Lori’s Fight against Lung Cancer

Hello, my name is Tonya, and I’m the oldest daughter to my amazing mother, Lori Day. This is something I never imagined having to do, but unfortunately here we are.  My mom was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. My mom is the strongest and most courageous person I know, she is selfless and goes above and beyond for anyone and everyone. We have high hopes that she will pull through this and be a survivor. My babies need her, I need her, my sisters need her. My mom is one of the most important people in not only my life, but my babies as well. She means the world to them.

A little backstory:
In late March my mother was getting out of her car and happened to slip on some ice. She hyperextended her knee and within a couple days the pain started to set in. As you know, March was a peak during the pandemic, so getting her in to see the doctor was proving to be a challenge.  Mid June she was finally able to get into the doctor.

• June 22nd they did the first X-ray and found she had a fracture to her tibia. They sent her home with crutches and told her to stay off of it as much as possible.
• July 2nd she had her first MRI.
• July 31st things were not getting better so she went back in. When meeting with the doctor they tried to blame her smoking (which she has now quit smoking after the news of the diagnosis) and her being on her feet while working. They scheduled her for physical therapy and gave her some exercises to do at home.
• August 12th, my mom had her first physical therapy appointment. She tried, but the pain was too bad and she wasn’t able to complete the PT.
• August 22nd she had a CT scan revealing a mass in her knee.


After the mass was found there were many doctor appointments, X-rays, CT scans, MRI’s, and eventually a biopsy. We were hopeful the mass was just an infection or scar tissue. Waiting for the results of the biopsy were excruciating, but nothing like hearing the news that my mom had stage 4 lung cancer or that it had spread to her spine, knee, and pelvis. After the cancer diagnosis things started to move fast. She’s had multiple appointments weekly, she had a port put in for easy access for chemo, and her last scan was to check her brain and spinal cord. We should have results for that tomorrow.


My mom has been a survivor of many things in her life. She pulled herself out of an addiction and is soon coming up on 4 years sobriety. She landed her dream job as a tech at a treatment center, she moved and got a new apartment in St. Paul, life was perfect. This cancer diagnosis has now taken that from her. My mom has one of the most painful cancers there is, her pain at times is debilitating, leaving her unable to work and barley care for herself. She is staying with a family friend to be close to the hospital and get the extra help she needs. This means she is unable to pay her rent, food, gas money for the many weekly appointments, parking money, phone bill, car bill and insurance, out of pocket money for meds (getting them covered by insurance has been another hurdle, so many of them are being paid out of pocket), and so much more.


We are asking for your help. If you could donate, it would mean the world to my mom and our family. We know a lot of people are still struggling with the repercussions of the pandemic, but whatever you could donate would be so helpful and appreciated. These are very scary and unpredictable times. She has a long road ahead of her, but with the love and support of her friends and family, we are confident she is going to pull through this. Cancer is going to be sorry it picked on her. Please donate if you can, if donating isn’t possible, even sharing this would be so helpful, you never know who might see it and be able to donate.


Thank you all for your donations and support for my mom! I will continue to update this as much as I possibly can!



Sincerely,

Tonya Eichten

Taylor Nelson

Tori Nelson

& family.