Help in Jeri’s fight against lung cancer

Hi everyone it’s Nickie. For those of you who don’t know me, I am the daughter and caregiver of my mom, Jeri. My sisters (Kellie and Renee) and I wanted to put together a gofundme fundraiser for Mom to help her with this very unexpected health crisis.

on March 18, 2022 Mom was admitted to the hospital with what we thought was some form of pneumonia from being sick only for a few days, and possibly aspirating in her lung after a short bout of vomiting. One day of nausea and vomiting only a few times, into the next day of not being able to take a full breath and a little bit of coughing progressed very quickly. She said she was feeling a little better, but as her daughter and caregiver, I knew better. Instead of taking her for her word and leaving for work, I decided to call an ambulance, and this is where moms battle started.

The ambulance rushed her to St. Mary’s hospital in Madison with signs of a heart attack/heart failure, which was thought to be caused from her being sick and her body not being strong enough to handle it. After two days in ICU, many tests, and many different medicines, mom was getting better in every area but one. Her sodium level. The Lung doctor suspected that it might be caused by a little spot they found on her lung. Mom thought the spot was a granuloma that had been on her lung for over 20 years, but the lung doctor wasn’t convinced. Mom spent two weeks in the hospital battling this sodium that they just couldn’t seem to bring to a normal level. They were able to get her number to just below normal so she could be released and have a pet scan done to confirm one way or another what the spot was on her lung.

within days of the pet scan being done, the lung doctor called and said that that spot needed to be biopsied. Mom was then brought to the hospital to have the biopsy. As we already know nothing is ever simple for mom, and she ended up having to have a chest tube placed after the biopsy because her lung started to collapse. As she’s healing from the biopsy and chest tube, the doctor tells us that the results came back, and the spot on her lung was in fact small cell lung cancer. We were shocked and not expecting that news at all. We were all very hopeful knowing that the only spot that was found was the one on her lung. Before treatment could be planned out or started, the last part of her body needed to be scanned to make sure the cancer was In one spot and one spot only. An MRI of her brain was set up and done within days. The results came in shortly after and we were told there was a small spot found on her brain. The news was devastating, but because of the size of the spot, we’re all doing our best to stay positive and hopeful that treatment will be successful and we can fight this fight together, and pray that no other spots show up.

Mom has started her first round of chemotherapy. She has 3 more cycles to do along with immunotherapy to keep her immune system strong while going through treatment. The doctors worry about secondary infections and other blood cell related issues that could arise during the process, but we’re staying hopeful that none do. Mom has been physically and emotionally drained, but still has the most beautiful smile on the hardest of days.

With all the unexpected health changes, there has been financial changes as well. Mom lives on a fixed income and only has a very small savings set aside for our little vacation to Florida that we started to plan over 6 months ago. She’s had to dip into that for everything that her insurance won’t cover, and then some. My sisters and I thought that making this gofundme would be a great way to not only inform all of moms family and friends of her new diagnosis, but to also have everyone come together to help financially in any way possible to help ease the burden of these new expenses, and any future expenses that are to come. Thank you all for all the love and support during this extremely difficult time.