Against all odds, Teresa Hagedorn showed up to watch her daughter Emily play in her senior night volleyball match- it was Teresa’s final wish. She was recently diagnosed with sarcoma and admitted into hospice at St. Croix.
“When we admitted her, we learned about it [the wish] and so we just made sure we got it all handled and made sure she could get there," said Angie Moore, St. Croix Manager.
Sarcoma is a rare and complicated form of cancer that is found in bone and soft tissues such as muscles or tendons.
Teresa began feeling pain in the muscles of her left leg about a year ago. She and her family went to get it checked- the doctors thought it was a pulled muscle- but one doctor was skeptical.
“She had fallen and they had thought she had pulled a muscle, and they were treating her for a pulled muscle, and it ended up that was the beginning of the tumor,” said Teresa's husband Roger Hagedorn.
The tumor began to grow and spread into her lymph nodes, and lungs. The family chose chemotherapy as a means to try and stop it. But because such little research has been done on sarcoma, it only did more harm than good.
“The chemo was much worse than the cancer, for a long time, the sickness, and the weakness," Roger said. “They’re taking you to the brink of death with chemo, and then they bring you back. They kill as many cells as they can, good cells and bad cells.”
The family said that during the chemotherapy, Teresa began to lose her nails, hair and began to experience vision problems.
Even though the Hagendorns have endured heartbreak, they have not been alone in their fight.
St. Croix Hospice Care and the Omaha Fire Department worked together to make sure she was going to attend the event.
“Making sure that she gets in her wheel chair and down the stairs comfortably," said Moore. "We do have someone there right now doing her hair and makeup, so we’re gonna have that. And we did get the fire department to get some volunteers to help her down the stairs.”
Long time friends of Emily and her family also chipped in to help.
“We are doing a fundraiser for the Hagedorn family, Emily is part of the varsity volleyball team and Marsha and I’s daughters have played volleyball with Emily since middle school," said long time friends of the family Becky and Marsha.
Even strangers have lent a helping hand.
“We have a restaurant down the street from us, an Asian restaurant called Ling’s. She feeds us once a week, and she’d do it more often, but I feel almost guilty going in there because I know she’s not gonna ask anything from me.”
The gym was filled with people in yellow shirts and wrist bands, the ribbon color associated with sarcoma and bone cancer.
“So, we chose the color yellow because it’s the sarcoma awareness color,” said Emily Hagedorn. “My mom suffers from type 4 sarcoma, and there’s not a lot of research going on about it, so we chose the color yellow to bring awareness to it.”
The family says that the overwhelming support has been helping them get through this tough time.
“The support has just been just amazing,” said Emily. “All my teachers wearing yellow today, seeing students wear yellow. I really don’t feel alone during any of this. It’s just great to know people have my back during all of this, it’s awesome.”