Hello all, here is my story and why i am raising funds for myself
I am a 51 yr old mother of 3 children and a grandma to 1 granddaughter who is the light of my life! My life drastically changed in June of 2024 when I was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Grade 3, stage 3. I underwent 6 months of chemo therapy that ended in December and then had a bilateral mastectomy with 24 lymph nodes removed January 6th. Healing did not go as planned and I ended up having a procedure and then another surgery to close my breast area up again. After finally healing from that, I started my radiation on April 1st. I received genetic testing back when I was originally diagnosed with breast cancer and tested positive for a break in my CHECK2 gene which is responsible for helping our bodies to not grow tumors so really I can get any cancer but it is mostly associated with thyroid, breast, colorectal and prostate. Because of this gene and the fact that my nreast cancer is hormone fed, and my high occurrence of return, I decided to pre-emptively have a historectomy to help reduce my chances of breast cancer returning. Well, when they were in there, they found more cancer. This was sent out for testing and came back as a very rare form of ovarian cancer stage 2b. It has spread to my peritoneum and omentum and this cancer is not responsive to chemo or radiation, they can only surgically remove it and then the follow up is the same hormone therapy I am on for my breast cancer. I was scheduled for surgery to have my peritoneum and omentum removed and possibly a section of my colon on the 31st of May but a presugical CT chest and abdomen scan showed that I had bilateral pulmonary embolisms which has now delayed this surgery for a minimum of 3 months. Meanwhile the cancer is still in my abdomen and my only hope is that the hormone suppressants I am on for my breast, is keeping this at bay. This surgery will hopefully happen in August but this will be a very invasive surgery and a 4 day hospital stay and lost work. I have been able to manage things up till now but I am running out of funds and financially will not be in an ok place with this next surgery. I also have exceeded my number of PT visits that my insurance will allow and have begun needing to pay for those out of pocket. I still have not regained range of motion and strength in my right arm and have been dealing with lymphademia because of the lymphnodes removed so I have frequent physical therapy visits.
For me, the term, everything is down hill when you turn 50 was such a true statement and I have suffered so much this past year physically, mentally and financially. In the midst of all I have been going through, I had to put both my dogs down from Jan 2024 to Jan 2025. Emotionally drained is an understatemnet. I am starting to acrue medical debt now and with my upcoming surgery, it will only get worse which is what brings me here. Any amount would be appreciated.
