Radiation Is a Go!

Quick update: Insurance finally approved Mom’s radiation treatment this morning, and she had her first lung radiation treatment today. She also did brain radiation simulation (brain mapping) this morning. We anticipate that she will have radiation on her brain in the future but that has not been determined just yet, for now the primary focus is dealing with the mass in her right lung. She will have lung radiation every weekday for the next 2.5 weeks. Mom says she is feeling pretty good and is mainly dealing with headaches, dizzy spells, and significant fatigue. Her cough has improved some since she started taking steroids.  

We are so grateful to the wonderful team at St. Luke’s in Boise, they have been exceptional! Tanya’s husband Andy’s stepmom Lahoma is the manager of St. Luke’s radiation oncology and having her as a support through this has been incredible. Justin (Jana’s husband) and I both work in healthcare, but oncology is not our wheelhouse, and our whole family is getting a crash course in oncology while also trying to process the news of mom’s diagnosis.

All my siblings will be in Boise by this afternoon, and we are grateful to have this time together as a family. We will also hopefully have more information about a treatment plan and mom’s prognosis in the next week. My parents visit my Grandma Vella nearly every day to take care of her, and obviously they are not in a place to do that right now. If you live in Boise and available to help with caring for Grandma, please let us know (we are hoping to get organized this weekend/next week). 

Thank you again so much to all of you for the love, support, prayers, and generous offers of help. If we are slow to respond please know that we love you all and are doing our best to show our gratitude to all of you. Mom is an amazing woman, and we are humbled by the way you are loving on her and our family.