Funeral Arrangements and Autopsy

Hello, my name is Nicole, and I am creating this campaign to help my mother Faith. My mother started having a light continuous cough starting in February 2021. Her cough had gotten bad enough to where she cracked her ribs. I took her to the urgent care to have her ribs checked. She was given an x-ray and pain killers. She was suggested to do a follow up with her primary care physician. She spent a couple of months going back and forward with her primary care physician to try to find out the problem. First, her PCP believed she had valley fever (relative to the Arizona environment). She has only been in Arizona with me for five years, but we thought we would trust him since we were not familiar with valley fever. My mother had left her life behind in Chicago to move to Phoenix and help me with my 9-year-old daughter after my husband died on Valentine's Day 2017. Because I have multiple sclerosis, she made that sacrifice to help me and my daughter. I never expected the air in the city to give her respiratory problems.

 

Her PCP prescribed a bunch of medicine that did not help her coughing and breathing. So, the PCP moved on to believing she had developed asthma. He prescribed an inhaler and some medicine that still did not bring her any relief. By the summer of 2021, her cough started to get worse. She would cough whenever she spoke or breathed deeply. I took her to the hospital where she was given an x-ray, CT scan, and fluids. The doctors found no issues relative to her issue and sent her home with this continuous cough. I was growing increasingly concerned. A good friend of my mother’s who is a nurse recommended that she get a pulmonologist, but the PCP said she did not need one and we continued to trust that he will find the problem.

 

This chronic cough had gotten so bad that my mother cracked her ribs again from coughing. So, I took her to another hospital where she stayed for a week and was released with an inhaler and more medication. No one at the hospital told her to rinse her mouth out with a steroid inhaler and we think it contributed to her throat closing up. At this point she felt so miserable every day that I had to start giving her more physical support at home. In November she caught Covid. This exacerbated her cough and chest pains that she had already been struggling with. She suffered through Christmas and New Year’s and even tried to work a couple of days a week in January even though she could hardly breath or talk. After a scheduled visit to the cancer center in early February the physician’s assistant went through her records and x-rays and were concerned about a mass he saw in her chest that had grown from nickel size to quarter size by December. We still wasn’t quite sure what was wrong but at least at this point someone was paying attention and taking this seriously. I took her to the hospital after the visit to the cancer center at the beginning of February and now we know she has cancer all through her body. She is taking chemotherapy for her lung cancer and will be receiving radiation for the lesions on her brain and spine. It has been so hard seeing her suffer but in addition to all she has endured she has received horrible treatment in the hospital.

 

I started this GoFundMe account to be able to pay for her medical bills and expenses because I do not have the ability to do so on my own. It is really hard for me to have to ask for help, but I would do anything for her because she has and would do anything for me. Our family is hopeful that she can beat this and anyone who knows her believes this as well because of her unwavering strength, strong work ethic, giving nature, and sheer will and determination. I just want to take care of her and get her back on her feet where she wants to be.

UPDATE: It is always hard to lose a loved one and that experience can be even harder when you have no answers as to why your loved one is gone. Although my mother had lung and brain cancer she had a good chance of beating it, according to her oncologist, until I made the mistake of leaving her in the care of people who did not perform in her best interest. So, the family wants to get an autopsy to see what actually killed her because it wasn't her cancer. We need the support of all of our family and friends to get answers and lay her to rest in peace after enduring so much unnecessary pain. On behalf of her children and family we thank you for all the love, support, and donations.