Donation protected
Hello my friends and family. I am starting this GoFundMe for my beautiful mother. In the beginning of 2022, she went to urgent care at Essentia in Duluth, MN, for what she thought was a fractured wrist. This is where her journey began.
After asking my mom about the circumstances of how she fell and hurt her wrist, they eventually found (with several appointments and tests later) that she had a brain aneurysm.
Her doctors in Duluth referred her to Dr. Jagadeesan, who specializes in interventional radiology and neuroradiology in Minneapolis at the U of M.
My mom planned her trip down to the cities for her appointment on June 14, 2022, where she first met with him in Minneapolis and discussed a plan to move forward. Dr. Jagadeesan and his team needed to get a better look at the aneurysm by doing an angiogram, which is a test where she would be sedated while they inject dye into her blood vessels and take 3D images of the aneurysm to determine exactly how big it is and it’s location. They scheduled the angiogram for July 20th in Minneapolis.
She headed back home to Solon Springs Wisconsin to resume daily life for a few weeks and on July 18th went to her routine mammogram appointment.
The next day my mom came back to the cities for her angiogram. Everything went as well as could be expected, and Dr. Jagadeesan came in afterwards when she was recovering and
showed us the 3D image of the aneurysm.
He explained to us that this was considered a “large” aneurysm in the right temple region of her brain and that it needed to be operated on. There were two ways they could fix it, and he would need to talk to his team and go over the information they had about it in order to decide the safest and most effective way to fix it.
One way would be to go through a blood vessel in her groin and put coils into the aneurysm, and the other option would be to remove part of her skull, find the aneurysm in the brain and “clip” it. We set up an appointment for August 16th to meet him again and find out which surgical option they planned to use.
My mom came back to our house in Prior Lake to rest and recover, and the following day she received a phone call from her primary care physician that there was a suspicious looking lump in one of her breasts and they needed her to come in for further testing. Back home to Solon Springs to ignore this potential threat for a couple weeks and enjoy the summer in case it comes to a screeching halt with whatever comes of this.
July 27th 2022 she had a CT of her breast, and August 8th she had an MRI of her breast. All of these appointments took place at Essentia in Duluth, MN.
As terrifying as all of this was, I kept saying to my mom “It’s not a thing until it’s a thing. And even then we’ll figure it out mom.” I kept hoping this would all amount to nothing. Maybe a lipoma. Maybe just something small that wouldn’t add more to her plate. Maybe if we put all the good juju out there, and pray to whatever there might be, and positive thinking and all that, everything will be ok.
August 9th, she met with an oncologist that gave her the news no woman is prepared to hear. “Tawny, you have Breast Cancer. Triple Positive HER2 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.”
…
August 10th she had her first appointment with her breast cancer surgeon and she immediately went over a tentative treatment plan. This is where things get fast and furious, and move far too quickly for any of us to even truly comprehend. They scheduled her port placement, her first round of chemo, and go over what her life will look like for the next year or so.
My mom had barely even wrapped her head around the brain aneurysm that needed operating on. The reality that now there’s an additional serious issue that needed to be tended to was beyond what she could grasp.
Onward and bravely she marched.
August 16th, we met with her doctor at the U of M, and he told us that his team decided to fix her aneurysm via open brain surgery, and they would be scheduling to have her come down for surgery within 2 weeks. Her and I exchanged nervous and defeated looks, and my mom explained to him that she was about to start chemo. He explained that they would have to get in touch with her team in Duluth and decide how to proceed.
My mom’s cancer treatment was deemed the most important to tackle first, so her aneurysm would be put on the back burner for the time being. She then went back home to Solon Springs to prepare to have her chemo port placed.
August 19th was supposed to be the day of her surgical chemo port placement, but the day before that she became incredibly ill with a kidney infection. She went into the ER and they placed her on high-dose antibiotics.
She was finally able to get her port placed on August 29th, and the very next day was her first round of chemo. Her long-time boyfriend Bob unfortunately was not able to be there for that first appointment, so I went with her.
It was awful seeing how sore she was from her procedure the day before. They give a high dose of Benadryl before the chemo infusion, so she peacefully drifted off to sleep. I ventured out to find the perfect stuffed animal for my mom to snuggle, and I found the cutest little black and white tuxedo kitty that looked like her kitty at home, Zoomie! My mom woke up and saw him and hugged him so tightly. She named him “Chemo Kitty” and over time all the chemo nurses grew to know him as he joined her at every appointment.
From that first appointment on, my mom made the hour-long drive to and from the hospital alone to her weekly chemo infusions. As the sole provider, Bob wasn’t able to take much time off of work to be with her.
The high dose of chemo drugs ravaged her body, leaving her weak, exhausted and nauseated. She quickly began losing her hair and soon after had her best friend Tara shave her head. My mom had a beautiful head of hair, her and I laughed often about how amazing her hair was! As you can imagine, going through this aspect of the treatment process is devastating as a woman.
Her final chemo infusion was on November 15th. During this time, my mom missed my wedding because she was so sick. Something she will not forgive cancer for. She missed out on so much during this time. Everyone else forgives and is understanding for what she has missed, but her anger will never allow her to feel that forgiveness. Cancer robs and cheats and steals.
