Someone I Love Needs a Cure

Cancer is a 6 letter word no one wants to here, especially when it's followed by the words of "Stage 3." 

Monday, May 13th, my Aunt, Kimberly Smith, was admitted to the hospital for being jaundice. Come to find out, they found a tumor in her bile duct. While we obtained a biopsy and additional scans, results indicated that there were no other tumors present in the body. While we thought this was positive news... it was only the beginning. She was slowly approaching liver failure and needed to get her levels down before they wanted to attempt a surgery to remove the tumor. In order to improve her liver function, she had to undergo 3 surgeries that week to have drains put in, to help drain the bile ducts and improve functioning.  Needless to say, when the levels finally came down after a week and a half, she only had a few days to prepare for the invasive tumor removal surgery. She was in severe pain the whole week while she underwent those 3 procedures, now she has to go through a 10 hour invasive surgery... you could say we were uneasy with the situation and worried that she wouldn't make it out. As those hours felt like centuries, we were receiving updates that she was stable and things were going steady.

The course of action for the surgery was to remove 60% of her liver, her gall bladder, the tumor itself, 10 lymph nodes, and reconstruct her bile duct as well as a portion of her lower intestines. Come to find out, when she came out of a longer surgery than anticipated.  

As we all gathered in waiting room trying to make sense of the shocking news, our eyes profusely filled with tears as our hearts broke completely into a million pieces. While we sat there crying in each other's arms, my Aunt had not woken up from surgery yet and didn't know the news. We made a deal that we had 24 hours to cry and be hysterical before my Aunt was told the news... because from then on, we had to be STRONG for HER. 

Her recovery process has changed from resting for 8 weeks to only being able to rest for 4 weeks, as we need to start aggressive chemotherapy immediately. 

She is in her 40s, has been married for 24 years, with 4 children the ages of 19,17,14 and 11. She's never been a smoker or an excessive drinker. She is the primary wage earner for their household as she enjoys going to work everyday as an ASL interpreter. 

The Smith and Selin family are asking that you help share our tragic story to help us pay for medical bills, and everyday bills around the house. She will be off work for several months which will put a huge financial burden on the family. As our whole world has been flipped around in 2 weeks, it's important to remember to always hug the ones you love a little tighter everyday. 

In this family, no one fights alone. As it may seem that we are going to be strong for Kim, this doesn't make this battle any easier to process. We ask that you help us fight this fight for Kimberly Smith. 

Any donation helps, and we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for reading our story, and we hope you join our team "Kimberly Strong" to help fundraise for medical bills, and the financial assistance my family is going to need in the future. 

Just because Cancer is a 6 letter word that no one wants to hear, doesn't mean we have to let it win.

Help us bring hope to my family that we can conquer this situation all the way around... financially and emotionally.

Help us know we aren't alone.