Support Janice's Journey to Comfort at Home

Hello all.

This month has been the most overwhelming month of our entire lives. Especially for my mother, Janice.

On Monday, September 9th at approximately 2pm I got a call from both of my sisters. My mother had fallen over on her porch and she was being rushed to the hospital.

Once I arrived home my sisters and I drive 2 hours North to meet our mother at the hospital. Our mother tried her best to speak to us when we arrived. She was slurring her words and making improper sentences. Not long after our arrival we found out the extent of her injuries. The news we received was gut wrenching and out of nowhere. Our mother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. The cancer had travelled from her lung up to her brain and had caused more than 10 metastasis on her brain. Now that we are aware of the diagnosis, we know that the fall was a due to a seizure. Two days later, she was sent home... Her motor skills have been reduced since that seizure. She can no longer remember how to use her equipment for work. It takes her several minutes to open a car door. Normal things and natural motions to us are foreign to her, now.

She had been working from home as a transcriptionist, but since she's no longer able to use her equipment she's had to step down from her job, thus losing her only means of income. She has been living paycheck-to-paycheck to survive. She works so hard just to live. She has always been someone to take care of other people, though. Even living this way for years, she has always made it possible to take care of others. Her love language is making sure her company leaves with full bellies! She also has her doggies that she treats like her own children and cares for them with such love.

They are so loved. It's incredible. (I'm not jealous I promise!).

She'd host Halloween parties at her small home and invite the whole town so everyone can escape the day-to-day struggles of life even though she had her own life and future to worry about. This is all in a house that is made to look like a fairy garden with her her gnomes, greenery, and paintings.

Our mother is such a lovable human being. She cares for others before herself and it's cruel to have something like the "C" word enter your lives without any warning.

Thankfully, she is talking and acting like nothing happened. The most traumatizing thing to have ever caressed our ears and she's back home caring for her dogs and having company over and laughing aloud with them. She gets tired because of the medication but she is in high spirits.

We know that our mother has time left on the clock but we want her to live comfortably at home until the time comes. She will be starting therapy within the next few weeks and that is going to take a toll on her overall health, too. Any time she is able to spend at home with her dogs is a win in our books.

My sisters and I are too young to lose our mother, but at least we will be satisfied knowing our mother can be comfortable living out the rest of her life at home.

Let's take care of her.