When a Wife, Mother, Sister, Grandmother, Friend and NURSE needs care after providing for everyone else her entire life, she somehow keeps quiet. And so we, the beneficiaries of her outstanding care for all these years, ask for your help in returning the favor!

Since October, she has been to hell and back!

She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October. If ever there is a silver lining for this diagnosis, it was that it was found very early. Although it was found early, the treatment she had to endure was brutal. She had to have a couple of procedures while in the hospital and then the chemo began. She had 6 chemo treatments that were, to say the least, awful for her. She lost over 45lbs in a matter of 3 months due to diminished appetite and feeling like crud. She had no energy and eventually was using a walker to walk from the bedroom to the couch. During this time, Rob never left her side. He was there to cook, clean, drive her to appointments, help her to the bathroom, take care of the dogs and oh so many other things. Kathy was not able to work due to her poor physical condition.

Kathy finished her chemo and met with the oncology surgeon. Due to her weakness, she was to start physical therapy for 3 weeks to get her strength up in preparation for surgery. The tumor had shrunk and the surgery sounded very promising to not put her in remission—the surgeon said he felt she would be cured.

Fast forward to Wednesday, February 21st. We received a text from Kath that day saying that she felt better than she had in months and actually was able to eat quite a bit. We all did a happy dance and thought she was on the way to be done with cancer. That evening, there was a huge change in how she felt. She had shortness of breath and chest pain. Rob ended up having to call the ambulance in the early hours of the morning on Thursday and she was taken to a hospital in Pine Bluff, AR. She was admitted and after tests and scans, it was determined that she had blood clots in her lungs. She decided to have do a procedure that literally vacuumed the clots out of her lungs. They were able to remove 3 of the clots. It was then found that more clots remained and one traveled to her heart. She was in heart failure. That evening, she decided to let them proceed with giving her a heavy duty blood thinner that could cause a brain bleed. At that point, they did not know if she would make it through the night. The next day, the ICU doctor in Pine Bluff said the prognosis was poor and she had about a 1% chance of survival. He also said that they had done everything they could there and that he was NOT throwing in the towel. He made multiple phone calls to several area hospitals and only one, CHI St Vincent in Little Rock, said they would take her. The transfer was extremely dangerous—there really wasn’t another option.. Kath decided she wanted to do whatever was needed to save her.

The doctor said it could take up to a day to make the transfer happen—it literally took less than an hour and she was on her way. She admitted to St. Vincent and was in cardio vascular ICU. The heart failure doctor was amazing!! It was eventually determined she needed to placed on a heart bypass machine that would filter and oxygenate her blood to give her heart a chance to rest and recover. They did the procedure in the middle of the night and then her kidneys began to fail. They had to put her on dialysis, which thankfully was a temporary thing. The surgeon told us she had a 50/50 chance after the heart bypass was placed. All the nurses and multiple doctors kept telling us she was very, very sick. She was extremely swollen from retaining fluids, was intubated, had more IV’s/tubes attached to her than imaginable.

Now to the good part—Kathy is one of the strongest and most stubborn women around!!!! She was not ready to check out!!!! After 2 days, they took out the breathing tube. Next was her kidneys coming back to function normal, so no more dialysis. Eventually her heart was strong enough to remove the bypass machine and eventually all of the IV’s were taken out!!! She is truly a miracle!!!

Yesterday she was transferred to a rehab facility in Conway so she can get the PT/OT she needs to get her strength back and get ready finish kicking cancer’s butt!!

The hospital bills have started rolling in and with the lack of work, Kathy and Rob could certainly use the help. They are proud people and it took some convincing to even let us start a Go Fund Me. Any amount that you can donate would be appreciated more than words could express!!! Thank you in advance and keep the prayers and good vibes coming their way!!!!