Kelly Smith

First post: Jun 22, 2020 Latest post: Dec 16, 2021

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

Just before Thanksgiving 2019 Kelly got what she thought was a bad cold. She seemed to get a little better but the cough came back at Christmas. January 20th she saw her primary care provider and a x-ray was ordered to rule out pneumonia. No pneumonia but a spot on the right lung that need to be looked at so a CT scan was scheduled for Jan 23th. January 24th the doctor called to say Kelly needed to see a specialist in Colorado. We sent down February 19th and mom was scheduled for a biopsy February 24th! On March 6th mom was given the official diagnosis of stage 3b (non-operative) Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSLC) in the right lung. In all actuality the tumor had blocked the middle lobe of the lung and the lung basically wasn't functioning.


Mom started radiation (5 days a week) and chemotherapy every three weeks to fight this disease! Each chemo treatment seemed to be harder and harder until the last where the doctors found "the" right combination to help with the side affects of the treatment. Kelly's last radiation was May 11th and last chemo May 19th. Now the waiting game to see not if but when it would come back. Tests showed the tumor has shrunk substantially and the involved nodules weren't showing...however this monster spread to her bones. Kelly has a PET scan June 22nd to see if the cancer has spread anywhere else in her body (for now we know there are a few lesions in the spine and on both sides of the ribs). We meet with the oncologist the 23rd to find out what new treatment mom will get in addition to calcium injections to try and keep her bones from breaking. Mom is now stage 4..."good" news is (if you can call it that) there are more treatment options in stage 4.  UPDATE...NO cancer in the bones so officially stage 3c since the cancer included nodules in the right lung.

I will use this page to try and keep all informed of Kelly (mom's) journey. For now, she has not worked since the biopsy...she hopes to go back to work (gotta keep that insurance!). I will post as any updates that she says I can as this is her story. You can leave messages here and I'll make sure she gets them. Texting is sometimes the best way to reach her...

SVG_Icons_Back_To_Top
Top