Hi all, Emily here.

Last December, our mom Sue’s back started hurting. She got an X-ray and went to physical therapy, but it wasn’t feeling any better, so this February, she had an MRI and the radiologist wanted to double check something so they sent her back through for an MRI with contrast. The imaging tech thought that MRI looked a little suspicious and the radiologist agreed so on the 25th, a CT confirmed 3 masses in her right lung. She was referred to Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN, where she received a PET-CT on March 5th. On March 6th, a biopsy confirmed what we feared to be true.

Sue has Stage III Limited Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC for those of you who like acronyms). Don’t let the name fool you. This is an aggressive cancer, as far as cancers go, and less common than its brother ‘non-small cell lung cancer’. It’s usually caught when doctors are trying to figure something else out. Thankfully, it seems like despite all that, it’s not as bad as it could be. The ‘limited stage’ part means that the cancer is still contained to one lung, not both, and is relatively localised. Thankfully, a subsequent MRI of her brain has revealed that not only does she have one (she made the joke first!), but that the cancer has not metastasized there, as this brand so often likes to do.

The treatment plan is currently chemoradiation. Normally they’re done at the same time, but due to some particulars, they want to shrink the cancer with chemo a bit before they give her the ol’ Chernobyl. This starts tomorrow (March 23rd) and will continue every four weeks at least through May. During the second round of chemo, they’ll give her a CT scan and hopefully that will show the mass has shrunk and she will be able to start radiation in the 7th week.

Radiation will be in Rochester MN, once in the morning and then again 6 hours later, 5 days a week for 3 weeks straight. Because of the size and placement of these tumors, and other complicating health issues, it can't be done closer to home. This is where a bulk of the requested funds comes in: costs for gas, hotel, and food are going to add up quick. We’re planning to put Sue up in a hotel near Mayo from May 3rd to the 23rd to minimize the burden, rather than have my dad Terry take her up and bring her back every day amongst the side effects of the chemo, radiation, various meds, etc that all this entails.

This also won’t end once the chemoradiation is over. As I mentioned before, this particular type of cancer really wants to check out what the brain is up to. This means that Sue will need to continue to get MRIs every three months for at least the next two years, and probably with a less frequent regularity after that, to make sure it doesn’t do that.

Sue and Terry have already worked through their $5k deductible using retirement money, so there’s the uncertainty of what insurance will and won’t cover, especially since they’ll be out of state for the bulk of her medical care. Sue will also not be able to work for the radiation portions of this (book and TV recommendations welcome - she likes mysteries, comedies, and somehow The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives), and won't be able to work her regular schedule while she's in chemo so that adds some issues there. And, generally, there’s always going to be something we didn’t account for. Cancer is apparently tricky like that. Hence, the $10k ask.

This is a pretty difficult ask to make. If you know our family, you know asking for help isn’t any of our strongest skills. We need your help right now. However you are able to show up for Sue, we will all be so very fortunate and grateful for it.

If you’d like to help out in other ways/not thru GFM, you can reach out to Sue, my sister Clara, or Emily about the below:

Thanks, everyone. This was a long read but we’re verbose people. Feel free to reach out to Emily, Clara, or Sue if you have questions, concerns, quandaries, well wishes, or jokes. We’d love to hear from you.

PS - We figure if she names it, she has to keep it, so it’s “Sue’s lung cancer.” There is no need to beat around the bush.