Kenia Claire Simonette

Hello, my name is Anjelica Claire Norris. I am Kenia Simonette's daughter. My mother was a beautiful, compassionate, kind and vibrant 57 year old woman who was taken from us to soon by cancer. The purpose of this fundraiser is not to gather donations but to better share my mother's story with our community and to spread liver cancer awareness. Donations are appreciated and welcomed, but please do not feel obligated to.

Kenia Simonette's cancer story begins on the evening of March 11th, 2022. My mother had been experiencing periodic pain on her right side for a few months prior to this day but thought nothing of it since she was always on top of her health and got frequent doctor check ups. On this particular evening though the pain was so bad she could barely move, so to the ER we went. Once we arrived at the ER, Xrays revealed a mass that consumed my mothers galbladder and about half of her liver that was causing her pain. We later found out after a biopsy was taken that this was Stage 4 liver cancer that couldn't be treated with surgery and chemo was the only option. We were told by our doctor that my mother was forcasted to live for years but of course that was not a gurantee and depended on how my mother reacted to chemo.

Kenia Simonette started chemo in early May of 2022 and there was hope. After a few chemo sessions her pain had started going away and she was feeling better. But then my mother started feeling worse again, with new symptoms such as swelling in her legs and shortness of breath. We went to the doctor for check up scans which found blood clots in my moms lungs and legs and she was admitted to the hospitial again in late May so the hospital could ensure said clots didn't reach her brain. The hospital gave her blood thinners, monitored the clots and instructed her to take them daily after her stay.

The blood thinners worked for about a month, the symptoms my mother had experienced due to the blood clots were gone. Mom and I were delighted and excited to live our lives together. We were in the process of getting adjusted to our new normal with me being her full time caretaker and doing college part time while she tried her hardest to heal and get back to a somewhat fulfilling life, but then tragedy struck.

Kenia Simonette had her last chemo session on June 30th 2022. After that chemo session it appeared that the symptoms of the blood clots were coming back, the ones I recongized at least. I'm sure there were other symptoms that she didn't tell me about as well. I tried gently encouraging her to go to the hospitial to get it checked out multiple times the week after her chemo session but at this point my mom had been through so much she wanted to stay home because that was where she was most comfortable and i didn't want to upset her so I didn't argue about it. If I knew then what I know now, I would of called the ER regardless of what she said.

On July 8th 2022 my Mom's symptoms were getting worse, throughout the evening I was helping her with dinner and other house related tasks and I noticed she was rapidly declining. It got to the point where she couldn't walk or speak whole words and I had no choice but to call 911. I didn't know what was happening at the time but I later found out from the doctors that my mother was experincing a stroke and had multiple blood clots in her brain. The doctors tried to remove them but were unsuccessful due to the clot size and risk of a brain bleed. The cancer, clots and chemo were to much for my moms poor body, her chances of recovery were next to none and after a week in the hospital waiting for her to get better and seeing nothing but her condition getting worse we had to make the hard decision to put her in hospice so she could at be at peace.

Kenia Claire Simonette passed away painlessly and peacefully on July 19th 2022 at 5:30am. She is survived by and deeply loved by her friends and family and she will be forever missed. Her wishes were simple, she wanted everyone to love life as much as she did and to live happily for her. Her favorite color was lavender, she loved art, nature, photography, gardening and many more things. Thank you all for reading this. Please stay safe.