Hi, my name is Patricia and I am fundraising for Nicki Bell who recently had tongue cancer and surgery. It was a 14 hour surgery where they removed half of her tongue and took a skin graft from her arm to replace half of her tongue. They also removed 3 lymph nodes, two of which were cancerous. A tracheotomy was performed as well. Another surgery was done on her thigh to replace the skin graft from her arm. She is now home after a week in the hospital (Kaiser in Oakland). Nicki uses a feeding tube for nutrition, is on various medications and is in pain. She needs around-the-clock care, and after several weeks her daughters have had to return to their out-of-state lives. The nurse who checks on her occasionally has called a care service, and she has a lovely Fijian woman there to help her day and night. Any insurance does not cover this service! She will need this care for about 2 or 3 weeks until she is more robust and the feeding tube has been removed. Funds raised will help toward hospital co-pay and caregiver treatment. The good news is that her surgery was very successful...the cancer was completely removed.