Living for Isaiah

Three weeks ago, Kasey Chapman had a tumor removed from her head. The 26-year-old makes a circle with the forefinger and thumb on her right hand and holds the same fingers about an inch apart with the other. “It was that big and this deep,” she says, managing a smile. She takes off her knitted cap and reveals a scar that snakes across the top of her scalp, 38 staples.

Three weeks ago, Kasey Chapman had a tumor removed from her head.

The 26-year-old makes a circle with the forefinger and thumb on her right hand and holds the same fingers about an inch apart with the other.

“It was that big and this deep,” she says, managing a smile.

She takes off her knitted cap and reveals a scar that snakes across the top of her scalp, 38 staples.

Chapman pulls the cap back on. She has an appointment for a radiation treatment on Friday afternoon in the area where the tumor was removed at Kootenai Medical Center.

“I need to have this area zapped to make sure the tumor doesn’t come back,” she says.

The Rathdrum woman is a little tired from seeing three doctors this week alone in her fight to live that began in October 2008 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She is still upbeat, enthusiastic and happy, even when looking at medical bills, treatments, rising costs and life’s struggles.

Because of her son.

Six-year-old Isaiah is the light in her life, she explains. He is what motivates her to keep pushing, to keep dreaming, to keep trying. It’s especially important because today, Mother’s Day, they will be together.

“I’m really happy my son is going to be home with me,” she says.

Chapman and Isaiah enjoyed the Night of the Stars at Silverwood Theme Park on Friday. They went on the rides, gobbled down some food, and played as moms and sons should.

It hasn’t happened often.

Thirteen months ago, Chapman said her son was put in foster care. She did something foolish, she said, after learning she had cancer.

“I didn’t react in the best possible way,” she says.

Tuesday, she got her guardianship back.

“My parental rights were given back,” she explains.

She says she made the changes that needed to be made in her life. She did what had to be done. Fought off her demons. For Isaiah.

“I’m really proud of that,” she said.

Her son is doing “really, really awesome.”

“He’s a great kid,” she said.

Chapman grew up in Lewiston and moved to Rathdrum three years ago. In October 2008 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and later underwent a mastectomy. She began chemotherapy in February 2009 and finished in July.

She was doing well, feeling better, until she got more bad news in March: Five new, active tumors.

“It’s kind of stressed me out,” she said with a laugh.

Two weeks ago, she began oral chemotherapy and was put on a hormone drug.

“Between those, they said there’s a 75 percent success rate,” she says. “I hope so.”

While Medicaid has covered most of the bills, she still owes money for her treatments. She pays what she can, but can’t worry about it, she says. Not now.

“My focus is on Isaiah,” she said.

Before cancer came calling, she was an assistant manger at a gas station and studied accounting at North Idaho College. These days, she survives on $842-a-month disability and food stamps. Her mom lives in Spokane and she has friends, but she knows it’s up to her.

Chapman, who lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Rathdrum, is hoping to move to a two-bedroom home in Coeur d’Alene to have more space for her son and their pitbull “Boy,” who’s blind in one eye,

It would also eliminate the driving back and forth in her well-worn 1999 Mazda pickup.

“It’s not exactly gas friendly,” she says with a laugh.

Despite her illness, she hasn’t given up her own dreams.

She hopes someday to operate a restaurant, perhaps a small deli, and use it to showcase and sell her artwork, homemade paper.

The single mom says there are days she feels like she is wearing out, especially when she realizes she may be facing years, even a lifetime, of treatments. This is a fight that she’ll never clearly win. The cancer can always return. She knows this.

A friend, Freeman Buckhanan, called Chapman’s determination and perseverance an inspiration.

“She’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever known in my whole life, mentally, and physically,” he said. “To face the challenges she faces and keep getting up in the morning, she’s amazing. A lot of people are really looking up to her.”

On those days Chapman senses her desire and strength is waning, she thinks of one person: Isaiah.

And she goes on.

“He’s my everything,” she says. “He’s my reason to breathe.”

So today, to celebrate Mother’s Day, she’s glad to be alive. She’s glad to be with Isaiah. And she has simple plans: Buy a kite and take Isaiah to the park.

“I hope it’s windy enough,” she says.