My mother Heather Fleming just lost her battle with cancer. In February this year she was diagnosed with squamous carcinoma skin cancer in the jaw bone and everything has happened so fast since then. She went through major surgery in March to remove the tumor in her jaw and they found some concerning lymph nodes in her throat. The cancer had also spread to her cheek bone which they said the treatment would shrink. The surgery required them to reconstruct her jaw which they removed a bone from her back. This was a 15hr surgery. Recovery was tough but she got through it and she started radiation and chemo at the end of May. She was in San Francisco for all of her surgeries and treatment's. So that she wasn’t coming back and forth every day she stayed in San Francisco at the Kozz house. We are so thankful for all of their support during this challenging journey. During her treatments she was really sick which is not uncommon. She started to throw up blood and was gagging all of the time so she went into the hospital and she ended up having a blood clot in her lung and a hole in her intestine that was caused by an ulcer. So another surgery to mend that hole. Due to the surgery her treatments were paused until she recovered. Treatments resumed and finished July 24th where she could come back home to Modesto and be with family. She was still really sick and it seemed like she was just getting worse. Her head started hurting so bad she couldn’t go through a normal day. She wasn’t able to sleep. After a few weeks of miserable pain she finally went back to the ER and they found a mass on her brain. She was sent back to UCSF to get a MRI to confirm she had a tumor on her brain. Surgery to remove the tumor took place on August 18th. Unfortunately they were not able to remove all of the tumor. It was too dangerous so she would have to start cancer treatment all over again. She was discharged back home to Modesto to a rehabilitation hospital so she could gain her strength back so she can go through more treatments. She was ok the first day but after 3 days of being in the rehab she was starting to act very confused and her mental status wasn’t normal. Luckily she had a radiology appointment that Friday August 29th for a scan before starting treatment. They found that she had a lot of pressure in the brain which could be causing her altered mental status. So she was readmitted to UCSF. They did all kinds of tests and started draining fluid from the brain to relieve pressure. Sunday August 31st she stopped breathing and had to be intubated on a ventilator. By that Wednesday they were able to take out the intubation tubes although she was still confused she was awake and talking. In the middle of the night Friday September 5th she went for an MRI and she stopped breathing in the machine and went into cardiac arrest. They had to sedate her and put the intubation tubes back in. After the cardiac arrest she wasn’t doing good at all. She wasn’t waking up she wasn’t responding to commands. On September 20th she passed away surrounded by family. My heart is breaking, I feel that she was taken so fast and the past few months she was in so much pain. We want to celebrate the amazing life of my mother as she is laid to rest.