Life doesn’t always go as planned. For my husband Patrick and me, this has never been more true. What started as trying to get pregnant left us with two surgeries and the dream of ever getting pregnant diminished. My name is Caitlin Lyons and I was 26 when I was diagnosed with a rare form of Ovarian Cancer called Serous Borderline Ovarian Tumors – Stage 3B.

After over a year of trying and tests coming back normal, we decided to give Clomid, a hormone inducer, a shot to get pregnant. Two rounds of Clomid later, I was having terrible pains that turned out to be four cysts on my ovaries. While my OB/GYN wasn’t super concerned, she wanted to keep an eye on them with ultrasounds every month. By September, I was down to two persistent cysts that were getting bigger. My doctor explained to us that she believed what I was dealing with was a bad case of Endometriosis. She laid out our options, and we decided surgery was the best choice to clear it up, make the pain go away, and hopefully increase our chances of getting pregnant naturally. Before we could schedule it though, she had to test my CA125 hormone, a marker for inflammation and cancer.

The Thursday after my appointment, I finally got the call that my CA125 test came back at 160 U/mL, almost 5 times the average level is 0-35 U/mL, too high to perform the surgery. Therefore, I was referred to a gynecologic oncologist at Northside Atlanta. In the span of just a few days, surgery went from optional to absolutely necessary.

We scheduled the surgery for October 14th. After the oncologist confirmed the OB/GYN’s findings, we walked out of the office scared and overwhelmed, but felt this would get us on the right path to not only heal my pain, but to also start our family.

When I woke up from surgery, Patrick told me things didn’t exactly go as planned. The cysts turned out to be Serous Borderline Ovarian Tumors. My right ovary was fully encased in a tumor and had to be removed. They were able to remove just the tumor from my left ovary, but it still remained covered in disease, along with all of my other reproductive organs. He also found countless smaller tumors sitting on top of my abdomen. He removed many of them, but there were too many and too small for him to be able to remove all of them. Needless to say, we were both in shock and nervous about what was to come next.

During my check-up a week later, we got the news we were the most afraid of – I was going to have to get a full hysterectomy in order to clear the remaining tumors and to stop the disease from spreading throughout my body. We were heart broken that at 26, I had cancer and our dream of getting pregnant was about to be gone forever.

On February 10, 2020, at 27 years old, I had my surgery – a full hysterectomy and they removed as many of the tumors as possible.  I am now on a hormone therapy treatment called Letrozole for a year and I get my CA125 drawn every 6 weeks. After two tests, my numbers have dropped from 160 to 10 U/mL.       During COVID-19, I was rushed to the hospital with what the doctors believed was a pelvic abscess that was at the beginning stages of turning sepsis. With pain killers and high doses of antibiotics, the abscess cleared up.  Dealing with this and being in the hospital during COVID was the scariest night of my life.

While we grieved the dream of having our own children, we also look forward to me being pain free and dreaming about other ways we could grow our family. Throwing out my prenatal vitamins and pregnancy tests was one of the hardest, but most healing things I’ve done. It helped me process my new life and accept that our future has changed.

Patrick and I are now Cancer Free and have a different outlook on life. We also have the opportunity to look forward to what is to come: bringing a baby into our family through adoption! We are so excited to open our arms and hearts to the journey of adoption! However, we can’t do it alone. The average cost of adoption can be upwards of $40,000. Your donation will go directly towards any fees and bills that we acquire as we go through the adoption process. Anything you give to help us bring home our Little Lyons Cub is appreciated more than we can convey!

Please join all of us and Thomas Richards Charity in contributing to this rewarding cause; 100% goes to help with an adoption for the Lyons Family. From the bottom of our hearts and everything we have, thank you so much for all of your support! Our love always, Caitlin and Patrick Lyons

Thomas Richards Charity is a 501(c)3 non-profit charity, an exempt organization “helping those in need in our community” as described in Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Please contact us if you have any questionsTim CiottiPresident TRCThomas Richards Charity (FB)TRCares.com

Connor Yamarino is a young thirteen-year-old, who has been sick since the day he came into this world. He spent the first six days of life in the hospital, where he was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia. Biliary Atresia is a condition found in infants, in which the bile ducts outside and inside the liver are scarred and blocked. Because bile is not able to flow into the intestine, it builds up in the liver and causes damage. This damage leads to more scarring, loss of liver tissue and function, as well as, cirrhosis of the liver. Connor’s liver disease is progressing faster than anticipated, as his tissue is currently considered to be severely damaged. Thus, they are making preparations to put him on the liver transplant list.

The Yamarino family is typically the family known to be reaching out to help others who are in need. Due to the unforeseen expenses of traveling, treatments, diet, surgeries and various other expenses, Connor’s family is now in need. It is now our opportunity, as a community, to support this family by giving them financial peace of mind. We want nothing more than to help ease the financial burden for this family, so that they will be able focus all of their energy on keeping Connor as healthy as possible now, during and after his surgery.

Please join all of us and Thomas Richards Charity in contributing to this rewarding cause. 100% of all proceeds will go to the Yamarino family. We are grateful and humbled by any and all donations.

Thomas Richards Charity is a 501(c)3 non-profit charity, and exempt organization “helping those in need in our community” as described in Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Please contact us if you have any questions.
Tim Ciotti
President TRC
Thomas Richards Charity (FB)
TRCares.com

Help us raise funds for Bethany Douglas daughter’s service dog-

Written by Bethany Douglas

Our 11-year old daughter suffered a horrific infection earlier this October which led to permanent organ damage and her right leg being amputated above the knee. She was so very sick and we lost her multiple times, but God is so good and she’s on the mend! Truly miracles still happen and our God is still in the miracle-making business! We are grateful to have her back but her road to recovery, therapies, prosthetics, and finding her new normal will take many months. This tenacious girl has a fighting spirit like no other child we’ve ever met and she is such a blessing to our family- we and all our amazing friends and family are committed to walk every step of the way back to health with her.

She is dealing with so many new, bewildering, and painful circumstances that our family thinks a dog will do wonders for her. Being super medically complex (even prior to this incident) having that extra doggy-sense for fevers, infections, and seizures will be an invaluable help to us. Plus the help with balance and coordination while still helping her be independent is so needed. When I told her the other day, still in the PICU, that we would be getting her a dog, her eyes grew wide and that crooked smile that she’s known for lit up her whole face. She’s apparently been telling all her staff that she’s getting a dog!

As many of you know, these dogs are highly trained and invaluable to their companions- but that comes at no small cost ($15,000 plus general care expenses – studies estimate between $25,000-35,000 for the life of the dog!) Unfortunately neither Medicaid nor any private insurance will help pay for any of their cost.  we need a down-payment of at least $7500 (the rest is due upon completion of the training). The entire training program will run 8-12 months so getting this off the ground asap will help.

The family has raised $3000.00 so far and Thomas Richards Charity will donate the remaining $4000.00 if our community can help us raise the other $8000.00.  This is the time of year to help others in need and to take advantage of those end of the year tax exempt donations. 100% off you donation goes to the purchase of this service dog.  TRC pays the Gofundme fee’s.

Thomas Richards Charity is a 501(c)3 non-profit charity, and exempt organization “helping those in need in our community” as described in Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Please contact us if you have any questions
Tim Ciotti
President TRC
Thomas Richards Charity (FB)
TRCares.com