Volunteer needs help for treatment

Rachel Williams Maddry, 52, is a community volunteer known to many through her work with the Dublin Baseball and Softball Association. Now her family and friends are asking for help as she undergoes fighting thyroid cancer.

As the mom of 11 with three bonus girls that were fostered as teens or adopted as adults, she’s no stranger to hard work and has a special heart for families and kids in need. Her and her husband Vernon have five kids at home between the ages of six and 16.

“She had been part of the vision to bring the community together,”her daughter, Kailyn Williams said, about her mom’s work as the concession coordinator for DBSA.

“She’s patient, understanding, compassionate and finds the silver lining in almost every situation,” she said.

Maddry’s medical journey started Oct. 18, 2023, when she inexplicably had a minimigraine stroke. After being taken to the emergency department and then being transferred to a hospital in Fort Worth, tons of tests were ran with no answers being found.

“God does work in ways that we do not understand, or thatwecouldevenorchestrate,” she said through the Go Fund Me page.

Her daughter was not happy with the care she received at the hospital and especially was not happy with the discharge, with very little answers at the time.

They then decided to send her patient portal to her daughter Tasha Lopez in Colorado who is a nurse and promptly asked her what they said about her thyroid.

“I told her they never mentioned anything about my thyroid. She said it was noted in my records that my thyroid was enlarged and I needed to follow up with an endocrinologist. I put that on the back burner--I had half my thyroid removed in 1992 and thought it more critical to follow up with the neurologist. So we saw the neurologist and the cardiologist. I went through more tests and went to more appointments. Cardiology released me with no further issues. Neurology said they did not feel there was need for further treatment at this time but will continue to see me as needed,” Maddry said on the Go Fund Me page.

As she moved forward to endocrinology, an ultrasound was done on her thyroid that showed two “nodules,” one larger than the other so the next recommendation was a biopsy of the nodules. That biopsy was benign, so Maddry could breathe a sigh of relief.

“The endocrinologist referred me to a surgeon as an alternative since the larger nodule was in the grey area of the size they recommended to remove. So off to the surgeon I went. The surgeon, Dr. Walker, was very kind and said he was not sure why my whole thyroid was not removed back in 1992. He said either way, keeping it or removing it, was fine. He said he would lean toward removal since the larger nodule was causing some pain after the biopsy. I agreed so off we went to have the other half of my thyroid removed,” Maddry wrote.

After the surgery, exhaustion kicked in for Maddry, a side effect of the surgery that was somewhat expected but not to the extent that she was experiencing.

“Not just tired from anesthesia, utter exhaustion. Like sleeping for a whole day and wanting to sleep more. I couldn’t seem to get past it. I would have a good day and then be worthless the next day. I thought it was worth mentioning at my post op appointment,” she wrote.

The post-op appointment was scheduled Feb. 19, on her and her husband Vernon’s 15th wedding anniversary.

It was at that appointment that the doctor told Maddry she had cancer.

“It was a total freak accident that it was caught,” Williams said. “There is less than a 1% chance that a biopsy misses cancer cells.”

For whatever reason, after the surgery, the doctor went ahead and sent the thyroid to be biopsied again, which is when the cancer was caught.

In the pathology report, there were three tumors, all cancerous, with the larger tumor identified as invasive follicular variant papillary carcinoma Stage 2.

Along with thyroid medication to hopefully get her energy levels up, she will have radioactive iodine treatment.

Due to the radioactivity of the treatment, Williams must stay completely isolated away from all living creatures for 12 days and will be living in a cottage behind their home.

For an additional eight days, she cannot hug or touch anyone.

Along with her own children, Maddry also cares for Williams’ 13 month old so they are especially close.

One need that Maddry has is meals for her and her family during the 20 days and a meal train has been set up through http://mealtrain.com/ trains/4eeml2.

Meals will need to be for three adults and six kids and will be transported to her cottage on disposable dishes since everything must be thrown away after her radioactive time.

A Go Fund Me account has also been set up for the family and can be found at gofundme. com by searching for Rachel Maddry.

All proceeds will aid the family with medical expenses and household expenses since Maddry had to stop work in October after her stroke.

Her husband Vernon works at the prison in Brownwood and has been working overtime in Abilene too to provide for the family.

“Insurance is insurance and they have an astronomical amount for a deductible,” Williams said. “Any helps is appreciated, especially meals.”

With every doctor they have talked to, medical professionals have been surprised because the thyroid should have been causing complications.

“It was God’s timing. It’s likely we wouldn’t have caught it until it spread to lymph nodes or lungs,” Williams said. “It’s been a really difficult thing to share her story. She doesn’t like to ask for help.”