoscopy. That is where this journey of the 6 letter C-word began.
Seven months to this current day was 10/18/2019, also, ironically 11 years to the day of my grandfathers (my mom’s dad) death (side note: he didn’t die from it, but had colon cancer), my mom went to VMC after a very difficult night spent in my guest room prepping for her colonoscopy. I live close to VMC, so after dropping her for her procedure I went home to clean the guest bed and get ready for her to get back, no sooner did I put bedding in the washer did I receive a phone call saying that she was done and that I needed to return immediately to get her and that I MUST BE THERE TALK TO THE DR. My heart sank and I knew right away something was not right. I immediately hopped in the car and remember driving the 3 miles down Bascom ave literally shaking. The C-word was having a field day in my brain. I popped half an anxiety med and just told myself, not she, not me, but “we got this!” I got there, parked in a loading zone, and ran upstairs, as soon as I got there, she seemed alert and happy and I was petrified to tell her that ‘WE’ had to talk with the Dr.; 15 min later her very young and kind Surgeon came and delivered the news everyone is terrified of hearing; “I see something that is most likely Cancer, we won’t know until it comes back from Pathology, but ya…..” My heart sunk. WTF!!!!!!!!! Will She die? Will She live? How long do WE have? I was mad she pooped my bed earlier…. Now I am mad she may die! This is so wrong! In this moment I felt so selfish… It became about me, not her! That is so wrong! I did not give her grand kids, I did not graduate from college, I was lost, none of this mattered… She was stoic, but resilient as ever and said, “Okay, I knew it, what happens next?” I found an odd calm and strength from her demeanor. I quickly checked back in and realized it was not about me, it was about my mom. So, I put my big girl pants on, braved a strait face and took her to Mc. Donald’s and put her bed.
So where, are we today? 7 months later… we went from thinking she had stage 3 rectal cancer to stage 1. Thank God! It has been months of HELL! Between both of us initially navigating Medical coverage like a full-time job for weeks so she could be seen at Stanford to the hellish complications from a stoma for 8 weeks (nothing like living until you are cleaning up your mom’s poop from her tummy!! Talk about circle of life!) to 2 surgeries, including her being alone in the hospital for the second one for days during COVID and not being able to visit her, it has been rough.
Our family has a hard time asking for help, but frankly my mom needs some financial help right now. Her disability has run out and she still has bills, car reg, Metamucil, prescriptions and more to buy. I know this is something that is keeping her up at night and I just want her to be able to focus on healing. She still has a lot of recovery time and given our current economy and Pandemic I cannot imagine her working anytime soon. Anything you guys can contribute would be huge.
Thank you so much!
Jekara
Organizer
Jekara Wilson
Organizer
Palo Alto, CA