Help Our Mom Beat Cancer (again!!)

Hi, my sister and I are trying to raise some money for our mom so she can truly focus on beating cancer for a second time without the added financial stresses. In 2020, our mom, Kathie, was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer of the tongue. She received surgery to remove the cancer and a week later she had a stroke. After that, she did radiation and finished the Monday before Christmas. Up until September 2021, she was feeling pretty good and then suddenly was feeling like she was having difficulty swallowing & talking and expressed that it felt like someone was holding their hands to her throat and squeezing. After that, a mass began to grow on her throat. She expressed her concerns to her cancer doctors and after receiving imaging and testing from October to January 2022, she was told it was scar tissue from the original surgery and then would follow up with her in a few months. Fast forward to March 10, 2022, she went to her PCP for a follow up appointment where they sent her to the ER via ambulance. She was sent to the ICU where she then lost all of her breath and went into cardiac arrest. After 2 rounds of CPR & defibrillation, she had a pulse again. After that, she was sedated and was put on a ventilator and had a biopsy done. Her biopsy results showed that her cancer has come back and is more aggressive. She then received a tracheotomy to help her breathing because they cannot surgically remove the mass because it’s too close to important blood vessels. Recently, she was irresponsibility discharged from the hospital even though our family voiced our concerns that it was too early and she was not ready. Three hours after discharge, she was on her way to the hospital in an ambulance. I sat in the ER with her for 23 hours and finally she was brought to a general med floor where they decided she needed to go back to the ICU and be put back on a ventilator because her CO2 levels in her blood were astronomically high. As of right now, we are trying to get a second opinion from Roswell Park in Buffalo, but she can’t get a consultation until she is discharged from the hospital. At this point, her cancer is aggressively spreading and it is just a waiting game.

If you read this far, thank you. Anything can help, even if it is just a prayer and sending all positive energy to her. If you know her, you know she is the most kind & selfless human being and deserves the world. She has beat it once and she is going to beat it again because she is a badass!