Four years ago, our family received the life changing news that cancer would have an impact on one of the strongest women I will ever know, my mom. It isn’t until moments like these, that you truly realize how fortunate and grateful you are for everything that you have in life because with one simple word or diagnosis so much can change.

April 2021, my mom went in for a routine physical when her doctor suggested a lung screening as a screening that would be covered due to her age etc. So, she figured why not do the screening even though she was having no symptoms of lung related issues. Not long after did, we got a phone call that they had found a spot they would like her to come in to have biopsied. The spot as you could guess given why we are here came back as cancer.

They proceeded with a PET scan to see if there were any other areas in the body of concern, leading to 4 malignancies on the right side of the lung affecting both the tissue in the form of tumors and cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes in the lung. This was considered Stage 3 Advanced Non-Small Cell Adenocarcinoma Lung Cancer.

In May 2021, was when the first part of her battle really began. A family friend that has been more than a blessing through her journey put us in contact with an incredible hospital in Chicago, Illinois called Cancer Treatment Centers of America where we were set up with an amazing team of doctors that have been there to help her fight the last four years.

She started with 6 consecutive weeks of 2 different chemotherapies given in combination with targeted radiation to the lungs. This proceeded until August when she had her first scan. The scan concluded that the treatments were inconclusive meaning it did some good, while some things did not change, and others for the worse.

She had to take 1 month off after the chemotherapy before starting immunotherapy. She would get this every 2 weeks indefinitely. And by her next scan 3 months from September the spots on her lungs were gone. This was a huge sigh of relief for her and for all of us. It was a feeling of hope that everything really was going to be okay.

She continued on this treatment plan until September of 2022 when she started having daily headaches, troubles remembering things, changes in equilibrium, and more. They suggested an MRI of her brain to make sure nothing had spread and that’s when we found out that when it comes to cancer the brain and lungs are often best friends.

And so that was when her cancer proposed a new journey, the brain. In all she had faced up until this point some reason this news seemed much scarier for us than anything else yet. The brain MRI showed 4 mets (or tumors on different areas of the brain).

But they held our hands and reassured us it was just another step in her journey that they felt, and we knew she was strong enough to overcome. She received radiation every day for a week to treat the spots and has done this many other times since then, as new mets have emerged and old ones have returned. We understand that the brain brings many unknowns, and this is something she would likely always have to learn to endure.

We had been on autopilot then when it came to her lungs until December of 2023, when they saw a spot in the middle of the right lung near the heart. They continued to monitor it until August of 2024 when some of her original spots reappeared on a PET scan. Which led to the conclusion of stopping the immunotherapy she had been on since 2021 and starting a new treatment regimen.

Since then, in conclusion,

She is still actively in treatment, currently trying a new chemotherapy drug with scans every three months.

That said I hope you will consider giving, whether big or small to help offset the costs of many medical expenses. My mom has given tirelessly to her community for the past 40 years still serving on many boards and trying to work full time. She has never been one to turn down a challenge, raising 2 kids as a single mom. So, I pray others will join together in an effort to help give back to her and provide her some relief financially as she focuses on the most important fight, the fight of her life.