Final Post for Four Dog Day

Hello to all Kathy's Blog Friends...

In honor of our mom, this is the final post for Four Dog Day.

In October 2010, Kathy began to notice something strange happening. She described it as though her "auto-pilot" was not working the way it once did. She found herself having to think hard about whether to take a left turn instead of a right, or where to put her fingers on the computer keyboard, These changes lead her to get an MRI, which identified a malignant lemon-sized tumor growing in the Parietal Lobe of her brain. Kathy went on to have 2 surgeries. Her first Surgery was performed in November and as much of the tumor as possible was removed. Kathy went to in patient rehabilitation to help her work through the deficiencies she experienced after her surgery, including significant vision loss in her left eye. After coming home, she continued with in home physical and occupational therapy. It was always her goal to get back online. She wanted to share her story in the hopes that she could help just one person.

In early December, Kathy experienced, "The Fall That Saved Her Life." Kathy slipped in the bathroom and bumped her head. A precautionary MRI was done and it found that Kathy was not recovering the way all had hoped, due to a life-threatening surgical complication and tumor re-growth. One of the ventricles in Kathy's brain was not draining fluid properly, leaving her in a near fatal state. Two more surgical procedures were performed which temporarily saved her life. Kathy had her second surgery in hopes of permanently fixing the ventricle and removing the majority of tumor re-growth. She again went into an in-patient rehabilitation facility to help her regain her strength and then came home to continue rehabilitation and to begin treatment.

Kathy went through radiation and 2 rounds of chemotherapy. But on April 14th, we found out that her cancer had spread to the point where no other medical interventions would help her. Kathy came home that day, still with positive hopes. We all moved into our parents house. We stayed with her 24 hours a day. On April 23rd, surrounded by our dad and the 3 of us, she passed away. Her 6 month battle was over.

In our life we have never met anyone more positive, more hopeful. Our mom was a ray of light. Always optimistic. Her blog was one way she shared her amazing personality with all of you. While our mom was never able to tell her cancer story herself as she wanted to, she was able to share herself over the past 2 years with you on her blog. That is one of the many beautiful legacies she has left behind - for us and for all of you.

Please support cancer research so that no one has to go through what Kathy and our family went through. A organization that helped our family significantly at the onset of our mom's diagnosis was the American Brain Tumor Association - www.abta.org.

Thank you,
Tresa, Michael & Matt (Kathy's Children)