Breast Cancer Fight at the age 28

Some of you know me as Danielle Branham, but most as Danielle Baccante since getting married to Collin Baccante 4 1/2 years ago. You never think it will happen to you. You never think at the age of 28 you will be told you have Breast Cancer. I am only 28 and I have two children: A daughter Jillian (3), and a son Parker (1). My husband and have been together for almost 11 years, married for 4 1/2 of those. We are currently living in Fort Benning , GA and will be moving in April to Fort Bragg, NC.

My fight started when I noticed a lump which I assumed was a clogged milk duct from breastfeeding. I went to the doctor about a month later when I was unable to resolve the issue. I told them it wasn't so sure it was that. I was told by my doctor it was in fact a clogged milk duct and to do what I already was and was given an antibiotic and scheduled a breast ultrasound for the following week.

After 3 breast ultrasounds read by 3 different radiologists they all came to same conclusion that it was a clogged milk duct cyst. I was prescribed 24 days of antibiotics with no change and the mass only growing bigger when my doctor told me to do another round of antibiotics we got into an argument when I demanded a biopsy. She finally put in a referral to general surgery a month later who was shocked they made me wait that long. He tried to drain it with a needle and when that didn't work he scheduled surgery for the following day to remove it.

Cancer was never even a possibility even when I asked if it could be cancer every ultrasound they did. The pathology report from my surgery came back that I in fact had cancer and since my doctor did not know it was cancer they did not get clear margins around the mass.

We found out Valentine's Day 2017 that I had breast cancer. As they did more tests we found out it's the most aggressive type: Triple Negative breast cancer, the tumor was a T3 tumor (larger than 5 cm), that the cancer has spread to local lymph nodes, and that it is at stage 3. We are waiting on genetic testing of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutation to come back which could result in removing my ovaries if I am able to beat this cancer into remission.

I started Chemo March 2nd, and will be doing chemo the next 5-6 months, followed by a double masectory and lymph node removal, followed by radiation, and then possibly other forms of treatment such as the chemo pill or medication from studies going on that may help since triple negative cancer isn't the easiest to fight and doesn't respond to typical cancer hormone blocking treatments.

We are fortunate to have tricare health insurance that will pretty much cover most costs but there will be unforeseen things come up and being a military family we do live paycheck to paycheck. I hate asking but we keep getting asked if we are doing "a campaign" and have been getting checks in the mail even- but we are asking for help so we are able to do things here and there with our children and not stress over bills during this time as things pop up.

We would appreciate any help during this time. Throughout this our kids are the number one thing and we are doing our best to do as many things with them as possible and would appreciate any financial help to alleviate the financial stress of all this.