Katharine’s Story

Site created on January 26, 2019

This week Katharine was admitted to the hospital and was diagnosed with stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer (subclass HER2). The doctors specified that inflammatory breast cancer is a rare and extremely aggressive type. It has spread to her lymph nodes, liver and some of the bones in her spine within a very short amount of time. She was asymptomatic until late fall (and some of her symptoms - such as a cough and lower back pain - can be easily misdiagnosed for more common and less severe conditions); this accounts for why this diagnosis may shock most of us. The doctors have started her on a weekly chemo regimen, and will be paying close attention to her liver function to ensure that her body can handle the weekly chemo treatments. At this early stage, we still have to monitor how she reacts to her treatments and adjust her plan accordingly; this will take a bit of time. Katharine has been heavily medicated for pain management and exhausted from her first treatment, so we won't be accepting any visitors besides immediate family and specified close friends at this time. We greatly appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers, and will continue to post regular updates as we learn more about her progress.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Isabel Roberts

Hi everyone!

Isabel here. After what feels like a long break from writing these posts, I'm back briefly to share some memorial details with you. As we have to get in Contact with the Concord Journal to officially get my mom's obituary posted, for now I am including a link to a google document of it here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Eq3SGgNcLBXYrIbApnA2-OhWCAA4mfbu/view?usp=sharing

My mom's memorial service is going to be held at First Parish in Concord on Saturday, February 15th at 9:30am. There will be a reception downstairs in the Parish Hall immediately following. The service and reception are public. We are looking to do a slideshow at the reception, and we are hoping for anyone who has photos of or with my mother to add them to our google photos album here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6rH2tNToKKpaab2y7

Lastly, in the Google Doc version of the obituary, you will find a link to Good Shepherd Community Care's website, where people may donate in my mom's honor. Good Shepherd is a non-profit; one of only a few non-profit hospice organizations in the area. They don't service Concord, but they were kind enough to make an exception for us to take care of our family while still making sure we were covered under insurance. They were endlessly compassionate and loving toward all three of us, taking extra time to sit with Zach and myself to offer comfort and knowledge about the process of death. Working with them allowed an entirely new lens on my mom's illness; the transition from actively fighting death to honoring my mom through making her comfortable and allowing her to let go. I'm not sure that accepting the end of her life would have been nearly as manageable -  for her or for us - without their gentle care and guidance. So, please, if you are looking to donate, make sure to send it to Good Shepherd Community Care in Newton, MA (there are a few others with similar names in the country).

That is all for now. Feel free to leave questions in the comments; I will be reading and responding to them!
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