Hello I am a 47 year old mother and grandmother of 3 beautiful grandbabies and proud mother of 3 children of my own that have always been my biggest cheerleaders at whatever I have had to face . My partner Stephanie brings so much comfort and support to our lives...she completes not only me but the children and grandbabies lives as well. Life has truly kept us busy and we have had to face alot of heart ache in just these 2 years together. I had a pulmonary embolism 3 years ago. And that changed alot for me and how i lived day to day even. And now we are taken by the news i have squamous cell csrsinoma ..Its not just skin cancer because it has went deeper and it has grown rapidly in just 3 months time.. My story begins from just the beginning of September. I had a spot come up that looked like a skin tag, but it itched and burned and grew fast. I told my doctor right away, and by the time she saw me, it had doubled. She sent me to have it removed, and the doctor used liquid nitrogen to try and remove it and that only made it grow faster. So I had to see another doctor who did a biopsy. I got the results back on Thanksgiving that I have squamous cell carcinoma. I then was sent to see an ENT doctor because of the location of the cancer and size and how fast it came on... she has me scheduled for two operations 10 days apart at the beginning of January. They will be making several incisions on my cheek and neck. They may have no choice but to remove my bottom eyelid as well. I probably will have a drain tube coming out from my neck and they are not sure how things will go but have planned on my first surgery taking about 2 and a half hours .They will only be removing half of what she normally would remove in hopes to save my eyelid. Also will remove some of the hot nodes this all will go to mayo clinic and then I will return 10 days later to be taken in for a second operation ...I won't know if the cancer has spread to any other part of my body until mayo gives us results and I won't know what to expect from 2nd surgery until surgery day...its alot to absorb, and fear is my worst enemy...

In addition to all of this, Stephanie was laid off for the winter, and unemployment takes a little time before you can get paid. We put what money we had into four new tires on our car because of all the appts. from Charleston to Carle in Urbana.

I recieve a packet of places to go and ask for help with my bills and expenses getting to my appts . Unfortunately i have not had any success at recieving any kind of funds to help me get through this and keep a roof over my head ect. I appreciate any help that you may be able to offer to help us get through all of this. Thank you for the prayers, kind words, and any other donations that you may offer to help me. I dont know what else to do and this is very stressful and i dont know how i can keep from stressing so that i can heal and fight this battle with cancer that i never signed uo to do. But may God bless you , and I am holding on to faith and believing this too shall pass.