Candy’s Story

Site created on October 3, 2019

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.
My Mother, Candy has been diagnosed with rectal cancer and metastasized gynecological cancer. The two cancers are not related. Having two types of cancer in your body that is completely unrelated is extremely rare. We lost my dad, my mom’s husband and best friend of 37 years, to pancreatitis this last May. He was in the hospital for 7 weeks and we fought hard for him. Unfortunately God took him home and we miss him more than could we could ever explain. My mom is receiving all her care and treatment in Rochester at Mayo. She has a long road ahead of her that includes chemo, radiation and surgery. My mom has been on an all organic diet and is juicing daily since she first started feeling ill at the beginning of July. She is the strongest woman I know and has an amazing support group. She will dig deep and fight this terrible disease! We will all be beside her every step of the way. She will win this battle! Thank you to everyone for the tremendous love, support and prayers. It means so much to her and our family. Prayer is so powerful and my mom has strong faith in the Lord. I wanted to start a caring bridge to update friends and family on how mom is doing and what is happening. We all receive lots of calls and texts asking about mom and I figured this would be easiest for updates. Much love to all of you and please keep mom in your prayers. 

Newest Update

Journal entry by Crystal McGarry

Happy New Year to all! I hope you all got to spend time with your family over the holidays and can find joy in new beginnings to start this year. 
Update on Mom.. She is feeling good and she is oh so strong! She has healed up wonderfully from her surgery and radiation. After testing the tumor they removed from her brain, they have diagnosed her with MMMT (carcinosarcoma). It is a rare and aggressive cancer, only 1,000 women in the U.S. a year are diagnosed with. Mayo told us that they believe she has had this type of cancer the whole time and they may have missed it from original diagnosis. She has decided to transfer to MN Oncology in Coon Rapids for her upcoming treatments and care. She will start her new chemo regimen next week. This chemo is different and we are hoping not quite as harsh as the previous. We look at chemo as a secondary treatment to her faith, diet, juicing and supplements. She recently signed up for a protocol called Care Oncology Clinic. They use repurposed drugs to block cancer cells from absorbing anything that the cells would need to stay alive and/or multiply and spread. This is adjuvant (additional) treatment to her chemo. They are cheap medications that have been around for years with very little to no side effects. We are hopeful that mom will see great results from the chemo and the additional meds. She is also on a strict plant based organic diet. She juices her vegetables to get the most nutrients and blends her fruits for the fiber. She eats healthy in between, very healthy. The whole concept of you are what you eat is incredibly true. I am extremely proud of my Mom and amazed at her absolute strength and discipline. It is not easy. 
My Mom is a TRUE warrior and if anyone can beat this she can! She refuses to let a diagnosis dictate her life and is educated enough to know that her body can heal itself by diet, exercise and faith. I am so so so proud to be the daughter of such an absolutely incredible woman!! Prayers are needed and welcomed wholeheartedly!! My Mom is the General of a large army of amazing souls who support her and are willing to go to battle to take down this terrible disease once and for all! We will not back down and we will fight! 

Peace and Love,

Crystal

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