Peggy's silent living hell
Donation protected
Where to begin?
I am writing this post on behalf of my sister. Her name is Peggy. She just turned 44 in September. She is not married and she does not have any children. What Peggy does have is a severe learning disability, a loving family, and a silent killer known as stage 4 cervical cancer.
The diagnosis.
At the beginning of September my mom took Peggy to the doctor because she was having a period that lasted all month with excessive heavy bleeding. The primary care physician did some blood tests and found that Peggy's blood count was low and that she needed a blood transfusion. The doctor also referred Peggy to a gynecologist.
At this point you should know that Peggy has always gotten PAP smear tests every 3 years and they have always came back normal. So, Peggy goes to see the gynecologist and he decides that she will need to have a DNC done to get everything cleaned out. This is when we got the news that completely blindsided us. Peggy has cervical cancer. After the gynecologist gave us the news he scheduled an MRI to see if the cancer had spread to other parts of her body. Once again we received terrible news; the cancer has spread to Peggy's liver and both of her lungs.
From here the gynecologist referred us to a gynecology oncologist in Kansas City. All of this happened very quickly. From the time she saw her primary care physician to the time Peggy saw the gynecology oncologist was a two week span.
The treatment.
When we went to see the oncologist he was very concerned and straight forward about Peggy's situation. He let us know this was close to the worst case of cervical cancer that he had ever seen. He scheduled two different scopes. The first scope was to look inside of the bladder and the second scope was to look inside of the colon. When we got to the hospital to have the scopes done we were told that both scopes combined would take 35-45 minutes. However, roughly 15-20 minutes later we were called to the consultation room to speak with the oncologist. As you might expect, we once again received bad news. The doctor explained that he could not do the scope of the bladder. He told us that Peggy has a tumor in her pelvis that goes completely from one side to the other. There is also a tumor that is coming out of her pee hole so he could not get the camera or a catheter inserted to look inside. He also let us know that due to her bleeding being so heavy and her body being so irritated he did not do the colon scope. At the same time all of this was going on Peggy also had to have another blood transfusion.
This brings us up to the end of September beginning of October. Peggy had to have a PET scan, a MRI, meet with the radiation team, and have a CT simulation done. All of these tests were leading up to radiation beginning. On October 8th we will get all of the test results and Peggy will have her 4th radiation treatment. She will have to have between 10-15 radiation treatments in total. They are hoping that the radiation will do two things. First that it will stop all of the bleeding and secondly that it will shrink the size of the tumor.
What we need help with.
As I said before all of Peggy's testing and treatments are being done in Kansas City. This is 2 hours one way from where we live. Treatments are done Monday- Friday one treatment per day.
What we would like to be able to do is stay in a hotel while all of Peggy's treatments are ongoing. However, we would also like to be able to go home on weekends so we can see our family if Peggy is feeling up to it. On top of needing money for a hotel and fuel we would also need money for 3 meals per day to be able to stay in Kansas City. We are currently going between Menorah hospital for testing, Research hospital for radiation treatments, and the Sarah Cannon cancer center to see her oncologist.
When Peggy is done with her radiation treatments she will begin chemotherapy which will also be in Kansas City. In addition to asking for monetary help we are asking that you keep Peggy in your thoughts and prayers. I will be posting updates as they become available.
Thank you in advance from Peggy, myself, and our family. Please make this post public and share it with all of your friends and family.
I am writing this post on behalf of my sister. Her name is Peggy. She just turned 44 in September. She is not married and she does not have any children. What Peggy does have is a severe learning disability, a loving family, and a silent killer known as stage 4 cervical cancer.
The diagnosis.
At the beginning of September my mom took Peggy to the doctor because she was having a period that lasted all month with excessive heavy bleeding. The primary care physician did some blood tests and found that Peggy's blood count was low and that she needed a blood transfusion. The doctor also referred Peggy to a gynecologist.
At this point you should know that Peggy has always gotten PAP smear tests every 3 years and they have always came back normal. So, Peggy goes to see the gynecologist and he decides that she will need to have a DNC done to get everything cleaned out. This is when we got the news that completely blindsided us. Peggy has cervical cancer. After the gynecologist gave us the news he scheduled an MRI to see if the cancer had spread to other parts of her body. Once again we received terrible news; the cancer has spread to Peggy's liver and both of her lungs.
From here the gynecologist referred us to a gynecology oncologist in Kansas City. All of this happened very quickly. From the time she saw her primary care physician to the time Peggy saw the gynecology oncologist was a two week span.
The treatment.
When we went to see the oncologist he was very concerned and straight forward about Peggy's situation. He let us know this was close to the worst case of cervical cancer that he had ever seen. He scheduled two different scopes. The first scope was to look inside of the bladder and the second scope was to look inside of the colon. When we got to the hospital to have the scopes done we were told that both scopes combined would take 35-45 minutes. However, roughly 15-20 minutes later we were called to the consultation room to speak with the oncologist. As you might expect, we once again received bad news. The doctor explained that he could not do the scope of the bladder. He told us that Peggy has a tumor in her pelvis that goes completely from one side to the other. There is also a tumor that is coming out of her pee hole so he could not get the camera or a catheter inserted to look inside. He also let us know that due to her bleeding being so heavy and her body being so irritated he did not do the colon scope. At the same time all of this was going on Peggy also had to have another blood transfusion.
This brings us up to the end of September beginning of October. Peggy had to have a PET scan, a MRI, meet with the radiation team, and have a CT simulation done. All of these tests were leading up to radiation beginning. On October 8th we will get all of the test results and Peggy will have her 4th radiation treatment. She will have to have between 10-15 radiation treatments in total. They are hoping that the radiation will do two things. First that it will stop all of the bleeding and secondly that it will shrink the size of the tumor.
What we need help with.
As I said before all of Peggy's testing and treatments are being done in Kansas City. This is 2 hours one way from where we live. Treatments are done Monday- Friday one treatment per day.
What we would like to be able to do is stay in a hotel while all of Peggy's treatments are ongoing. However, we would also like to be able to go home on weekends so we can see our family if Peggy is feeling up to it. On top of needing money for a hotel and fuel we would also need money for 3 meals per day to be able to stay in Kansas City. We are currently going between Menorah hospital for testing, Research hospital for radiation treatments, and the Sarah Cannon cancer center to see her oncologist.
When Peggy is done with her radiation treatments she will begin chemotherapy which will also be in Kansas City. In addition to asking for monetary help we are asking that you keep Peggy in your thoughts and prayers. I will be posting updates as they become available.
Thank you in advance from Peggy, myself, and our family. Please make this post public and share it with all of your friends and family.
Organiser
April Galindo-Watts
Organiser
Miami, OK
