ved her family it was Kaylynn Lillywhite. She cherished them every waking minute of her life! I know she will continue to watch over them until they meet her again in eternity. Her children and grandchildren were her greatest joy and her greatest achievement. She was a dear friend and a role-model to me as a wonderful, loving mom. I will miss you Kay. My love to you James, Adam-and Kristy Powell, Valerie Corder and Bradley.
Praying peace and comfort come to James and family at this hard time. Kay and Jim tended our then 5 kids for us the first time we ever “got away”. They were newlyweds then! We were so grateful to them. Kay was always such a baby lover. Her grand babies are surely going to miss her TLC ...along with everyone else.
This is the last group of family pictures we had done. Our photographer captured this gem and I remember mom laughing and saying "well that seems right..." I love the way mom supported me even when my ideas were a little off or a tad crazy. I am so glad I always pushed for pictures even when not everyone felt well.
I don’t normally post sucky stuff on Facebook, put this picture made me smile in the midst of the suck and I thought I’d share and update those who might like to know.
Back in August mom started having a lot of severe pain in her lower abdomen. She got an ultrasound and found a tiny tumor that they thought was a fibroid tumor in her uterus/cervix. We went to a gyno who told us it was nothing to worry about and that he couldn’t do anything for her. 4 months of ER visits every other week and no answers and multiple specialists later, I sent her to my gyno who delivered 4/5 of my kids. He is the one who discovered that the “fibroid” tumor was not that, but actually had been cancer the whole time, we learned this the day after Christmas. In January she started chemo, but it took until February to get her pain under control where she could semi function. When they did her PET scan in January to find the extent, we discovered that it had spread through her lymph nodes. So she started chemo right away. She has struggled with the chemo as everyone does, and we have spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital and she’s had to have 3 or 4 blood transfusions. In April, we got her mid-treatment scan and we were excited and hopeful to find that the cancer had almost completely disappeared from her lymph nodes and shrunk in her cervix from 11mm to 5mm! She was happy but still continued to be super sick and we ended up in the ER again a week later where they found small cancer lesions in her back. The Oncologist wasn’t super worried as we were having such great success in the other areas of the body and it was very tiny. She’s had a few times where she became very confused, and remembered very few people and where she was and was very scared but seemed to bounce back quickly in the hospital with fluids. About 2 weeks after the back lesions were found we were back in the ER, we held off on her last round of Chemo to try and let her build up her strength again, but she wasn’t bouncing back. We took her in and they finally did a CT scan of her brain where they found tiny lesions down both sides, on the top and in the back. Super suck! She was happy and hopeful and in a fighting mood after that and talking to the Radiation Dr, he told her how tiny they were and that they might be able to at least get them out of her brain. That was about two weeks ago, and as of yesterday’s appointments, we will no longer be pursuing treatments. Mom has stopped eating, drinking, can no longer stand or sit up on her own, take her pills other than tiny ones, or have much of a conversation. The Doctors told us yesterday that at this point there is not much else they can do other than keep her comfortable for the next few weeks maybe months she has left so we brought her home on hospice. She has been completely out of it for about a week and I have mostly been keeping my kids away with Adam. However, today, I was missing baby Jax a lot so I had Adam bring him over. Mom’s reaction was the most reaction we have had from her in weeks. She lit up like a Christmas tree and wanted to hold and hug him. She couldn’t tell me who he was, but she was so happy to have him with her. That is who my mom is, and anyone who knows her can attest that she adores her babies, and everyone else’s for that matter. Even at the end, she’s still the same old mom.
We were able to attend Kay's funeral. It was so nice. Kristy had found some wonderful things Kay's mom had written about her and shared them as part of her Eulogy along with her own thoughts. It was very personal and well done. She also put the program together and did so much to make it all come together. She should be commended for that and for her helpfulness all through the struggles of last year of Kay's life and battle with her cancer. The rest of the program was so nice also and the music was wonderful. It was so good to hear how much Kay was loved and how much she loved others. I think her family could be happy with how things went and remember her as the wonderful person they knew.
The graveyard they chose is a bit unconventional, but after reading about it I see that it met their needs. Our daughters and Jay and Bean were able to attend as well as Grandma, Sheryl and Doug, Adam and Joey, Ross and Lerlynn, and several of the the older Lillywhites. Our side of the family was well represented and I was thankful for that.
Back in August mom started having a lot of severe pain in her lower abdomen. She got an ultrasound and found a tiny tumor that they thought was a fibroid tumor in her uterus/cervix. We went to a gyno who told us it was nothing to worry about and that he couldn’t do anything for her. 4 months of ER visits every other week and no answers and multiple specialists later, I sent her to my gyno who delivered 4/5 of my kids. He is the one who discovered that the “fibroid” tumor was not that, but actually had been cancer the whole time, we learned this the day after Christmas. In January she started chemo, but it took until February to get her pain under control where she could semi function. When they did her PET scan in January to find the extent, we discovered that it had spread through her lymph nodes. So she started chemo right away. She has struggled with the chemo as everyone does, and we have spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital and she’s had to have 3 or 4 blood transfusions. In April, we got her mid-treatment scan and we were excited and hopeful to find that the cancer had almost completely disappeared from her lymph nodes and shrunk in her cervix from 11mm to 5mm! She was happy but still continued to be super sick and we ended up in the ER again a week later where they found small cancer lesions in her back. The Oncologist wasn’t super worried as we were having such great success in the other areas of the body and it was very tiny. She’s had a few times where she became very confused, and remembered very few people and where she was and was very scared but seemed to bounce back quickly in the hospital with fluids. About 2 weeks after the back lesions were found we were back in the ER, we held off on her last round of Chemo to try and let her build up her strength again, but she wasn’t bouncing back. We took her in and they finally did a CT scan of her brain where they found tiny lesions down both sides, on the top and in the back. Super suck! She was happy and hopeful and in a fighting mood after that and talking to the Radiation Dr, he told her how tiny they were and that they might be able to at least get them out of her brain. That was about two weeks ago, and as of yesterday’s appointments, we will no longer be pursuing treatments. Mom has stopped eating, drinking, can no longer stand or sit up on her own, take her pills other than tiny ones, or have much of a conversation. The Doctors told us yesterday that at this point there is not much else they can do other than keep her comfortable for the next few weeks maybe months she has left so we brought her home on hospice. She has been completely out of it for about a week and I have mostly been keeping my kids away with Adam. However, today, I was missing baby Jax a lot so I had Adam bring him over. Mom’s reaction was the most reaction we have had from her in weeks. She lit up like a Christmas tree and wanted to hold and hug him. She couldn’t tell me who he was, but she was so happy to have him with her. That is who my mom is, and anyone who knows her can attest that she adores her babies, and everyone else’s for that matter. Even at the end, she’s still the same old mom.
The graveyard they chose is a bit unconventional, but after reading about it I see that it met their needs. Our daughters and Jay and Bean were able to attend as well as Grandma, Sheryl and Doug, Adam and Joey, Ross and Lerlynn, and several of the the older Lillywhites. Our side of the family was well represented and I was thankful for that.
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