{"id":361248,"date":"2025-11-07T03:11:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T03:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/361248\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T03:11:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T03:11:17","slug":"texas-woman-with-terminal-cancer-fears-government-shutdown-could-keep-her-from-life-saving-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/361248\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas woman with terminal cancer fears government shutdown could keep her from life-saving care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>HOUSTON<\/strong> \u2013 For Lori Newman, travel disruptions caused by the ongoing government shutdown are more than just an inconvenience, it could mean the difference between life and death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Newman, who moved to Tomball in 2018 and whose husband still lives there until he retires, moved to Tennessee earlier this year to spend her final days surrounded by family. But her fight with metastatic terminal breast cancer, a late-stage form of the disease that has spread to her spine, means she must return to Houston regularly for treatment and scans at MD Anderson Cancer Center.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cMD Anderson is one of the best in the world,\u201d Newman said. \u201cPeople come from all over the country, not just the states here. I\u2019m just one person, so there\u2019s got to be a lot of other people who are crying right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Diagnosed in 2018 shortly after moving to Houston, Newman initially went into remission before the cancer returned and spread. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Diagnosed in 2018 shortly after moving to Houston, Newman initially went into remission before the cancer returned and spread. It has since attacked her spine, eating away at her lower vertebrae. Standing for long periods is painful and nearly impossible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cMy cancer is in my spine. It ate out my L4, my L5 and S1,\u201d she said. \u201cI can still walk, but I can\u2019t stand for that long.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">That\u2019s why long TSA lines at the airport have become a source of deep anxiety. Newman can\u2019t drive the 12 to 14 hours from Tennessee to Houston either. Her next scan at MD Anderson is scheduled for next week and missing it could have devastating consequences.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cI might be terminal, but I\u2019m living with it,\u201d Newman said. \u201cIf I miss these scans, it could change everything by just one or two days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The FAA recently announced flight reductions nationwide due to the shutdown, including at both Hobby and Bush Intercontinental airports. For Newman, the political gridlock feels personal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cI\u2019ve already been fighting for so long,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine losing it because people can\u2019t decide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s people\u2019s lives,\u201d she added. \u201cI would never have come to be with my family knowing that this would have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Newman fears rescheduling her scans because she believes each treatment means more time she can spend with her family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cEvery day is a struggle,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m losing a lot of weight, which scares me. I\u2019m not going to see my team, they have a brain MRI for me when I get there because I\u2019m having trouble speaking and writing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">As she waits to see whether she\u2019ll make her next appointment, Newman is thinking not only about herself, but about the many other patients caught in the same uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cPeople don\u2019t just fly for vacations,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re flying for funerals, for losing family members, and people who have cancer that need to get to the best place in the world, which is MD Anderson, in my books.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">For Newman, every day and every scan counts.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 For Lori Newman, travel disruptions caused by the ongoing government shutdown are more than just an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":361249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[175413,4345,170344,175414,358,175412,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-361248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-faa-flight-reductions","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-md-anderson-cancer-center","11":"tag-metastatic-breast-cancer","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tsa-airport-delays","14":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115506229160025517","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}