LEMON R.I.P

Posted by her husband on March 12 at 9:27 AM ·

November 29, 1964 - March 10, 2020



To offer some closure to my many recent posts: Susan was diagnosed with stage 4 endometrial cancer exactly one year ago. The disease had been symptom free, except for extreme fatigue. It was discovered by a routine chest x-ray. At first she was devastated and seemed to have given up. About a week later, she she told her doctor to "either beat this cancer or kill me trying." She turned to her faith. She had chemotherapy. Chemo was so effective that when she did have surgery the doctors found little or no cancer in the pelvic region. The second round of chemo was even more effective where her scans were clear except for a small area of the left lung. Doctors were shocked and told her "you made it." There were no tumor markers in the blood. She was in that 3% who beat stage 4 uterine cancer. She felt great and looked quite good. She was back to at least a 80% energy level. Doctors told her they would give her a couple of months to rest up, have some fun, and then they would scan, check her and decide what suppression treatment, if any, would be needed. We began to plan again for a future. About six weeks later, she suffered a seizure. She was transported by ambulance (the first of four such trips) to the hospital. Scans of her brain revealed nine metastatic tumors. Some doctors felt it was hopeless, Others suggested whole brain radiation. She got the radiation over 15 consecutive days. One month later a scan revealed no visible tumors in the brain! She asked for and was granted admission to immunotherapy as follow up (this was unbelievably expensive--about 20 thousand dollars a month) and Kaiser covered every penny of that cost. She did not tolerate that treatment well at all. It caused her excruciating generalized pain, The anti-seizure meds made her constantly dizzy. Scars from tumors in the brain began causing more seizures despite the medication. She contracted a UTI which caused severe delusions. This was abou five weeks ago and she spent three days in the hospital. Two days after her release, that is on Feb 18, she began terrifying delusional seizures from which she never recovered. They could never stop the seizures, although they were much smaller and shorter, nor control her pain. The last three weeks of her life were horrible. About three days before she died when I looked in her eyes I really did not see her. She always had the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. She slipped into a coma. At the end her three sons and her daughter in law and Ethan's fiance were with her a lot. I was there as much as humanly possible, often ten or 12 hours a day. I was driving to the hospital at 7:30 in the morning when I got the call. I was not there when she died--a failure from which I will never recover. What is important is this--you will never realize how much she loved and appreciated your prayers. She told me that if she were in heaven she would do nothing but pray for us and for the people who had prayed for her. You are being prayed for now by my wife in heaven--expect a huge return on your spiritual investment--you will see her prayers in your life--I promise. I won't be saying anything else about Susan's death--you have been burdened enough. But we do thank you. And she loves you for your prayers. God bless you, God bless her, and God bless me and her family.