The big "C" has hit my family
I never thought I'd be in a situation where I had to reach out and ask for assistance like this. But here I am. My best friend in the whole wide world, my mom, has been diagnosed with Advanced Stage 4 Cancer. She is on a fixed income and needs financial assistance for all of the medical bills that cancer racks up. Chemo, pet scans, blood work, in home health services (I am looking into finding someone that can provide transportation to and from her chemo appointments and to help her with her pups on those days - she lives in Arizona and I am in Colorado so I can't do it for her yet.) The chemo treatments alone will be $1000 per visit - and her regimen will be chemo every 2 weeks to start. This is my mom's portion after insurance!!
For those of you that know my mom, you know how amazing she is. For those of you that don't....let me tell you a little bit about her. She grew up in a small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. After high school, she moved to Ann Arbor, MI and worked at the University of Michigan. As much as she loved it, she was captivated and intrigued by all things Southwest.....Cowboys, Indians, horses, rodeo, the desert....so she packed up her car, left everything she knew behind (her sister went with her as company on the trip only) and moved from Michigan to Tucson, AZ. She met my dad and had me and when things didn't work out between them, she did everything she could to give me a good life as a single mom. My love of travel comes from her - she made sure I got to see as much as I could growing up. We drove one way from Tucson to Michigan to visit family and took a different route back. We drove to San Diego and New Mexico and Texas and Colorado and have so many stories of the fun things we did. When I got older, we traveled together - Christmas in her hometown, Thanksgiving in New Orleans one year, Savannah the next, family trips to Florida. Las Vegas for a wedding.
I never realized how hard worked to make sure I had great experiences until I was way older. She taught me to work hard but still have fun! She worked for Hughes Aircraft for years and then left that and had her own painting business for years after. She painted houses for a living and loved every minute of it - despite the fact that she was scared of heights and had to climb on a ladder daily!! As a mom, she killed it. She trusted me in situations most parents don't - she basically let me make decisions and if I messed up, I faced the consequences. If I didn't, then I got more privileges and trust. Any friend that met her quickly loved her and thought I was the luckiest to have her!! She is hysterically funny, wicked smart and has the most kind heart of anyone I know.
6 years ago, she wound up being diagnosed with COPD and had a blood clot in her leg. She spent two weeks in the hospital and a week after being discharged, she had mini strokes that landed her back in the hospital for a week. Due to the nature of her illness, she was forced to stop painting houses and take an early retirement. She ended up moving back to Arizona from Colorado because she didn't have to be on oxygen 24/7 there. And she missed Arizona so it just made sense. She's taken care of herself really well since that all happened.....until cancer decided to invade her body. The oncologist says it's incurable. The chemo will only be to prevent it from spreading, to possibly shrink the tumors and to prolong her life. If you all can find it in your heart to donate to this, we will both be so very grateful. Thanks for reading this!
