Kicking Cancer

Hey everyone! This beautiful woman is our mother and means the world to us. God completely blessed my brother and I when he chose her to be our Mom. She is BY FAR the strongest, most independent, & hardworking person I know. Life hasn't always been easy, and there's been a LOT of struggles through the years, but she has always come out on top - head held high. Which is why we're more than confident that this time will be no different.
On August 18th, 2014 Mom had a colonoscopy scheduled. When I got to the surgery center to pick her up the Dr. informed us that she had found a mass in the colon. They removed what they could to sample it, and we would have the results back in a week or so.

August 25th - we received the news. The mass was in fact cancer. The whole world just stops for a second when you hear it....I'm not sure if we weren't really wrapping our heads around the fact, or if we were all just trying to be strong for each other.....but there wasn't an ounce of emotion in that room. The next few weeks consisted of cat scans, MRI's, & blood work.

September 8th is when we had our first consultation with the surgeon. HE. IS.  AMAZING. He has gone above and beyond to reassure Mom that things are going to be A-ok. His positivity is contagious.

So it was set! September 26th would be her 1st surgery. All he needed to do was get in there and remove the tumor. That day would be when he could tell how far into the bowel wall the cancer had gone. He would also be checking to see if it had moved to her lymph nodes.

We all headed up on the 26th and they got her ready to roll. A 2 hour surgery turned into a 13 min surgery. When they were able to see everything, they realized the mass was higher up and larger than they had originally thought. They weren't able to do anything that day and told us the bigger, more extensive surgery was required. That was scheduled for November 18th. Mom will be in recovery for 5 days and won't be able to return to work for 8 weeks IF there are no postsurgical complications. During surgery on the 18th is when we'll also find out about the spreading to lymph nodes. Worst case scenario, it has and she will do a round of chemo......which means not returning to work as soon as she would like. It's all in God's hands right now and we're staying completely positive.

We've been blessed with so much support from our family and friends, but finances are tough when you lose your ability to earn a living...and of course expenses don't go away. As you can imagine with illness comes added debts. It's taken alot of pride swallowing & courage for my Mom to allow anyone to help her, but it's a long road ahead and every dollar counts. If you can't that's ok, but please pray. Thanks for your support! You got this Momma!