This gofundme campaign was started in hopes to spread awareness about our sister’s health situation. Please note there are graphic details mentioned on this page.

     Georgia is a true warrior as she wants to raise awareness by sharing her story to others who may be experiencing similar battles. She strongly believes in this quote, “Advocating for yourself does NOT make you a difficult patient. If you don’t speak up for your rights and your needs in your appointments, who will. A good doctor should value your input and work together with you to come up with the best cause of treatment or management plan that suits you.”

     Georgia likes to keep her life very much private and very few of you may already know she is facing the most crucial and challenging battle of her life. For those that's just now learning this through this post, it's unfortunate that our sister has recently been diagnosed with Endometrial Cancer (Uterine Cancer).

     Georgia has been suffering for several months before learning of her diagnosis. She suffered from prolong heavy vaginal bleeding accompanied with excruciating abdominal and pelvic pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, loss of sleep, feeling tired, weakness, and other symptoms. To learn more about her tough journey and the obstacles she’s been facing and continues to fight against, please continue to read the next 5 paragraphs as there is no short way of explaining her battle.

      In October 2021, Georgia first noticed her menstrual bleeding was starting to flow more than usual and it had this same pattern throughout the last 2 months of the year. For many years, she had irregular menstrual so she thought it was normal and her body must be going through a change and possibly she was finally starting to have a regular menstrual. However, that was not the case as she finds out much later.

     In January 2022, Georgia felt the pain and bleeding become MORE AGGRESSIVE. She had seek medical attention immediately at this time as it had limit her from doing her normal routines or even light activity, such as simply taking a few steps as she felt the shortness of breath and heart palpitations attacking while continuously having pain and bleeding. For comfort, she would keep a heating pad on her all day and even that didn’t ease the pain. Every day was a scary day for her as she was feeling more tired and weakness in her body and losing more blood. Her pain level as she describes were similar to having labor contractions/pain or maybe worse, although she’s never been pregnant; and as she continued to have vaginal bleeding, she describes the feeling like she was dilating where her body was preparing her to push out a baby EXCEPT there was no baby, but it was a way of her body releasing huge blood clots vaginally at a time during these “contractions”. Most women that have been pregnant, knows this pain all too well.

      At her first visit in Jan, the Nurse Practitioner (NP) told her, “You have anxieties.”…as you all know now it was NOT ANXIETIES.  Georgia refused to believe it was anxieties and that it was much more. As Georgia continued to suffer from these scary symptoms, she faced difficult obstacles.— Doctors kept pushing her off while she was suffering from these scary symptoms as they would send her home because they couldn't find nothing in X-rays, CAT scan, Ultrasound, and etc. Due to her excessive blood loss (blood level 7.4), she was told she was at a threshold of becoming severely anemic (blood level below 7) and the doctor said they typically would order a blood transfusion for patients below 7. She was almost sent home, but she begged for HELP; and thankfully, she was admitted. Georgia got a BLOOD TRANSFUSION. But unfortunately, there was no cancer detected at that time. Even a Pap smear she done early in Feb 2022 didn’t detect the cancer. She also had an ENDOMETRIAL BIOPSY done in March 2022 and the Biopsy results came back as “Complex Endometrial Hyperplasia without Atypia” (no cancer…only 3% chance it could turn cancerous), so she was treated with hormone therapy for 3 months— but it only made matters worse in just days— pain had spread in the left side of abdominal, pelvic, back, and leg. Those areas including groin area eventually became NUMB and she still had pain and bleeding. She was told at the ER it could possibly be UTI, but doctors couldn’t even rule it out and only gave her pain meds (once again, no cancer detected). During this time, she was also hanging tight for June 2022 to do a HYSTEROSCOPY, w/BIOPSY OF ENDOMETRIAL, and D & C (Dilation and Curettage) procedure, which consist of scraping the uterine lining. As Georgia anxiously waits for June to come and continues suffering from the scary pain, numbness, and bleeding, she followed up with all doctors: Primary Care Physician (PCP), Cardiologist, and Gynecologist (Gyno) and was told everything was “normal”. PCP, however, did question the “high dosage” of hormone therapy that the Gyno prescribed to Georgia because she never seen that in her line of work before, so PCP did her job and called Gyno to verify the high dosage (this raised a red flag for Georgia that even the PCP questioned it— was this the first sign?)…Gyno confirmed that it was correct. At that moment, Georgia’s instincts kicked in and she felt it was URGENT to convince Gyno something was wrong.— Georgia expressed her concerns to Gyno. Gyno’s response: “It’s just menstrual.” Georgia kept expressing over and over that the pain associated with numbness is NOT NORMAL, but Gyno just told her to continue with hormone therapy and other meds. Georgia STOOD HER GROUND and BEGGED to please reconsider to schedule procedure ASAP; and finally, she convinced Gyno to move procedure date 2 weeks closer instead of June! However, Georgia felt 2 weeks was still too far long and she listened to her body telling her IT’S NOT MENSTRUAL SYMPTOMS as she was still suffering from all these scary symptoms, but she did NOT give up hope on finding the underlying cause.

     As Georgia waited for 2 weeks to come, she went to get a SECOND OPINION with a new Gyno that worked in the same building as the other Gyno within the same week. The new Gyno also questioned about the “high dosage” prescribed— that was ANOTHER RED FLAG! New Gyno did an assessment and reviewed medical notes and told Georgia she was in good hands to do the procedure, but also mentioned she may need much more than that (was that a sign?). The next day, Georgia unexpectedly received a phone call from Gyno’s nurse that the procedure would be moved 1 WEEK CLOSER instead of waiting for 2 weeks! Georgia’s persistency in advocating for herself and putting pressure on the Gynecologist had made this happen. Georgia was overjoyed knowing she is FINALLY GETTING CLOSER to finding the underlying cause. Just 1 week away! 

     On April 12, 2022, Georgia had the procedure done and she waited for a week for the final diagnosis results.  This is NO EXAGGERATION that it took at least a TOTAL COMBINED OF 15 ER TRIPS AND URGENT DOCTOR VISITS throughout Jan-April, which included the procedure to find the underlying cause and that was from Georgia PUSHING doctors hard to find it! Unfortunately, on April 20, 2022 is when she learned of her final diagnosis— uterine cancer (Grade 1-2).

          Georgia continues to fight hard day to day, but we won’t let her fight this alone! She is never the type to ask for any financial help. She is always very giving to others in times of need, even if it's down to her last penny. To know Georgia is to truly love her. For those that know her knows she is the highlight of our day when she steps into the room, and one of the most caring, giving, fun, all around full of positive energy human being to cross path in life with.

      We ask you to please help in any way you can as any funds raised will go towards Georgia's medical bills and any other support required to get her through this challenging time. In addition, you can find other donation accounts set up for her on Facebook:  Linda Chanthakhinh— please help share Georgia’s story and spread awareness.

   

     We sincerely appreciate your love and support. Please help us save Georgia's life. #lovehard

 

There is no difference between saving lives and extending lives, because in most cases we are giving people the chance of more life. Please help make a difference and be the change in Georgia's life.

~ Linda Bock Oonkeo | Linda Chanthakhinh