Dannielle's Fight
Donation protected
Dannielle's Story......
On the 19th March 2018 after a follow up 2 years post diagnosis and after a scan we received the news we were dreading, that the cancer has returned, but now it’s in multiple areas in my bones, from neck vertebrae, thoracic spine, lumbar vertebrae’s, hips, pelvis, femoral heads plus other areas around there and 3 ribs. The silver lining to me was that it had not been found in any of my organs. We needed to now do a bone biopsy of my hip to confirm it was the original Breast Cancer that has spread to my bones. That bone biopsy was confirmed.
We discussed our options, which is to start more chemotherapy ASAP, which meant my portaCath would need to go back in, it was a good 4 months or so since I had it removed thinking I was in the clear.
I was admitted to hospital on the Monday for surgery #10 to have my portaCath put back in, they left my port attached to some access tubes, so I could commence chemotherapy the next day. They connected me to a portable chemo pump that I carry with me, all connected to my portaCath for 1 week with the other chemotherapy agent, until I go back in hospital the week later, then do it all over again. We will do this for around 3-5 months then do another PET/CT scan to view the progress.
There are so many things going through our minds:
How long will I live?
How do we tell our children that the cancer has come back?
Will they understand?
How do we stay strong for them?
Will this mean a life of continual treatment?
Can we afford all this? We can’t afford not too?
Will I loose my hair again?
I hope I don’t pick up any infections coming into the flu season?
How will we juggle family life, treatment, side effects and Luke working?
He cant take time off work, he works for himself, so if he does not work there is no income..
What we have realised, is to take it 1 day at a time…..But to fight again and not give up!!
What this now means is I’m Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer (Bone Metastases) at just 32 years old.
It is predicted breast cancer will be the most prevalent cancer in Australia by the end of this year. Despite this shocking statistic, to date there is little treatment that can combat breast cancer that has metastasised to other areas of the body. Sadly, this is because many patients become resistant to current treatments over time. Another factor is the lack of funding that goes towards Stage 4 MBC (Metastatic Breast Cancer) Stage 1,2 or 3 Breast Cancer doesn’t kill women, Stage 4 is the one that does, with a predicted life expectancy of around 22 months, more research needs to be done to help prolong our lives.
There is one thing that we are all excited about though, it is the opportunity to send my biopsies off to a lab in America for Molecular Tumor Profiling through a company called Caris!!
What this means, is they will literally dissect every piece of my tumors, looking for any mutation or genetic issues, which will give us the upper hand in trying to figure out the best way to treat this.
It will help us formulate a more personalised treatment program, which is determined by what the scientist find in the labs. My oncologist said we will receive around 40 pages of data from my cancer and have ongoing support from researchers all over the world and access to trials worldwide!! This type of test, will lead the way in the future for personalised cancer treatment. SIGN ME UP!!!
Now with this state of the art facility, which is leading the way in molecular profiling, costs the company millions upon millions to set up, it’s not cheap to establish. This is then passed down to customers willing to access it too. But what price can you put on your life and watching your children grow up?
The original plan was to send the most recent biopsy, but it only contained about 10% of the tumor, among the bony fragments. So, it was suggested that we send the original breast and lymph node tumors as well as the bone one, which will give us a really good idea of what the cancer is made up of, how it mutated and let us be able to treat this in a more personalised manner.
The cost of this test is $9,600….
We aren’t sure what the future holds, but there is a drug that I want to get access to if the above testing shows it is the best treatment option for my cancer which isn’t on the PBS yet as allot of treatments are not. The cost for this alone like many others is around $4,600 for 21 days, just for one drug! Which is $80,000 for one year, that’s not including any other treatments that aren’t on the PBS yet or medications that I will need to take alongside them.
We are forever grateful for the generosity of everyone when we faced the financial stress of cancer in 2016. We have estimated well over $100,000 in costs so far. It has really knocked our family around, because we haven’t got superannuation to draw upon, or any insurances we can access either. We will tackle this the same way we did 2 years ago, with determination and strength to fight this. At times this is very isolating for our young family, so your love and support means so much to us through these hard times.
WE WILL, AND WE CAN BEAT THIS!
We want to be very transparent with why we need your help, this isn’t so we can go on a holiday, or buy extravagant things, its to help us access medical tools that at the moment is out of our reach, we feel this test will give us the upper hand in this fight!
