DeCruz Support Fund

Nicole is now entered the final days of her life and we'd like to let Todd and all the DeCruz's know that we're thinking of them and we care.  I'm going to let Todd decide how to allocate the money - meals, cleaning service or simply bank it for the kids later in life.  Please donate whatever you wish and let our fellow CHS alumni know that he is part of a greater community.  

Here is Todd's last post on MyLifeLine.org:

"It is with a heavy heart I have to tell you the Nicole's journey is coming to an end. We started in home hospice care on Friday.

I hadn't updated on here in over a month as I was hoping to find something positive to be able to say. The clinical trial was ineffective and over the last weeks Nicole's condition had slowly gotten worse with increased pain and reduced mobility. We went in on Wednesday for what would have been the fourth treatment of the clinical trial with a scan scheduled for this upcoming week to check progress. However, when we got there for treatment Nicole's overall condition and her blood work clearly indicated her cancer had worsened, not gotten better over the last few months on the new treatment. She was admitted to Brigham and Women's hospital on Wednesday and a CT scan confirmed there is no more that can be done. There are over 20 new growths in her liver and it is failing. She is too weak to receive the other chemo treatment that was still an option at the start of the trial and at this point it would do more harm than good. That treatment was never going to cure her anyway, that's why we opted to try the clinical trial because it was really our only hope for a positive outcome. Nicole has been quite fuzzy mentally for the last few weeks now, but in the hospital she was clear enough to express she adamantly wanted to go home again. Therefore on Friday, I took her home via ambulance and we have in home hospice assisting us as this disease comes to the conclusion that it tends to lead to. There is no way to know for sure, but there isn't much time left. Could be days or could be weeks, but not very much longer.

The boys were at scout camp this past week and we had a special court of honor on Saturday where Peter received his star rank and Brian got his scout rank. With the Star rank it is tradition the scout pins his mom as part of the ceremony. As of Wednesday we had hoped Nicole would be able to make the ceremony but that was no longer possible. However, we were able to FaceTime with her as I stood in her place and she was reasonably aware of what was going on.

Upon arriving home from camp, I had to do the hardest thing in my life and let the boys know she was not going to get better and didn't have much time left. After that, which went about as well as you could imagine, the boys were able to settle down and curled up next to Nicole watched the original Muppet Movie with their mom, one of her all time favorites.

As, I mentioned Nicole's mental state is extremely fuzzy and she isn't always aware or able to interact in real time. There are still regular glimpses of my Nicole, and she is able to recognize us and is aware of her surroundings in general. I have her phone being forwarded to mine and she is be unable to respond to texts or calls or facebook posts. However, at this time a long line of visitors at the door is probably not a helpful thing. If her condition improves perhaps there may be some time for that, but that is not likely. The next few days hold a bit of uncertainty with her condition and my ability to properly take care of her at home so there may be some changes such as moving to a in patient hospice facility."