Help Teresa Battle Ovarian Cancer
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Hi my name is Cassy and I am a 20 year old college student. I would first like to start off by thanking you for taking the time to read my mother’s story.
My mom is a 44 year old, single parent with two girls that receives no child support. I am a 20 year old college student and I would like to be able to continue attending college where I play basketball and am majoring in a business administration degree with an emphasis in finance. My sister Lacey is 11 years old, who is in 5th grade, plays the cello and loves the art and musical side of things. My mom is currently a self-employed hair dresser with no disability insurance. As you may all know being a hair dresser takes a lot of physical strength to perform the job. We know that she has a long journey ahead of her to fight this terrible disease! My mom has always taught us to be strong and independent girls. She has gone through so much raising us girls on her own that never did I think that she would be the one that needs the most help now. No one ever thinks that their mother is going to get a life threating disease.
My mom was going in for an annual checkup. She complained to the doctor about tenderness in her abdomen so they ordered for an ultrasound. During the ultrasound, they noticed a cyst on her ovary that had burst. They told her that this was common and that the fluid from the cyst bursting would eventually be absorbed by her body. After 3 weeks she was still having some tenderness in her abdomen so she went in for a recheck. They then had another ultrasound scheduled and found out that the cyst had grown bigger and there was more fluid than before. So the doctor scheduled surgery to remove the ovary and the cyst both that was scheduled for January 15th. It was a simple common procedure. All was thought to be well after that until she received a call on the following Monday from her doctor saying pathology reports had come back and she had serous carcinoma ovarian cancer. So that day my grandma and my mom decided it would be best to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. We were accepted into the gynecology oncology department on the following Monday. At that appointment, all of the data that they had compiled concluded that my mom had stage 3C ovarian cancer. She was scheduled for surgery the very next morning and underwent an 8 hour “Debulking” surgery. During this “Debulking” procedure they removed all of the lining inside her abdomen along with the removal of her spleen, 4 sets of lymph nodes, appendix, cervix, the other ovary and fallopian tube, in addition the removal of the cancer from her small intestine. All of this was done simultaneously with real time pathology to determine where the cancer had spread to. She is currently trying to recover to regain strength to be able to undergo 18 weeks of chemotherapy. This whole situation just makes me wonder how someone who seems so fine on the outside can be so incredibly sick on the inside. The nature of ovarian cancer is that it is silent. Most of the time the symptoms are not obvious. There is currently no screening or testing available for ovarian cancer. It is a silent killer!
We ask for your help and support in sharing and donating to our fund and greatly appreciate your help and generosity during this incredibly challenging time!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,
Cassy & Lacey
My mom is a 44 year old, single parent with two girls that receives no child support. I am a 20 year old college student and I would like to be able to continue attending college where I play basketball and am majoring in a business administration degree with an emphasis in finance. My sister Lacey is 11 years old, who is in 5th grade, plays the cello and loves the art and musical side of things. My mom is currently a self-employed hair dresser with no disability insurance. As you may all know being a hair dresser takes a lot of physical strength to perform the job. We know that she has a long journey ahead of her to fight this terrible disease! My mom has always taught us to be strong and independent girls. She has gone through so much raising us girls on her own that never did I think that she would be the one that needs the most help now. No one ever thinks that their mother is going to get a life threating disease.
My mom was going in for an annual checkup. She complained to the doctor about tenderness in her abdomen so they ordered for an ultrasound. During the ultrasound, they noticed a cyst on her ovary that had burst. They told her that this was common and that the fluid from the cyst bursting would eventually be absorbed by her body. After 3 weeks she was still having some tenderness in her abdomen so she went in for a recheck. They then had another ultrasound scheduled and found out that the cyst had grown bigger and there was more fluid than before. So the doctor scheduled surgery to remove the ovary and the cyst both that was scheduled for January 15th. It was a simple common procedure. All was thought to be well after that until she received a call on the following Monday from her doctor saying pathology reports had come back and she had serous carcinoma ovarian cancer. So that day my grandma and my mom decided it would be best to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. We were accepted into the gynecology oncology department on the following Monday. At that appointment, all of the data that they had compiled concluded that my mom had stage 3C ovarian cancer. She was scheduled for surgery the very next morning and underwent an 8 hour “Debulking” surgery. During this “Debulking” procedure they removed all of the lining inside her abdomen along with the removal of her spleen, 4 sets of lymph nodes, appendix, cervix, the other ovary and fallopian tube, in addition the removal of the cancer from her small intestine. All of this was done simultaneously with real time pathology to determine where the cancer had spread to. She is currently trying to recover to regain strength to be able to undergo 18 weeks of chemotherapy. This whole situation just makes me wonder how someone who seems so fine on the outside can be so incredibly sick on the inside. The nature of ovarian cancer is that it is silent. Most of the time the symptoms are not obvious. There is currently no screening or testing available for ovarian cancer. It is a silent killer!
We ask for your help and support in sharing and donating to our fund and greatly appreciate your help and generosity during this incredibly challenging time!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,
Cassy & Lacey
Organizer
Candy Hansen
Organizer
Eden Prairie, MN