On the 19th March 2018 after a follow up 2 years post diagnosis and after a scan we received the news we were dreading, that the cancer has returned, but now it’s in multiple areas in my bones, from neck vertebrae, thoracic spine, lumbar vertebrae’s, hips, pelvis, femoral heads plus other areas around there and 3 ribs. The silver lining to me was that it had not been found in any of my organs. We needed to now do a bone biopsy of my hip to confirm it was the original Breast Cancer that has spread to my bones. That bone biopsy was confirmed.
We discussed our options, which is to start more chemotherapy ASAP, which meant my portaCath would need to go back in, it was a good 4 months or so since I had it removed thinking I was in the clear.
I was admitted to hospital on the Monday for surgery #10 to have my portaCath put back in, they left my port attached to some access tubes, so I could commence chemotherapy the next day. They connected me to a portable chemo pump that I carry with me, all connected to my portaCath for 1 week with the other chemotherapy agent, until I go back in hospital the week later, then do it all over again. We will do this for around 3-5 months then do another PET/CT scan to view the progress.
There are so many things going through our minds:
How long will I live?
How do we tell our children that the cancer has come back?
Will they understand?
How do we stay strong for them?
Will this mean a life of continual treatment?
Can we afford all this? We can’t afford not too?
Will I loose my hair again?
I hope I don’t pick up any infections coming into the flu season?
How will we juggle family life, treatment, side effects and Luke working?
He cant take time off work, he works for himself, so if he does not work there is no income..
What we have realised, is to take it 1 day at a time…..But to fight again and not give up!!
What this now means is I’m Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer (Bone Metastases) at just 32 years old.
It is predicted breast cancer will be the most prevalent cancer in Australia by the end of this year. Despite this shocking statistic, to date there is little treatment that can combat breast cancer that has metastasised to other areas of the body. Sadly, this is because many patients become resistant to current treatments over time. Another factor is the lack of funding that goes towards Stage 4 MBC (Metastatic Breast Cancer) Stage 1,2 or 3 Breast Cancer doesn’t kill women, Stage 4 is the one that does, with a predicted life expectancy of around 22 months, more research needs to be done to help prolong our lives.
There is one thing that we are all excited about though, it is the opportunity to send my biopsies off to a lab in America for Molecular Tumor Profiling through a company called Caris!!
What this means, is they will literally dissect every piece of my tumors, looking for any mutation or genetic issues, which will give us the upper hand in trying to figure out the best way to treat this.
It will help us formulate a more personalised treatment program, which is determined by what the scientist find in the labs. My oncologist said we will receive around 40 pages of data from my cancer and have ongoing support from researchers all over the world and access to trials worldwide!! This type of test, will lead the way in the future for personalised cancer treatment. SIGN ME UP!!!
Now with this state of the art facility, which is leading the way in molecular profiling, costs the company millions upon millions to set up, it’s not cheap to establish. This is then passed down to customers willing to access it too. But what price can you put on your life and watching your children grow up?
The original plan was to send the most recent biopsy, but it only contained about 10% of the tumor, among the bony fragments. So, it was suggested that we send the original breast and lymph node tumors as well as the bone one, which will give us a really good idea of what the cancer is made up of, how it mutated and let us be able to treat this in a more personalised manner.
The cost of this test is $9,600….
We aren’t sure what the future holds, but there is a drug that I want to get access to if the above testing shows it is the best treatment option for my cancer which isn’t on the PBS yet as allot of treatments are not. The cost for this alone like many others is around $4,600 for 21 days, just for one drug! Which is $80,000 for one year, that’s not including any other treatments that aren’t on the PBS yet or medications that I will need to take alongside them.
We are forever grateful for the generosity of everyone when we faced the financial stress of cancer in 2016. We have estimated well over $100,000 in costs so far. It has really knocked our family around, because we haven’t got superannuation to draw upon, or any insurances we can access either. We will tackle this the same way we did 2 years ago, with determination and strength to fight this. At times this is very isolating for our young family, so your love and support means so much to us through these hard times.
WE WILL, AND WE CAN BEAT THIS!
We want to be very transparent with why we need your help, this isn’t so we can go on a holiday, or buy extravagant things, its to help us access medical tools that at the moment is out of our reach, we feel this test will give us the upper hand in this fight!
Organizer
Jillian Luman
Organizer
Helensvale QLD
