Sarah Greene's medical expenses

This is the story of our friend, Sarah Greene. She has a wonderful husband, Michael, and two beautiful daughters, Grace (16) & Emma (13). She is battling a recurrence of breast cancer, now diagnosed as metastatic breast cancer. Her first diagnosis was Stage 4 breast cancer in May 2010, at the age of 35. She underwent rigorous treatment – 16 IV chemo treatments, double mastectomy & oophorectomy, and 34 radiation treatments. The story will get too long to talk about all the problems that then occurred a year later with her reconstruction, and she is still unhappy today with her surgery, but is moving on. She has suffered bad side effects from the bone strengthener she received each month (first IV Zometa, then an Xgeva shot), and therefore cannot take those drugs anymore to help alleviate the pain in her spine, or from the osteopenia she has developed.

In May of last year, she started to see a new oncologist since her previous oncologist had moved from MN Oncology. Her new doctor was not convinced that a PET/CT scan that had been done in November 2014 was really clear as she had been told. Sarah had been celebrating that she was in remission, so this news was not easy to hear. However, she still was not thinking it was very bad news. In November of last year, she had another PET/CT scan, and unfortunately, this scan showed the devastating news. In 2010, she had a spot in her spine that was not biopsied, and Sarah was never told that she should consider herself as a metastatic breast cancer patient. The spot went away in 2012 scan, then showed up again in 2014, but after a bone scan, the oncologist cleared her, indicating it was not cancer. Her new doctor, in comparing the scan from 2014 to 2015, indicated that the spot had grown much larger in the year it had gone untreated. In addition, there was a second spot in her spine, though not as large.  A biopsy was done on the L5 (large) spot, and determined to be breast cancer in her spine. So, diagnosis changes – Sarah is now living with metastatic breast cancer, she will never be in remission and never considered to be cured. This was devastating news to Sarah & her family, considering they were about to celebrate remission! 

Co-pays for the daily chemo pill and estrogen suppressor she has to take, as well as the pain meds and over the counter vitamins are costly each month. And, even with insurance, the out of pocket expenses get higher and higher each year. Currently, the out of pocket expenses max at $6,000 for the family, not including co-pays for doctor’s visits, which is hard to pay when you have a family and other expenses as well. Sarah meets this maximum very early each year with the scans/tests she has to have for screenings. Being in medical debt is never an easy thing to face with two teenage daughters, one going to college in 2017.

Sarah is always so positive and upbeat, but the stress of all of this is taking its toll. She is in pain most days, and suffers from headaches from the chemo pill, and rashes from the estrogen suppressor, but she still smiles each day! Knowing that she will live with this disease for the rest of her life, but still striving for quality of life with her family, we want her to stay as upbeat as she can. It is tough because always at the back of her mind is the fact that she is BRCA-2 positive, making her daughters’ chances even greater to have this horrible disease.

Please help us raise money to help the Greene family pay off their medical debt this year and start saving for the debt they will face the next few years. We are grateful for even the smallest donation, or even just a positive thought or prayer!