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KELLY JIRSCHELE
Connection to Lung Cancer:
Lost her Mom, Andrea T. Davis, in August 2008
Participating in Lung Run/Walk events in Chicago, where I live, and Minnesota, where I'm from, helps me honor my mother. Hopefully, money & awareness raised through these events will prevent other people from losing their loved ones."
Kelly Jirschele...In their Own Words…
I was married May 2007, surrounded by my dearest family and friends, in a dress proudly made from my grandmother's and mother's wedding dresses. My parents walked me down the isle. My mom was taking antibiotics at my weddings for a suspected pneumonia. She had always been vigilant about her health and when she coughed up a small amount of blood the week earlier had seen her doctor. A chest x-ray showed what was thought to be a pneumonia and she was put on antibiotics. As a good patient, she took the prescribed medicine and upon the completion of those pills wasn't feeling any better. She returned to her doctor and subsequently had a CT scan. Sadly, it wasn't a pneumonia.
I got a call Friday night June 15, 2007, the weekend before I was to begin my residency training in OB/Gyn in Chicago. My mom had a lung mass highly suspicious for cancer. Biopsy soon confirmed our greatest fears, lung cancer. My mom did smoke years ago, but had quit more than 20 years before and had never been a heavy smoker. Nevertheless, she didn't deserve cancer. Within the next few weeks my mom had a seizure and we learned that she had brain metastases.
She was a brave, strong woman and endured daily radiation treatments for the next month. It has also been determined that the cancer had spread to several other unwanted places and chemotherapy was started immediately after her last radiation treatment. She underwent several rounds of chemo, with different regimens trying to find the one strong enough to fight her cancer. She endured many of the dreaded side effects of cancer and chemo: pain, numbness, oral thrush, fatigue, appetite changes, and nausea and vomiting.
As one of her last defiant acts she cut off all of her gorgeous hair before cancer could take that from her too. She fought as hard as anybody could, but unfortunately died of the complications of lung cancer August 14, 2008, exactly 14 months after learning she had that awful disease. She died comfortably and peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones. I miss her every day.
Participating in Lung Run/Walk events in Chicago, where I live, and Minnesota, where I'm from, helps me honor my mother. Hopefully, money and awareness raised through these events will prevent other people from losing their loved ones.