Eileen's Cancer Fund

Erika Nelson is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

On December 19, 2014 our family received news no family wants to hear. Our beautiful, strong, and vibrant mother Eileen was diagnosed with breast cancer. We were all in such shock, our mother is so healthy and the matriarch of our family this just couldn't be happening. So we made it through a tough Christmas still not sure of exactly what we could expect to happen in the new year. After lots of lab work and testing the news was not good, our mom would need to have a radical mastectomy of the left breast including an unknown number of lymph nodes. At the time we also found out that she was a carrier of the HER2 gene http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/diagnosis/her2 this occurs in around 25% of women with breast cancer and is a rapidly growing gene. With all this information in hand on February 4, 2015 surrounded by family and friends our mom went through the radical mastectomy. After 4 hours of surgery she came out and still looked like our mom, only changed in a way that we will never be able to know. Numerous lymph nodes tested positive for cancer and she had a very large tumor in her breast. She has since healed from surgery and started physical therapy due to her left arm being numb and imobile during recovery. She may never get the feeling back in her left arm that is a waiting game. She will have to wear a compression sleeve at certain times to prevent the possibility of developing lymphodema.

She has recently started a four and a half month cycle of chemo. She makes weekly trips to Redding to spend hours getting treatment, on top of the regular doctors appointments and physical therapy. She will finish the chemo amd move right into radiation that she will have 5 days a week for 6 weeks. And last but not least she will continue to receive a shot of herceptin which targets that nasty HER2 gene every three weeks for a year. This is only just the beginning for our family. As I write this our mom is sitting at home trying to eat something that tastes good and not be sick while wondering when she might brush her thick black hair and see it start to fall out. The doctors tell her it is only a matter of weeks before she will loose it, but even then she is ready. She plans on wearing big floppy hats this summer and making the best of not having to shampoo all that hair. She is always so positive even when she should be a crying mess. I think this comes from a lifetime of being an amazing mother and always wanting to protet us and make us see the brighter side of things. But that is my mom, our sunshine, our only sunshine.

So here we are asking for help from anyone who has it in there heart to donate to help keep my mom worry free about one thing during this crazy time. She is unable to work and her and her fiance are trying to make all this work on a one income home. They have been so strong for so long and never ask for help, but we (there children) want to do something to make things a little easier. As you know anything helps so thank you for whatever you can give, we hope that you all know how much our mom means to us and how terrifying cancer can be for a family. We will keep you updated on her progress and hopefully have nothing but good news to report. Again from our family to yours thank you for stopping by to read our story and for any help you may give.

Love,
Krystal, Erika, Heather and Charlie