Peggy's Cancer Heartbreak

Life can change in an instant. My wife Peggy has the biggest heart of anyone I have ever known, loving and giving and making life special for the people around her. Life can change in an instant. She’s a great cook, with the smell of herbs and spices filling the air in our house every night. In our house she is definitely the brains of the operation. She makes sure our awesome 13 year old son Daniel is ready for school and has food and clothes and play dates…makes sure a gift is sent to reach our incredible daughter Alex half way around world by her birthday. Life can change in an instant.
 
On our coveted beach vacation she is the Grand Master of joy! Peggy thinks of everything and makes every holiday or special occasion a true event. She is the center of our family.

Life can change in an instant and it did for us on an October day with an early morning phone call, my iphone buzzing on the ironing board… The foreign voice of a female doctor, a call we’d been waiting for, but not the message we wanted to hear… Results of a routine mammogram and a brutal Biopsy, now talk of a non-invasive breast cancer or stage zero cancer called DCIS… but there was more.

Once the medical visits started it was one blow of bad or more serious news after another. Six months and three surgeries later Peggy is left with a double mastectomy, the beginnings of reconstruction and preventative chemo therapy. The stage zero cancer, it seems, came with some companions of a nastier breed.
 
Life has changed in an instant. It now includes lots of words we never wanted to contemplate, lymph nodes, HER2, percentage chance of recurrence and hopeful words like cancer free for now. It includes many 6 hour round trips to Cleveland Clinic and overnight stays at times. It includes lots of new people because beyond the traditional cut it out, douse it with chemicals and keep watching for spooky signs of cancer returning - Peggy is person who needs more answers, more reassurance this will never happen again. We all do. 



#helpPeggyheal. Through dogged research and heartfelt conversations with anyone who might know something and referrals from survivors and acquaintances of all kinds Peggy has assembled and incredible team of medical, spiritual and holistic health experts to get her through every phase of this fight and beyond. 
 
It started with two encouraging people who coached her on meditation to prepare for the rigors of surgery. On our long ride to the hospital she described the feeling that what she was about to endure was “like waiting to be seriously injured in terrible car crash”. Think about it, try and overcome that reality. I held her hand, she stepped out of the car and faced this awful music. 
 
Armed with a soft voice on an MP3 player and trigger phrases she had the pluck to ask the doctors to read aloud in the OR Peggy came through each surgery wonderfully with with no discomfort upon waking from the anesthesia and she became a believer in the extra effort she would put into every phase of her treatment.


Insurance companies don’t cover everything. We pay our health insurance and then something like this happens and the bills still mount. Insurance doesn’t cover your search for calm or your quest to protect your immune system from damage traditional medicine does to good body systems (heart, bones, brain, nerves) when it is attacking the fearsome enemy, cancer. They should, but they don’t. 
 
Peggy has been out of work. I have missed lots of work to be by her side (I would have it no other way). We have managed to keep up as normal a routine as possible, especially for Daniel, but the disease, it seems, tries to outlast you and we won’t let that happen.
 
There's more surgery and there are extra costs for treatments to fortify Peggy’s body now to hopefully protect her for the rest of her life and special tests to detect rogue cancer cells that may be floating somewhere in Peggy’s body. Our great and talented surgeons think they got ‘em all, but they’ll readily admit they can’t quite be sure.
 
The kindness and concern we have already experienced is beautiful and we are grateful. Many have asked… “What can I do?” I haven’t really had an answer, or have been reluctant to give one, but the picture is clearer now.
 
The clear answer is this.  We can not do this alone.  Peggy has been unable to work for 6 months and her surgeries, treatments and doctor visits will continue for many more months. 

The medical bills are mounting with more to come.  We have completely lost Peggy's income and mine has been reduced as well.  Please know that any amount will help and we appreciate every dollar given.  Please pass this on to your friends who may be able to give as well.  Your contribution will help alleviate the weight of financial stress that is now additionally affecting our family.  With Love and Gratitude, Phil.