Judy Mangus

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support, prayers, words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.


As most of you know Mom was diagnosed on Jan 21, 2011 with Stage 1, Node negative, ER positive Breast Cancer and underwent a bilateral mastectomy on February 17, 2011.  She was started on Arimidex which is an oral chemotherapy for Breast cancer patients.  After multiple complications and 8 surgeries throughout 2011, she was starting to feel good again.  On Jan 21, 2012 during a routine surgery to remove a lymph node in her neck that was negative on fine needle biopsy it was discovered that the lymph node was indeed positive for ER negative Breast cancer.  High dose chemotherapy was started shortly after this diagnosis and she would need to be treated as if she had 2 different cancers due to the ER positive and ER negative tumors.  Mom has always been strong and chemo has been tough but she handled it with grace and strength that she drawls from her deep faith in God. 

Over the years Mom has been off and on multiple chemotherapy drugs and going to appointments but she has been a pillar of strength continuing to attend church, going to lunch and dinner with family and friends.  The past 2-3 months has been a difficult time trying to understand what was going on and getting her feeling better.  She was in the hospital over New Years Day 2017 with her kidney function at critical levels.  After discharge she started feeling better but still not feeling completely back to her old self and ended up in the emergency room a few times.  On Jan 31, 2017 they admitted her for a bowel obstruction.  After CT Scan and PET scan that was inconclusive she underwent surgery for the bowel obstruction.  The surgeon discovered what we all feared, that the cancer has invaded her abdomen and pelvis and was what was causing the bowel obstruction.  Mom underwent a major surgery on February 9, 2017 to help clear the blockage and give her some quality of life to do the things that she still wants and feels like doing.

I know Mom has many friends and family that care for her and are praying for her and we wanted to create a place were everyone could get updates and if you are able to visit her at the hospital or when she gets home then you are welcome to share just a update on how she was.  Keith and I will continue to try to update this page as often as we can to keep everyone updated but please understand we are trying to spend as much time and create as many memories as we possibly can with our Mom.  Please continue to pray for our family as we support, encourage and care for Mom, we love each and every one of you and thank you for all your love.  Please feel free to post words of encouragement and well wishes here as we will be sharing all with Mom.