My mom had a few weeks to recover from chemo and prepare for her upcoming surgery to remove the cancer.
December 22nd my mom finally underwent her bilateral non-nipple-sparing mastectomy, with placement of tissue expanders and 3 drains. They suspected there was some remaining cancer that they were not able to remove, so she would begin a new type of chemo in the near future.
Just 3 days after her surgery, while recovering in Duluth at my grandma’s house, my mom suffered a nasty fall, where the metal armrest of a bench outside slammed full-force directly into the fresh painful incisions on her chest. She developed horrific bruising from the fall and a painful seroma (pocket of fluid) near one of her incisions.
The healing process from there has been incredibly painful, and the fall definitely hasn’t helped. The drains needed to stay in longer to continue to allow the excess fluid to drain out. She wakes up screaming from nerve pain. She also started physical therapy and continues her exercises at home.
During her surgery they placed “tissue expanders”, which are inflatable pockets that slowly make room for the eventual removal and replacement with breast implants. Every week following her initial surgery, she had “fills”, where they would add a small amount of saline each time, until the desired size is reached.
On January 31st she started a new chemo called TDM1 that is given every 3 weeks until October 31st 2023.
In approximately 2 months she will undergo the surgery to replace the expanders with implants. There may be an additional outpatient procedure or two to follow, for symmetry and to make them as natural as possible given the circumstances.
Now my mom needs to schedule her surgery at the U of M for the aneurysm. As terrified as she is of this surgery, it needs to be done. The aneurysm has began to affect her vision, and she has had many falls due to the balance issues it has caused.
During her chemo treatments, the 4wd and heat went out on her truck, and the tires are at a point of needing replacement. With every penny spent on the commuting to and from all the appointments in Duluth and the twin cities, there isn’t much left to repair those issues.
Throughout all of this, my beautiful mother has remained brave and focused. She has spent much of her time during her treatment focusing on and caring for her mother Barb. I believe it has given her drive and purpose through everything. My mom has recently missed physical therapy and “fill” appointments due to winter driving conditions and the unsafe state that her truck is currently in.
Any money raised will help recover the hundreds of dollars that have gone into the countless trips as well getting her truck back into a safe driving condition.
Thank you in advance to anyone that has taken the time to read all of this. Thank you for sending prayers, good vibes, donations, positive energy, whatever you have. From the bottom of our hearts, we appreciate you.
My mom’s boyfriend has also set up a benefit for her at Bird’s Bar in Superior, Wi on March 25th from 2-6pm. There will be a silent auction as well. If anyone has questions please feel free to reach out to me. Thank you ❤️
After asking my mom about the circumstances of how she fell and hurt her wrist, they eventually found (with several appointments and tests later) that she had a brain aneurysm.
Her doctors in Duluth referred her to Dr. Jagadeesan, who specializes in interventional radiology and neuroradiology in Minneapolis at the U of M.
My mom planned her trip down to the cities for her appointment on June 14, 2022, where she first met with him in Minneapolis and discussed a plan to move forward. Dr. Jagadeesan and his team needed to get a better look at the aneurysm by doing an angiogram, which is a test where she would be sedated while they inject dye into her blood vessels and take 3D images of the aneurysm to determine exactly how big it is and it’s location. They scheduled the angiogram for July 20th in Minneapolis.
She headed back home to Solon Springs Wisconsin to resume daily life for a few weeks and on July 18th went to her routine mammogram appointment.
The next day my mom came back to the cities for her angiogram. Everything went as well as could be expected, and Dr. Jagadeesan came in afterwards when she was recovering and
showed us the 3D image of the aneurysm.
He explained to us that this was considered a “large” aneurysm in the right temple region of her brain and that it needed to be operated on. There were two ways they could fix it, and he would need to talk to his team and go over the information they had about it in order to decide the safest and most effective way to fix it.
One way would be to go through a blood vessel in her groin and put coils into the aneurysm, and the other option would be to remove part of her skull, find the aneurysm in the brain and “clip” it. We set up an appointment for August 16th to meet him again and find out which surgical option they planned to use.
My mom came back to our house in Prior Lake to rest and recover, and the following day she received a phone call from her primary care physician that there was a suspicious looking lump in one of her breasts and they needed her to come in for further testing. Back home to Solon Springs to ignore this potential threat for a couple weeks and enjoy the summer in case it comes to a screeching halt with whatever comes of this.
July 27th 2022 she had a CT of her breast, and August 8th she had an MRI of her breast. All of these appointments took place at Essentia in Duluth, MN.
As terrifying as all of this was, I kept saying to my mom “It’s not a thing until it’s a thing. And even then we’ll figure it out mom.” I kept hoping this would all amount to nothing. Maybe a lipoma. Maybe just something small that wouldn’t add more to her plate. Maybe if we put all the good juju out there, and pray to whatever there might be, and positive thinking and all that, everything will be ok.
August 9th, she met with an oncologist that gave her the news no woman is prepared to hear. “Tawny, you have Breast Cancer. Triple Positive HER2 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.”
