Liddy Lawson’s Leukemia battle
As if 2020 wasn’t hard enough, imagine having to force close your own business due to COVID 19 (like many have), then becoming strangely sick for many weeks with flu-like symptoms only later to be diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and according to one doctor, “hours away from death.” Liddy was diagnosed with AML on November 4th, 2020.
Now imagine living in a hospital for a month during the holidays battling the cancer via multiple treatments of Chemotherapy and feeling all the side effects (loss of hair, loss of fingernails, loss of taste buds, etc) while the doctors continue with daily tests, find an additional brain bleed, and conduct a bone marrow biopsy. Then one day you have immense stomach pain, lungs filled up with fluid, you’re immediately rushed to the ICU when suddenly you have no pulse and your body starts to shut down. This was just the beginning of Liddy’s story…
By the grace of God, the doctors got Liddy’s heart to start beating again, and they had to do it twice that night. Liddy was sedated, intubated, and on a 24-hour dialysis machine. All her organs were impacted, and the doctors were unsure of her mental abilities. They said, “if she was not as fit as she was, she would not have survived.” Eleven days later the intubation tube was out, the bone marrow biopsy results showed no residual signs of Leukemia, and things were headed in the right direction…or so we thought.
Infections became the new concern, her white blood cell count would often skyrocket, blood pressure was unstable, early signs of pneumonia formed in her lungs, she experienced daily fevers, muscular atrophy, and the doctors discovered a blockage in her intestine that required surgery to remove. However, with Liddy being so weak they determined she would not be a good candidate for surgery and would not survive. They avoided doing surgery for as long as possible until the risk was far greater not to do it. Her intestines were a mess. There was a blockage, perforations, and infection spreading in multiple areas. The surgeon decided to remove her appendix too. But once again, Liddy had survived a life-threatening event and overcame an extremely risky surgery. Praise God!
After 51 days of being in the ICU & Transitional ICU enduring many more tests and procedures, to this day Liddy is still in the hospital recovering from all the above. This has not only taken a toll on Liddy, but also on her family. The last thing that they need to worry about is the financial burden that has still yet to be fully revealed, which is why I’m kicking off this GoFundMe account for Liddy and her family. Many of you have already graciously donated gifts and continue to ask on how to best help support Liddy and her family. By donating here, this will help offset the accumulating costs that have been adding up since November 4th, 2020 and the future costs that are yet to come. The doctors keep saying it will be a long road to recovery.
The amount of continued prayers and support from everyone; family and friends, has been greatly appreciated and at times overwhelming. We love all of you and thank you from the bottom of our hearts and give all the glory to God.
