Help Tammie to Recover & Heal Stress Free

This November, my mother Tammie Carroll (or as a lot of you know her, the "Heart of Watercolor Publix" at the customer service desk) was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Tammie is an amazing mother, daughter, friend and such an important person to this community. She is the most thoughtful and loving woman I have ever known and I know many of you can say the same. My father Eric, my brother Cameron and I have been hard at work since the diagnosis and are now helping her get ready for the next step: Chemotherapy starting December 16th.

This all began over the past year with my mother dealing with lower back pain, abdomen pain and swelling, feeling tired constantly and gaining "weight." She tried numerous approaches to feeling better, but nothing was working for her. She thought it may have just been the effects of aging until she discovered an unusual hard mass in her abdomen where the pain and weight gain were. From there, she saw a handful of doctors and specialists to try and get answers. During one of her CT Scans, they discovered an 8-inch tumor (big) as well as an odd-shaped, 3-inch tumor in one of her Fallopian tubes.

This led to a 7-hour-long surgery on November 2nd at Pensacola Sacred Heart. She did so amazing and they were able to remove both tumors that turned out both to be cancerous and unrelated to each other. They also went ahead and removed 11 lymph nodes as well to ensure it had not spread to them. For 7 days, my father Eric remained by her side until she was able to come home, sleeping in the chair next to her, brushing her hair every day and letting her know everything was going to be okay. That day will forever be in my mind with the image of my sweet mother going in with the best attitude and coming out just the same, despite the battle that still remained.

Her chemotherapy will begin on December 16th and continue for 6 total sessions. She will be close to home at the Sacred Heart Cancer Center in Sandestin, which we are so thankful for. We are so blessed to have even had friends and family already reach out to sit with her during her 6-hour sessions.

Without work for the foreseeable future, the financial burden of what's to come will be significant. In order to continue receiving the care she needs, we ask our community and anyone who has had the pleasure of knowing and loving our mother from both near and far to consider donating. We are not ones to ask for help as tears run down my face, but we are just not able to be there for her in this way. We thank you so much in advance for taking the time to read this. If you are able to donate at this time, we cannot thank you enough but will always find a way to try.

The road ahead towards becoming cancer-free will take both hard work and patience, but knowing Tammie, she'll do so with a smile.

All our love,

Keelie