…
August 10th she had her first appointment with her breast cancer surgeon and she immediately went over a tentative treatment plan. This is where things get fast and furious, and move far too quickly for any of us to even truly comprehend. They scheduled her port placement, her first round of chemo, and go over what her life will look like for the next year or so.
My mom had barely even wrapped her head around the brain aneurysm that needed operating on. The reality that now there’s an additional serious issue that needed to be tended to was beyond what she could grasp.
Onward and bravely she marched.
August 16th, we met with her doctor at the U of M, and he told us that his team decided to fix her aneurysm via open brain surgery, and they would be scheduling to have her come down for surgery within 2 weeks. Her and I exchanged nervous and defeated looks, and my mom explained to him that she was about to start chemo. He explained that they would have to get in touch with her team in Duluth and decide how to proceed.
My mom’s cancer treatment was deemed the most important to tackle first, so her aneurysm would be put on the back burner for the time being. She then went back home to Solon Springs to prepare to have her chemo port placed.
August 19th was supposed to be the day of her surgical chemo port placement, but the day before that she became incredibly ill with a kidney infection. She went into the ER and they placed her on high-dose antibiotics.
She was finally able to get her port placed on August 29th, and the very next day was her first round of chemo. Her long-time boyfriend Bob unfortunately was not able to be there for that first appointment, so I went with her.
It was awful seeing how sore she was from her procedure the day before. They give a high dose of Benadryl before the chemo infusion, so she peacefully drifted off to sleep. I ventured out to find the perfect stuffed animal for my mom to snuggle, and I found the cutest little black and white tuxedo kitty that looked like her kitty at home, Zoomie! My mom woke up and saw him and hugged him so tightly. She named him “Chemo Kitty” and over time all the chemo nurses grew to know him as he joined her at every appointment.
From that first appointment on, my mom made the hour-long drive to and from the hospital alone to her weekly chemo infusions. As the sole provider, Bob wasn’t able to take much time off of work to be with her.
The high dose of chemo drugs ravaged her body, leaving her weak, exhausted and nauseated. She quickly began losing her hair and soon after had her best friend Tara shave her head. My mom had a beautiful head of hair, her and I laughed often about how amazing her hair was! As you can imagine, going through this aspect of the treatment process is devastating as a woman.
Her final chemo infusion was on November 15th. During this time, my mom missed my wedding because she was so sick. Something she will not forgive cancer for. She missed out on so much during this time. Everyone else forgives and is understanding for what she has missed, but her anger will never allow her to feel that forgiveness. Cancer robs and cheats and steals.
My mom had a few weeks to recover from chemo and prepare for her upcoming surgery to remove the cancer.
December 22nd my mom finally underwent her bilateral non-nipple-sparing mastectomy, with placement of tissue expanders and 3 drains. They suspected there was some remaining cancer that they were not able to remove, so she would begin a new type of chemo in the near future.
Just 3 days after her surgery, while recovering in Duluth at my grandma’s house, my mom suffered a nasty fall, where the metal armrest of a bench outside slammed full-force directly into the fresh painful incisions on her chest. She developed horrific bruising from the fall and a painful seroma (pocket of fluid) near one of her incisions.
The healing process from there has been incredibly painful, and the fall definitely hasn’t helped. The drains needed to stay in longer to continue to allow the excess fluid to drain out. She wakes up screaming from nerve pain. She also started physical therapy and continues her exercises at home.
During her surgery they placed “tissue expanders”, which are inflatable pockets that slowly make room for the eventual removal and replacement with breast implants. Every week following her initial surgery, she had “fills”, where they would add a small amount of saline each time, until the desired size is reached.
On January 31st she started a new chemo called TDM1 that is given every 3 weeks until October 31st 2023.
In approximately 2 months she will undergo the surgery to replace the expanders with implants. There may be an additional outpatient procedure or two to follow, for symmetry and to make them as natural as possible given the circumstances.
Now my mom needs to schedule her surgery at the U of M for the aneurysm. As terrified as she is of this surgery, it needs to be done. The aneurysm has began to affect her vision, and she has had many falls due to the balance issues it has caused.
During her chemo treatments, the 4wd and heat went out on her truck, and the tires are at a point of needing replacement. With every penny spent on the commuting to and from all the appointments in Duluth and the twin cities, there isn’t much left to repair those issues.
Throughout all of this, my beautiful mother has remained brave and focused. She has spent much of her time during her treatment focusing on and caring for her mother Barb. I believe it has given her drive and purpose through everything. My mom has recently missed physical therapy and “fill” appointments due to winter driving conditions and the unsafe state that her truck is currently in.
Any money raised will help recover the hundreds of dollars that have gone into the countless trips as well getting her truck back into a safe driving condition.
Thank you in advance to anyone that has taken the time to read all of this. Thank you for sending prayers, good vibes, donations, positive energy, whatever you have. From the bottom of our hearts, we appreciate you.
My mom’s boyfriend has also set up a benefit for her at Bird’s Bar in Superior, Wi on March 25th from 2-6pm. There will be a silent auction as well. If anyone has questions please feel free to reach out to me. Thank you ❤️
Organizer
Kaleena Hayes
Organizer
Prior Lake, MN