Indepence Day to Nightmare

July 4-July 7
July 4- Independence Day and Struth's 26 birthday... We spent the day on Struth's boat wakeboarding and roughing it in Roatan. We saw a local man spearfishing and bought lobster off of him. Katie started to feel really sick. She was having horrible muscle spasms in her stomach. She was a trooper though and did some 360's on the wakeboard. She could not keep either breakfast or lunch down. That night she could not handle the pain anymore so we woke up Struth and Rachel and headed to the local clinic. The doctor there examined her and said that the local hospital on the island was on strike. He said we needed to go to the mainland to receive medical treatment. The only flight out was at 6 am so we waited two hours and boarded the plane. At the hospital a man in a beige coat with staples on the pockets examined her in a room with blood on the floor. They admitted her to the hospital. The "internalist" (if they actually have those there)said that they did not know what was wrong but they were going to operate on her the next day. We thought this sounded like a bad idea. I, with the help of Rachel, called Katie's insurance company and started the medical evacuation process.
July 5- The medical evacuation people picked us up at the hospital at 6 and we headed to the airport in an ambulance. We boarded the private medical jet and they whisked us back to Birmingham, AL. We spent a record 3 minutes going through customs(they met us at the plane) and sped off to Brookwood Hospital. The flight nurse thought it could be kidney stones so we were really optimistic. The doctor examined her and they did a CAT scan and found a mass.

July 6- Katie was operated on today. She went in with a positive attitude and a fiery will. That is pretty much how she lives her life! They found the mass and under further investigation discovered that it was cancerous. The doctor believes that she has had it for 6-8 weeks. They sent off her lymph nodes to further investigate. She will be given time to recover from surgery and then begin chemo. This is all I know at this time. We are all floored but we are trying to stay positive. Please keep her and her family in your thoughts! If you would like to get in touch please e-mail me at stacyheer@hotmail.com. I love her so much as I know all of you do too. Life is a crazy thing . The other ladies are headed down the next couple of days to represent. Katie and I will be here getting better.