After dealing with growing frustrations of knowing something was wrong despite tests not showing anything, Tiffany Whiddon finally acquired an answer about what she is facing—although it wasn’t what she wanted to hear: cancer.
It wasn’t easy for her to receive her diagnosis, however; no matter how many blood tests were conducted, her blood report always came back normal.
“I had been going to the doctor for regular checkups, and the only thing they do is bloodwork. They couldn’t find anything,” explained Tiffany. “When I brought it up to my doctor that there had to be something wrong with me because I kept losing weight—I’d lost 32 pounds altogether. He explained that he had run every blood test, and nothing was showing up in my red and white blood cells.”
She refused to give up when the blood tests weren’t showing anything. Eventually, she found what she believed to be a hernia and went to have it checked out. That would be a scan that would change everything and finally give her the answer she was looking for.
“I thought I had an upper hernia, and I was losing weight. That’s when I went to the doctor,” recalled Tiffany. “They found in a biopsy that I have cancer in my liver. In further scans that they did, they found out I had pancreatic cancer, and the cancer had spread from my pancreas to my liver. Nothing was showing up in my blood because it was on the outside of my liver and not inside my liver. I was diagnosed in the first part of December. They don’t know how long I’ve had it. They said I could’ve had it from six months to a year already.”
Since she learned about her diagnosis, she has gone to various doctors to build up her strength and work out a treatment plan. They determined that she would receive a treatment that has only been in the area for about five months.
“I went to an all-natural, like a nutritionist, doctor in Florida to give me vitamins, minerals, and proteins to prepare my body for what I have to go through. I had to go there five days a week for a month,” expressed Tiffany. “They’re going to try a treatment that you used to have to go to Switzerland to get. It’s only been here for five months. They’re going to try putting a capsule in my liver and release radiation beads first to see if I can handle the other treatments. It’ll be a once a month treatment that is about three days long. It’s supposed to shrink the cancer tumors.”
She will receive her treatments at Oschners Hospital in New Orleans. With the way everything fell into place, she knows that God placed her on the path she is now going.
“I came across the idea of Oschners Hospital when I was on my way to MD Anderson’s Hospital. I was fighting with the insurance company because it didn’t want to cover the treatments that I have. I found out that they don’t specialize in what I have on the road I was headed on,” declared Tiffany. “I took a friend of mine somewhere and they asked me if I’d heard about Oschners and the things they do with what they specialize in. I told them no, and they shared their story. I came back and told my husband Jeff about it, and we jumped on it. It was like the ball rolled right into the court. The two doctors I said I would be willing to see were both taking on new patients. They had openings and could get me in right away. I filled out my chart and sent it over, and they responded to me the next day. I knew the Lord sent me down this road and that I’m on the right road now.”
She plans to do whatever it takes to fight the cancer and stay with her family. She is married to Jeff Whiddon and has two children: Justin McLean (age 26) and Lily Grace Whiddon (age 4).
The treatments she will have to undergo will create a financial burden, so many of her friends have developed a committee to do various fund raisers to try and help out. While the details for some fund raisers are still being developed and will be announced at a later time, there are events coming up. There are also ways people are able to donate to assist her and her family without having to attend any events.
Ways to give and events:
There are t-shirts for sale. In order to pre-order a t-shirt, contact Pam Herrington at 601-274-1892.
A GoFundMe page has also been started for people to donate money online. Just go to the following link: https://gofund.me/adc914ef
Raffle tickets to win a HOWA M1500 .223 bolt action rifle will be available starting March 26. Contact Jerry Mason at 601-549-1969 to purchase. The cost is $5 each or five for $20.
There will be a benefit to raise money on June 4 at the Quitman Baseball Complex with a variety of different things:
• There will be a softball tournament that day. It will only be $200 per team to enter the tournament, and all who are interesting in participating can contact Greg Perry at 601-938-2065.
• There will be an auction with Steve Neely as the auctioneer. Anyone who would like to donate to the auction can contact Charles Allbrook at 601-381-0222. They request that yard sale items such as clothes and knick knacks not be donated. They are mainly looking for items such as nice furniture, paintings, yard decorations, antiques, etc.
• There will be different vendors and other things. Raffle tickets to win the .223 rifle will also be sold.
• There will be plenty of food to purchase: hamburgers, hotdogs, snowcones, and funnel cakes.
For those who would like to keep up with Tiffany’s story, just look up the Tiffany Whiddon’s Story page on Facebook.
