On October 2, 2022 my mom (who turned 80 this year) took a serious fall and split her head open and was taken to the ER. Since the injury was considered a head injury, doctors did a routine CT scan. After noticing some abnormalities she was then taken for an MRI after which she was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma is an aggressive malignant grade IV brain tumor. There is no cure at this time. The average glioblastoma survival time is 12-18 months – only 25% of patients survive more than one year, and only 5% of patients survive more than five years. It wreaks havoc on the brain and infiltrates the brain with tentacle-like growth and causes damage to the brain until it basically grows enough to keep the brain from functioning.
After her diagnosis she was admitted to the hospital on October 4th and had brain surgery to resect the tumor as much as possible. She is on her second round of chemotherapy and has had one round of radiation. The first round of chemo and the radiation did not shrink or even stop the tumor from growing. She has been declining both mentally and physically since then which is heartbreaking to watch and difficult to help her navigate.
My dad is my Mom's primary care giver and my siblings and I are all out of state. We have been taking turns visiting my parents to help provide care for my mom and support my dad so he remains healthy both mentally and physically.
The latest update that we have received from my mom's oncologist and team of doctors is that we should expect continued decline and they have given her a prognosis of between 4 to 8 weeks.
I'm requesting funds to help me be able to travel to and from Colorado to Texas to be with my parents at this critical time. I have depleted my savings with the traveling I have done to be with them so far. In addition, I have an hourly job in healthcare with no benefits and no paid time off. So during the times I'm visiting and helping my parents, I have no income. So at the moment, without any way to pay for travel or if I travel no way to cover my monthly expenses,I have to choose between paying my rent and bills and seeing my mother before she dies. It is a horrible choice to have to make and it has been excruciating knowing I have such limited time to spend with her, but having no way to financially make that happen. I have a very small margin (even normally) to do anything or buy anything "extra".
I am praying for the kindness of friends and strangers to help me have enough money to both be able to spend time with my mom in her last months and to help my dad during that time as well as after. I'm hoping that the way I choose to live my life, advocating for others and helping others when I can, through offering my time, money (when I've been able) and help. Please consider donating to help me. I would be endlessly grateful for any help at all. Thank you.
