Please help us pay my mom's cancer bills

Hello folks, my name is Diandra and I'm trying to raise money to pay for the medical bills associated with my mom's cancer diagnosis and treatments. She has stage IV lung cancer.

About my mom: She's always been a hard worker. She worked hard to get her GED and stayed in the work force until she was pregnant with me. Then she had to focus on me and my sister, but still managed to keep a large garden, do all the housework (including chopping wood), and help my uncle with tidying his house and organizing car titles for his junkyard. Later, she worked in the cafeteria to pay for our private school. She didn't get to work for her own benefit until my sister and I were out of the house. That's when she began working at her current job.

But during all those years, she volunteered and cooked for multiple summer camps, retreats, and reunions. At church, she was known for her lemon meringue and coconut cream pies. And she helped take care of an older cancer patient, bringing him his medicine, his half and half and his crispix.

When I think of my mom, I think of irises, hanging clothes out on the line, Christmas baking, and coconut tan oil. She's a good mom and a great grandma. I think all her grandchildren love baking, because she's been letting them help since they could hold a spoon. My dad loves her to death. We don't know how he's going to survive without her.

My mom hasn't smoked a cigarette in over 20 years. No one deserves this.

The cancer story: At Thanksgiving, my mom was her usual self. She baked her much-loved pies and harassed my uncle about making potatoes but forgetting the gravy. Occasionally, she coughed. My sister and I prodded her to go to the doctor for it, but she reminded us she had, and the only thing her doctor had to say was that she needed to lose some weight. We thought it was more likely something lingering for her two rounds of covid. Over coffee in the morning, she mentioned her sciatica had been acting up. She works as a cleaning lady at an apartment complex, so she walks a lot. It wasn't unexpected. Thanksgiving ended with a slice of pumpkin pie and a promise to visit for Christmas.

In mid December, my parents were in a car accident. A car blew through a light and hit them. He gave a false name and false insurance and had no injuries. Both of my parents were fine, at leasts that what my mom assured me. I live 3 hours away from them, so these kinds of phone calls are never fun. It's hard to gauge what's their toughing it out mentality and what's the truth. Luckily my sister lives in the same town as they do. The next morning I got a frantic call from her that my mom wasn't doing well and she was taking her to the ER. The next phone call felt like a punch in the gut-- there was no injury from the accident, but they'd found a huge mass on her right lung. I took the train there. They wouldn't say it was cancer, but the word was hanging heavy in the air. They needed more tests, and a small part of us held onto the slim hope it was infection or pneumonia, but we knew. It was so strange, sitting there and begging, hoping, it was pneumonia. Who ever wishes pneumonia on someone? But we did. Everything went down hill after that.

First, it was stage III. Then the mass in her right lung was so big it was cutting off part of her lung. They tried to put a stent in to help her breathe, but they couldn't break through the mass. After a few more scans, it was apparent it was in more places than her right lung- her left lung, cerebellum, and several places in her spine were also affected. The original mass had grown as well. What my mom thought was sciatica was actually the cancer earring away at her vertebrae. The doctors told her she couldn't lift anything heavy. That picking up the wrong thing could make the bone give way and she'd be crippled instantly. A week later, her lower right lung had collapsed.

Treatment: They were most worried about the cancer in her vertebrae. She recently finished laser radiation treatments for it. She's on a chemotherapy pill for her lungs and next week she starts radiation on her brain. She has pain pills, an inhaler, and pearls of medicine to help her cough. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it doesn't.

Prognosis: Best case scenario, we'll have her around 5 more years. Worst case, a year or less. She has a rare mutation, so it's difficult to know how effective chemotherapy will be.

Goals: The goal of this go fund me is to give my mom her best chance at living and to make her comfortable for the time she has left. She finally bought a bed for the first time in 20 years because she couldn't sleep because of the pain. She also had to buy a special pillow for her spot at the table for the same reason. These medical bills are a source of stress and anxiety for her, and we'd like to make them disappear.

She has an amazing care team and we really think she's in the best hands she can be. Her job has been super understanding, but we don't know if she'll ever be able to go back.

Please help us take some of the burden off her shoulders.