Rhonda Weakland

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

Rhonda's story began about this time last year when her back pain started to become intolerable. A surgery in 2017 fixed the ruptured disk, but the lack of the disk resulted in severe back pain. Fortunately, the great folks at West Valley Medical Center were able to fuse the L5-S1 in August (after 5 months of elective surgery delays). We are happy to report that her back surgery has been successful and feels as good as new!

Unfortunately, Rhonda's mother, Colleen Weakland, passed away on September 2, 2020. Rhonda was able to attend the funeral in Riverton, Wyoming and be with family during that terribly sad time. 

After an annual mammogram in early October, a "spot" was detected on Rhonda's breast. A biopsy revealed the unexpected, breast cancer. We are so fortunate that Rhonda had an annual mammogram and not an every other year mammogram. The cancer was detected early, which is great! However, the type of cancer is the aggressive variety. After a plethora of additional tests and scans, the tumors were surgically removed along with two nearby sentinel lymph nodes. Unfortunately, one of the lymph nodes had a small amount of cancer. Because the cancer was detected in the lymph node, additional testing was required to eliminate other areas that might be cancerous. Unfortunately once again, cancer was detected in her L1 vertebra. Because of the cancer in the lymph node, L1 vertebra, and the type of cancer, Rhonda was advised to undergo the "heavy duty" chemo treatment plan including 4 infusions of "AC" chemo every other week; 12 infusions of "T" chemo for 12 weeks; 30 rounds of radiation; and finally 5-10 years of hormone inhibitors.

The series of unfortunate events in Rhonda’s life over the last year has been unimaginable. Throughout all of this, she has remained “Wyoming Strong” and resilient when facing a mountain of adversity. We wanted to share her story here and keep you updated as she begins her breast cancer treatments. Again, we appreciate all of your support, prayers, and thoughtful words of encouragement; keep them coming!!!