My Mother’s Cancer Story

A little over 3 months ago, my family received devastating news.  My mother was diagnosed with stage III pancreatic cancer.  

This story begins In July 2017.  From time to time, mother would mention that her back was giving her some pain.  At the age of 58, we both thought her age was a contributor and she needed to focus on resting and relaxing for a few days.  Shortly thereafter,  she was involved in a car accident.  The immediate months that follow result in increasing back pain.  Our thoughts are that it’s due to the car accident.

Months go by visiting her primary care doctor and chiropractor who treat her with pain medicine.  It’s becomming difficult for her to sleep or work.  She is often at the Dr. in tears and neither can figure out why her back is giving her so much pain. She then believes that some medication she is taking is a side effect contributor to her increasing back pain.  She gets with her doctor and her medication is switched.  During this time she is slowly but consistently losing weight.  She gets with her Dr. and is told that this is due to the diabetic medication she is on.

Through all of this, she becomes unable to work and tries to manage the pain as best she can with a heating pad and pain medicine. 

Lets fast forward to October 2018.  I invite the family to Conroe for the weekend. Mom was not feeling well and although planned on making it up to Conroe, called to say she was in too much pain to make the ride up.  I was concerned and begged her once again to seek the care of a different doctor.  I haven’t mentioned this yet, but her insurance was a huge restriction through all of this.  It limits who she can seek medical attention from. 

A few hours later, Mom called.  She missed her grandkids too much and wanted to see them.  I hadn’t seen my mom in months.  I walked in the door, took one look at my mother and knew something was terribly wrong with her.  I took her to the emergency room and after testing, we found out she had a 4 cm mass between the body and tail of her pancreas.  Due to insurance restrictions, they would not transfer her to the downtown hospital to perform the whipple procedure.  A procedure they said she needed, but later found out that was not the case.

We established care with an oncologist, paid for testing with drs that we’re not in her insurance network in order to get the cancer results on paper to begin chemotherapy.  She started chemo treatment all the while not being able to work due to increasing pain.   



My family and I are asking for help in hopes of raising money to help with her medical expenses and household bills. 

We appreciate all of the prayers, donations and kind words that have been expressed towards my mother and her recovery.  We are extremely grateful for the love and support the community has shown her.