Lou Bitely's Cancer Fund

It is with a heavy heart that I share this news on behalf of my older sisters Christine and Dawn, younger brother Heath and my Step Sisters, Toni, Tracy and Misty. Our Mother/Step Mother has been diagnosed with Cancer. Lou started losing an extreme amount of weight months ago. Over the past few months, she has undergone a battery of tests to determine why the extreme weight loss. Sadly, results have come back with cancerous masses on her spine, pelvis and several on the lining of her stomach. As of last week she started to develop pain in her lower back. She has been extremely tired and has lost her appetite. She remains in fairly good spirits, despite these issues....of course she is still Louie--you will hear how she really feels as needed!

At this point, Louie is not open to treatment, this could change and we are praying she changes her mind. However, we as a family respect her decision. For those of you reading this, our Mom has undergone many obstacles over the past 20 years...with having 2 brain aneurysms, to a broken leg--leading to a rod in her leg, to skin cancer-taking half of her ear. The years have not been kind to her and she is tired..so we respect her decision, but pray she may change her mind. In the meantime, we as a family must prepare for what is ahead of us and her--as the diagnosis as we all know to NOT treat cancer only leads to the word I can't bear to type.

So, why the Go Fund Me page? Over the past year, Lee (Dad/StepDad) has been trying to finish the room addition to their home so Lou didn't have to have their bedroom upstairs..it would be downstairs with an attached bathroom and easier for her to access the bathroom and avoid a fall down the stairs, etc. Now, as her back is in pain due to the cancer, we believe it will be very soon that her mobility will be less and less. Therefore, the need to finish the renovation is crucial. We have had many family and friends approach us asking how they can donate and help. Therefore, all of us children came together and discussed that if we could help get this room finished, it would help as eventually hospice would have to be moved in. We have not informed Lee that we are doing this Go Fund Me Page, as we want to surprise him and we don't want him to feel he couldn't do it on his own. Whatever we do not raise, us Kids will be splitting the cost to finish it....LOU DESERVES THIS. As we told her she had cancer-- she looked at the room and said, "Well I guess I will never see this done" Any additional funds, being 100% transparent will be used for medical expenses and ultimately if anything left for the end of life expenses. We don't mean to be grave in our message, but the diagnosis is not good and with a non-treatment approach we have to as her children prepare for what we all will experience. We again pray she changes her mind, but if you know Lou---well she is one stubborn woman. We love her, and this has been a devastating time for our family. We ask that if you choose to NOT donate through Go Fund Me as we have already had family and friends donate via Check--please contact either Tiana Gee or Toni Wert via FB messenger. This post will go live on FB soon in the coming days and feel free to share it...Lee will be blocked from seeing the message. Also--we have been asked when people can go visit Lou--we ask you give her a few weeks and please coordinate those visits through Tiana or Toni. Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers for our family! With Love, Tiana, Christine, Heath, Dawn, Toni, Tracy, Beth and Misty.