Help Dulce Fight Cancer
Donation protected
UPDATE: I have changed the goal to $100,000. Because my mother is now in an out-of-network hospital, our insurance will not cover most of the expenses. My father is not working right now; he stays with my mom day and night, only coming back home to shower. He sleeps on a chair in the room with her. Even after my mom wakes up from intubation, he still won't return to work for a couple of months so he can be my mom's caregiver at home. We have no other relatives here as they are in the Philippines. It is just my dad, mom, my sister, and me here in the USA.
The $100,000 will be used for the hospital bills and future treatment at UCSF and Stanford if the chemotherapy does not work.
Near the end of 2018, my mom wasn’t feeling well. She had a hard time breathing and was cold all the time. She went to urgent care—no x-ray was taken. They given antibiotics and a nebulizer. After weeks went by, she continued to get worse. We went to urgent care again. They took an x-ray. Then we got a call from her doctor saying that she needed to go to the ER because he said she had pneumonia and there was a dark shadow on her lungs. At the hospital, they realized she had fluid in her lungs and pericardial cavity. She also had multiple nodules throughout her lungs. After a thoracentesis in which they extracted 600 mL from her lungs, the results from the fluid came back.
On January 31st, 6 weeks after my mom first fell ill, she was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Her left upper lobe has already collapsed. My maternal grandmother was a heavy chain smoker, but my mom has never smoked a cigarette in her life. She was at her healthiest in 2018—she went to the gym daily, ate healthily, lost weight, gained muscle. She had so much energy until now. My entire family is in shock.
Despite the weeks that have passed by, she STILL has not received any treatment for her cancer. It has been over a week since genetic testing was done to see if she had certain mutations that would allow for targeted therapy. We are STILL waiting for those results.
She was sent home on February 1st on an oxygen tank. At 3 AM on February 3rd, she was gasping for air. We called for an ambulance. My dad went with her. At 5 AM, my dad called me to get to the hospital ASAP because he was scared she wasn't going to make it. She couldn't breathe. The ER doctor wanted to place her on an incubator. Once we arrived, the doctor finally put her on a BiPAP which significantly helped her with breathing. She was finally able to get a bed after 12 hours of being in the ER.
The doctors wanted her to get an airway stent in her lungs. The hospital she is currently at does not provide this surgery. We have been waiting almost a week now for surrounding hospitals that can do the surgery to open up a bed for her. We thought she was getting better the last 2 days. Her breathing was slower and her voice was stronger. But last night, her breathing worsened. Her doctors now no longer want to do the surgery. I am frustrated because if the surgery was done earlier this week when she was better, we would not be having this issue. But now she is in serious, critical condition. She can't breathe.
We have been told by others in the healthcare field to take her to UCSF to get proper and immediate care, instead of waiting weeks for something to be done. However, our insurance refuses to cover us if we do transfer her to UCSF.
The purpose of this GoFundMe is to help pay for the treatments that my mom desperately needs. She is 51 years old. Just last Christmas she was talking about how she was excited to get presents for her future grandchildren. The doctors told her she had at least 1 year and at most 5 years to live. Yet every single day that we wait for her results to come back, beds to open up, and insurance to approve of her medications, her condition continues to worsen.
If you cannot donate, please keep my mom in your thoughts and prayers.
Thank you in advance,
Reeva
The $100,000 will be used for the hospital bills and future treatment at UCSF and Stanford if the chemotherapy does not work.
Near the end of 2018, my mom wasn’t feeling well. She had a hard time breathing and was cold all the time. She went to urgent care—no x-ray was taken. They given antibiotics and a nebulizer. After weeks went by, she continued to get worse. We went to urgent care again. They took an x-ray. Then we got a call from her doctor saying that she needed to go to the ER because he said she had pneumonia and there was a dark shadow on her lungs. At the hospital, they realized she had fluid in her lungs and pericardial cavity. She also had multiple nodules throughout her lungs. After a thoracentesis in which they extracted 600 mL from her lungs, the results from the fluid came back.
On January 31st, 6 weeks after my mom first fell ill, she was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. Her left upper lobe has already collapsed. My maternal grandmother was a heavy chain smoker, but my mom has never smoked a cigarette in her life. She was at her healthiest in 2018—she went to the gym daily, ate healthily, lost weight, gained muscle. She had so much energy until now. My entire family is in shock.
Despite the weeks that have passed by, she STILL has not received any treatment for her cancer. It has been over a week since genetic testing was done to see if she had certain mutations that would allow for targeted therapy. We are STILL waiting for those results.
She was sent home on February 1st on an oxygen tank. At 3 AM on February 3rd, she was gasping for air. We called for an ambulance. My dad went with her. At 5 AM, my dad called me to get to the hospital ASAP because he was scared she wasn't going to make it. She couldn't breathe. The ER doctor wanted to place her on an incubator. Once we arrived, the doctor finally put her on a BiPAP which significantly helped her with breathing. She was finally able to get a bed after 12 hours of being in the ER.
The doctors wanted her to get an airway stent in her lungs. The hospital she is currently at does not provide this surgery. We have been waiting almost a week now for surrounding hospitals that can do the surgery to open up a bed for her. We thought she was getting better the last 2 days. Her breathing was slower and her voice was stronger. But last night, her breathing worsened. Her doctors now no longer want to do the surgery. I am frustrated because if the surgery was done earlier this week when she was better, we would not be having this issue. But now she is in serious, critical condition. She can't breathe.
We have been told by others in the healthcare field to take her to UCSF to get proper and immediate care, instead of waiting weeks for something to be done. However, our insurance refuses to cover us if we do transfer her to UCSF.
The purpose of this GoFundMe is to help pay for the treatments that my mom desperately needs. She is 51 years old. Just last Christmas she was talking about how she was excited to get presents for her future grandchildren. The doctors told her she had at least 1 year and at most 5 years to live. Yet every single day that we wait for her results to come back, beds to open up, and insurance to approve of her medications, her condition continues to worsen.
If you cannot donate, please keep my mom in your thoughts and prayers.
Thank you in advance,
Reeva
Organizer
Reeva Gestre
Organizer
Antioch, CA