My Mom's Cancer Battle

My mom, Denise Salvati, is a bright and beautiful soul who has always loved to be surrounded by her friends and family. Her smile and laugh are so contagious you can't help but smile and laugh with her. She loves to bring people together through her passion for cooking and baking, gathering everyone around her table. Mom has always been the heart of our family. Brave and unflinchingly honest, she is the type of person who always puts other people before herself. Whether it was being an ear for somebody, giving advice, or in my case, taking me in as her own child when I was five and helping raise me to be the person I am today. Her strength and tenacity carried her through years as a single mother, and taught my brother and I how to roll with life’s punches.

On February 24, 2022, my mom was put on worker's compensation for what we thought was a pinched nerve and arthritis in her back. She couldn't see her primary care physician for three months and initially had to go through urgent care to get help. Little did we know that her life would change only a couple of months later.

At the beginning of May, she was able to have an evaluation where they found a lump on her breast. Throughout the month, Mom slowly began to lose feeling and sensation in her arms and legs.

The biopsy results came back on May 25, 2022, delivering crushing news. My mom was diagnosed with Stage Four Triple Negative Breast Cancer. What she was told was a pinched nerve was actually metastatic breast cancer. My mom has cancer in her lungs, pelvis, breasts, and spine. The cancer had weakened her spine so severely that it had broken in several places, causing horrific pain and paralyzing her. She underwent emergency surgery to remove those masses and attempt to reverse the paralysis. The surgery was successful, and she regained feeling in her arms and legs!

After the surgery, she was sent to rehab for physical therapy. Going back and forth to the doctor's and radiation appointments, healing her broken neck, and getting accustomed to rods and cement in her back took its toll on her. The magnitude of what was facing her and the pain caused depression, crippling fear, and anxiety. Still, she worked hard trying to regain mobility while battling her cancer.

Towards the end of her time in rehab, she began to have difficulty breathing. She was readmitted to the hospital after scans revealed fluid building up in the cavity surrounding her lungs. They were able to drain the fluid, and she was released to go home on Saturday, August 20th.

She currently resides in South Florida with us at home. It was a hard decision, but we recently admitted her into hospice. Mom is now bed bound. Even still, she maintains she will stand up again.

We have been struggling with this for months and need all the help we can get. Several family members have flown across states to be with us in these impossible times. My mom has a great support system between her family and friends. We are grateful to everyone who has sent her flowers and cards or helped us obtain the supplies needed to help make her comfortable. Her parents, her cousin Carla, my brother, and I have not left her side in the last few months and will do anything and everything it takes to make her as comfortable as possible.

While hospice provides excellent resources and aid, my mom needs round-the-clock care. It's been hard being her primary caregiver while still being a full-time student and eventually having to return to work full-time. We are setting up this GoFundMe to raise some money to get mom the best caregivers that we can in the comfort of her own home. Additional funds will be used for medical and general supplies. And if things I don't want to say happen, it can also help with those expenses.

We want to help her with whatever she wants and needs in these moments in time. She has been and continues to fight as best as she can. One of her greatest fears is to leave us, her children, behind. She feels like she is letting us all down, little does she know what an inspiration she is. Her strength to keep going in the face of all this pain and fear is remarkable. My brother Jake and I are trying to emulate it while we continue to care for our mom as best we can.