Linda Hesse's End of Life Care

Linda Hesse is well known in the fishing industry as the pioneer of promoting companies through the world of competitive angling, she has also been the foundation for our family business Formula Propeller & Marine since 1976.

 

 

 

In the spring of 2021 when our entire world fell apart. Linda decided she wanted to get a full physical which included checking all her vital organs. At this time our family received information that would impact the rest of our lives. She was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. There was a tumor in her left lung and a spot on her collarbone.

 

 

The Oncology team informed us that we would do two rounds of chemotherapy along with radiation. THIS PLAN WAS IN PLACE TO TREAT AND CURE HER LUNG CANCER. She started Chemo in June with her 1st round of treatment, she handled treatment well with very little complications. The second round of Chemo seemed to hit her harder, or so we thought. We thought she was experiencing a lot of side effects from the Chemo, she seemed to be having trouble with breathing which we thought was related to the lung cancer. Eventually we brought her to the hospital ER to get checked out, when she arrived her heart rate was at 220 BPM. The medical team advised us that she was in severe AFIB and she also had “pneumonia”. She was admitted into Mercy Hospital for just under a month, during this time the team was working to finding the right medication to control her heart rate and treating what they said was pneumonia. They finally found what was believed to be the right medication but needed to install a pacemaker for when the heart dropped below 60 BPM. Things seemed good, Linda was discharged and sent home.

 

We went in for her follow up PET scan as it had been delayed because of her hospital stay. Unfortunatley we never had the opportunity to review the PET scan because Linda was admitted back to the hospital this time transported via ambulance per the advice of her home nurse. Her oxygen level was low, and she was again having trouble breathing. When she arrived, she was back in AFIB with a heart rate of 180 BPM. She was admitted and transferred to Unity Hospital. We were again told she had “pneumonia” from the Doctor. At this point we knew there was something else going on and that she didn’t have pneumonia AGAIN as she was just treated for it 1 week prior. We demanded to speak to a pulmonologist, it was determined that she in fact did not have pneumonia but instead had fluid in her lung that needed to be drained. She had instant relief and was feeling much better however we received information at the hospital that changed the prognosis for Linda, the Chemo did the exact opposite of what we had hoped for and the cancer had traveled into her entire lung as well as some if her lymph nodes along with her left femur. This changed our cancer to stage 4.

 

We still had hope, the oncology team said we would do radiation on the femur and more chemo and she could still live a very good life of 5-15 years with treatment. We were no longer talking about curing cancer more treating symptoms and giving her the best life she could have for the longest period of time.

We made our appointment with radiology, upon further examination the radiology team said that the cancer was pretty far in the bone and that a reinforcement rod needed to be installed. We did 5 rounds of radiation and then scheduled the rod surgery. Linda had the rod surgery completed and was in a lot of pain following the surgery, she was transferred to transitional care to help with strength. Oncology requested another PET scan, these results gave us what would turn out to be the most devastating news we have received thus far, it has moved even more, now in her kidney and in her adrenal glands. She was still ready to fight, we did our 1st round of Chemo with the new plan. She became very exhausted sleeping nearly all day refusing to eat much of anything. We had a meeting with her oncology team where we were informed that we are not looking at the last talked about prognosis instead only a few months if we continued with chemo. Linda is pain all day every day, the smallest tasks take every ounce if energy out her. She heard this news and decided she is done fighting a battle she simple cannot win.

 

 

Her love for everything outdoors was magnified in 2012 when her Grandson, Easton was born. Easton quickly became her everything, her weeks consisted of looking forward to nights of lacrosse and weekend at hockey watching her super star.

 

 

 

 

Throughout Linda’s life she has always put everybody before herself, for this reason we ask for your support as we navigate through this next stage. We want to provide her the very best journey home to be with Lord that we can.

 

 

Thank you,

From our Family