Jeff Reedy

In June 2016, Jeff began to feel slight pain in his back between his shoulder blades and continued to struggle with a chronic cough. These symptoms led he and Cheryll to line up a chest x-ray in St. Cloud. The x-ray was to investigate the source of both the cough and the back pain.

On August 25, 2016, Jeff and Cheryll received news that the results of the x-ray showed a mass on the upper portion of Jeff's right lung. This was news that sent the whole family reeling. While we knew this result was not out of the question, it is still hard to deal with the reality of the now very REAL situation.

On September 12, Jeff and Cheryll were accompanied by all three of their kids to an appointment with the VA Hospital in Minneapolis. Jeff served in the army in his 20s, so he receives care through the Veterans' Affairs. This appointment was essentially an intake appointment to start the process of treatment. While there, a biopsy was conducted on a swollen lymph node in Jeff's neck. The biopsy confirmed that this is, in fact, cancer -- although the doctors were hesitant to say for sure where the source of the cancer was. The doctor's put in an order for Jeff to receive a full-body PET scan to search for other masses, and hopefully determine the origination site of the cancer. Unfortunately, they couldn't schedule the scan to happen that day, so we entered into another waiting game.

The following Monday, Jeff was forced to leave work at Bobbie's Diner due to breathing troubles. Cheryll was able to leave her job to bring him to urgent care at the St. Cloud VA. The doctors were able to prescribe sleeping pills to help Jeff sleep, update his pain meds, and advised Jeff to stop working.

With only having dealt with the "new normal" for about 3-4 weeks, we were all saddened at how quickly this is progressing. As Cheryll and the kids continue to stay strong for Jeff, we are overwhelmed with the number of people who have reached out to us. Please continue to follow this page, as we will update as much as possible.