Beth’s Story

Site created on July 1, 2019


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Hello everyone, because we are Beth's kids i've made the decision just to refer to her as Mom, because well, she's our Mom.

Mom's journey with this really began on July 20th with a trip to the emergency room.The first symptoms of the cancer were physical, and it was those changes that finally got Mom to the hospital. That day was a day of shock, as the CAT scan showed several lesions on her brain. She was in the hospital for about a week, as we got the results of more tests, particularly her MRI of the liver and brain. They showed masses in Mom's liver, lymph nodes, adrenal gland and most terrifying the brain tumors.

Since Mom has been a traveling Nurse the last few years, she had very limited insurance, but thank goodness for Covered California, we have been able to get her some insurance to help cover the costs, but as you can imagine a week in the hospital, and now treatment is going to be very expensive. We will probably start a go fund me page in the coming days to help with day to day expenses, her housing, and bills. So if you can, stay tuned.

Terri, Laura, and I have been in SoCal from basically the beginning, and were working to create schedules for Mom's treatment and taking care of the day to day operations. She will need 5 weeks of Radiation every day to help stop the growth of her tumors in the brain. We are also working with her Oncologist to treat the origin of the Cancer, which is still unknown, but they believe was breast cancer. Whatever was the source, it has obviously metastasized and spread. While we don't have a name, she does have stage 4 cancer and as soon as we know more from pathology on the source and type of cancer we will update you.

While it is still in the early stages for us processing this information, and dealing with the insurance, doctors, and hospital, it already feels like we've been living with this for a long time. We thank everyone for their kind thoughts offers of help and prayers, I know that we will be needing many of you and your help.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Ryan Gillespie

So, in case you missed it, we’ve been back in the Hospital since last Wednesday. Getting to spend time the holiday weekend in hotel Scripts. Mom presented with low oxygen, found out that was due to embolisms in her lungs, and found them in her legs. Thursday they put filters in her blood vessels so the clots don’t travel anywhere important. Blood thinners weren’t immediately prescribed because of her brain Mets, and the possibility of those bleeding. They’ve done a great job getting her swelling down. 

Shes fairly stable here, but still on oxygen, and she is getting another chest x-ray right now for her third look.

On the positive side of the equation is they took a CT scan of her chest looking for the embolism, and it also did not show the cancer in her lung or lymph nodes, so while that doesn’t mean it’s not there as it was not the focus of the CT, it is a good sign that the drugs are probably working and that some of the cancer might be gone. 

Mom is still very tired and weak, and isn’t eating enough, but we keep working on that. The drugs have kept her sugars very high and she has been on insulin for that. Please keep her in your thoughts, and anything you can help give is greatly appreciated! You are helping Terri and Laura keep the lights on, as they completely put their life on hold to care for mom 24/7. Thanks everyone so much for your help. 
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