One year ago
The day that is known as mean girls day turned out to be well… mean. An awful day in my eyes. A day that changed my life forever.
10/3/2020
I was living in Phoenix, AZ at the time. My family lived in Flagstaff, AZ, two hours north. I talked to my parents on a daily basis. Especially my mom.
My mom is and always has been my best friend. We do a lot together. In June through July of 2020 we had been taking golf lessons together. She called me the morning of October 3rd telling me how beautiful the weather was and asked if I could come golf with her. So, I made plans to go see her and play with her in three days. We talked, said good morning and checked in like normal.
An hour later my dad calls. He’s in tears. I’m terrified. He never cries. He says “Mom is in an ambulance on the way to the hospital” WTF! I JUST talked to her! I ask him what happened and he says “I don’t know, we think maybe a seizure. They’re gonna take her to the hospital and see what’s going on.”
I don’t want to wait. I immediately grabbed my bag and got in the car. I am in a panic, so my boyfriend, Austin, offers to drive. Bless his soul!
My dad calls me back “come straight to the hospital” So I guess that means it’s not good? I have so many questions that nobody knows answers to.
Now. Remember, we are in 2020. Smack dab in the middle of COVID! I go straight to the hospital. I’m frantic. I tell the lady at the desk “My mom got here a little bit ago, Lori Lane, can I see her? What’s going on” she says “Wait outside and a nurse will come get you” So I step outside and wait what felt like half an hour but was probably about a minute and a nurse comes out and says “Kennedy?” I turn and look at her and she says “Come with me. We aren’t allowed to do this, but since this is such a dire situation we’re gonna let you come back” IM SORRY WHAT!? DIRE SITUATION? IS SHE DYING? IS SHE OK? HUH???? Is how I felt.
I follow her back and see my dad. He hugs me and says “They had to induce her into a coma. She had two more seizures on the way to the hospital so they had to put her under so they would stop. You can see her if you want but she’s unresponsive. Do you want to see her?” Uhhhhhh…. “Ok” I say. I follow the nurse into a glass sliding door and there are three doctors in hazmat suits cuz, ya know, COVID and I wiggle my way to her and I kid you not I thought she might be dead. She had no color and was not breathing on her own. It is a sight I will never be able to unsee for the rest of my life.
I saw her and immediately started crying and ran out. They told me she could hear me if I talked to her but I couldn’t get any words out before I had to leave. Not a good time.
Apparently they had done a CT scan and we were waiting for someone to read it. So my dad and I waited outside her room and watched as doctors came in and out. Nobody is reading the CT scan and I am not a happy girl. Next thing I know they say they need to fly her to Phoenix to get her hooked up to an EEG machine to monitor her brain while she’s in a coma to see if she is still having seizures.
But what do you know, they can’t find beds anywhere because, ya know, COVID! A few hours later they finally find one at Mayo. Soon after they find a room, the helicopter team comes in to take her. One of the helicopter nurse ladies says “are you with her?” I say “yes she’s my mom” and she told me they were taking her to Mayo which was news to me because nobody told me. So they take her away and my dad and I are left to drive back down to Phoenix.
I hadn’t eaten that day so Austin and I got food and he drove us back down to my family’s house in Phoenix.
I don’t know how but my dad has all kinds of connections in the medical field so while he was driving to Phoenix he was talking to doctors at Mayo and was talking to a brain surgeon when he got home. The surgeon explained how they are going to take an MRI and hook her up to an EEG machine.
At this point it is around midnight and we are waiting for the surgeon to come back with the MRI results. My dad is pacing around the house, Im sitting on the couch trying to hold my eyes open, and Austin is doing the same. We’re all impatient. Finally my dad’s phone rings.
The surgeon FaceTimed us to show us the pictures of the MRI and he said they found a mass that is likely benign.
There’s some relief.
Now we wait for her to wake up to make a decision about surgery.
Fast forward a week or two and she has the surgery and all goes well. He is able to get the entire mass out and sends it for testing.
It takes a MONTH to get the test results back. I am asking my day every single day “have you heard anything? Do we know anything? Any news?” I’m getting upset and angry because it is taking so long and if it is serious we need to start treatment ASAP!
We finally get the results…
Stage 4 brain cancer.
So here we are one year later, a full treatment of radiation, shaved her head, going through Optune treatment daily for the rest of her life, and chemotherapy.
Is it hard? Absolutely. But I rather deal with the struggles and still have my mom here, than the alternative.
I am eternally grateful that my dad was there that day, a year ago and that she is still here with us.
She is a trooper and doing well, hanging in there and getting better slowly but surely.
Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying and brought over meals and sent all their love. Your support means more than you could ever know!
