|
This memorial is a tribute to my beautiful wife but also a message to the ladies and physicians who will read this. It is in the hope that being more aware, more enlightened, will help someone in the same situation as my wife. I know Lynn would want me to do this.
With the completion of her 1st year at the community college, Lynn had figured out what she wanted to be when she grew up. It only took 43 years and two grown sons later for her to decide being a 'Physican's Assistant' is what she wanted to do. I've never seen anyone devote themselves to their studies like
Lynn. She spent long hours at school and behind the books at
home, and her hard work paid off. Lynn made high honors, became a member of the honor society, Phi Theta Kappa, and was given a full scholarship for the next year. Everything seemed to be going her way.....But something just wasn't right.
Photo of Lynn, Nov'96:
After finishing 1st series of chemo
Not feeling well at all, with a lot of different problems, Lynn
saw several doctors and took their numerous tests. They all said nothing seemed wrong. One doctor even said "Don't worry sweetie, you don't have cancer". But it kept getting worse. In April 96', Lynn had a complete physical from her doctor. Again nothing was found wrong....."Your getting older, things change" was the only answer her doctor gave. It was very bad now. The next month Lynn went to another specialist. When his 1st test found nothing, he decided to do a full abdomen scan. It showed a 'mass' in her lower abdomen. Lynn needed major surgery right away to remove it and determine what it was. On May 17th, 1996 our world fell apart.
After four and a half hours of surgery, Lynn woke up in ICU. She wouldn't ask any of the nurses or aides to tell her what the surgeon had found. She wanted to hear it from me. It was late stage ovarian cancer. At first all we could do was cry......Then Lynn told me "That's enough, no sense in feeling sorry for myself. I'm going to beat this." When the surgeon came to visit her in ICU, I couldn't believe my wife. She was smiling and joking with him. Lynn was optimistic and determined to win this battle. And so was I.
The following months were not a joke and not all smiles. Lynn dealt with a lot of pain and suffering, both emotional and physical. She fought the battle with more confidence and courage then I've ever know anyone could have. Even during that terrible time, Lynn kept her sense of humor, joking with the many nurses and doctors she had. Joking about her bald head, about having 'chemo brain' from the powerful drugs.
Photo taken during the middle of
chemo treatment: Left to Right,
Kevin, Lynn, Myself & Brian.
That's Benson on Lynn's lap
She had to drop out of school because it was too difficult to study and fight this disease. I know it hurt Lynn to give up her studies. We hoped it was only a temporary setback. During that time, my wife and I learned more about ovarian cancer then we'd ever cared to know. We found out her experience with late diagnosis is nothing new
to ovarian cancer survivors, in fact, it's quite common. We also learned it's called 'The Silent Killer' because the symptoms are vague and many physicians consider it rare and not worth checking for. Lynn joined a newsgroup devoted exclusively to OC survivors and
their families. She found comfort knowing she wasn't alone in this battle.
The group was helpful with information and first hand experience in fighting this killer. It was also sad when the group would announce the loss of one of
their members to 'The Beast'. It happened too many times.
| 
