Ongoing Medical Bills
Donation protected
Well, this has been a long time coming.
I'm Jessica. I'm a lot of things, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife and I'm most definitely REAL. I'm also a cancer survivior. You could say I have terrible, horrible luck. Maybe I do but I'm still here to tell you about this terrible, horrible luck so maybe I am the luckiest person alive. Who knows?
I haven't shared very much of my story with anyone, my husband and our parents are the only one's who really know all that we have gone through these past 3 years. It has been very hard but through all the struggle and pain I think that we have all come to realize how very much we love and need one another. I'm truly blessed to have such an incredible husband, both of our families and our friends! I would be completely lost without them! I have a very hard time relaying my own struggles with others, I know it's not complaining but I do find it very hard to talk about and to ask for help.
Well I'm asking for help now. My medical bills have been out of hand since the get go... The tremendous stress of the bills is hurting not only myself but my husband, Mike as well.
So, as I ask you for help with these medical billsI am going to share EVERYTHING with you. I do hope this can help someone with their own journey.
It all started on a saturday in May of 2013. Mike and I were engaged and at the time living in Chicago, we're both from Missouri. I was 25. We had friends in for the weekend and were having a blast showing them the city. Well That saturday night I felt the lump for the first time.... Honestly I didn't want to alarm Mike or our friends so I didn't say anything and I just pushed it aside and forgot about it for a while.
It was July 2013 that I once again noticed it. So I decided to see my doctor. My doctor got me in immediatley with the news of a lump. She decided I was to young to be overly concerned and we should wait a month to see if it changes in size at all. At this point we we're all just thinking it was a hormonal thing that will go away on it's own. I really wasn't worried.
Well, that month rolls around and it definitely hadn't gone away. So I was sent to a surgeon for an ultra sound and possible biopsy. The surgeon feels the lump and says "well it moves so it's very likely nothing to be worried about". As the ultra sound progresses I see the concern form on the surgeons face. I'm pretty terrified now. So he numbs me up and takes one, two then three biopsies. Stitches me up and says I'll have the results in a couple days. And NOT TO WORRY, You're much to young for cancer. Right! Well, I was a little worried so I told a couple of friends, my mom and my mother in law. Mike already knew everything and was keeping his cool! He was definitely more concerned than I was until now.
Did I mention we were planning our wedding? We had three months left until the big day! We were both working a ton, Mike had been in Nebraska and Ohio the first 6 months of the year so he had literally just gotten home at the end of May and I had been working two jobs. Everything seemed PERFECT. All of our PLANS were coming together beautifully.
PLANS they are something aren't they?!
It was a wednesday night, August 5th 2013. It was about 9:00pm and I was just sitting down to eat dinner after working both jobs that day. My surgeon calls. He hasn't read my results yet so he's just as chipper as ever as he tells me about his day and asks about mine... Say's "okay, I'm opening your results now... OH MY. .... .... It's DUCTAL CARCINOMA. BREAST CANCER". That's all I hear.
The next morning I try to go to work before my appointment to FIX THIS. I didn't last ten minutes at work. Thankfully my coworkers were very understanding. Mike came to my work and we went straight to the surgeon's office.
And now the fun begins... First of all I need a second opinion. Well I live in Chicago so RUSH is the obvious second opinion. All the while I'm having tons of information, tests and appointments with other doctors thrown at me. I'm LOST. I haven't cried and we haven't told ANY OF OUR FAMILIES yet. The biggest thing I learned this first day was that I was likely Stage 1 Ductal Carcinoma and that I'm TRIPLE NEGATIVE. Thats not good. Being Triple Negative means the cancer is VERY AGGRESSIVE and they have no idea why it started, why I have it. I was given tons of information. All that sunk in at this point was 1: It's bad 2: I have to do chemo 3: I'm losing my breasts and eventually my ovaries.
I have my second opinion at Rush the very next day. They agree on the treatment plan, I just need to choose between a private doctor route or the Rush route. I immediately knew I felt much more comfortable at the private doctors offices. So here is the game plan at this point:
1: Double Mastectomy needs to happen ASAP! The doctors just needed to run a few more tests then the boobs and the cancer gotta go! (I really wanted the cancer OUT at this point so I honselty wasn't letting the mastectomy details set in.) The ovaries have to go as soon as we are done having kids or around the age of 35 if they stay healthy.
2: Chemotherapy. STRONG CHEMO.
Adriamycin. The Neulasta Shot. Taxol.
I will lose my hair. (Can it wait until after my wedding, November 2, 2013? The doctors all finally agreed, YES! It can wait until after the wedding!)
3: Harvest eggs now if you want children of your own.
4: Meet with the plastic surgeon to discuss breast reconstruction.
Seems simple enough, right?... Wrong. This was all consuming for MONTHS.
I had total confidence in my surgeon to walk me through everything and he did. He is an amazing doctor! His staff made my appointments and all I had to do is show up. The next place I went was to a fertility doctor to freeze some embryos. It turned out that even if you have cancer this is VERY EXPENSIVE! After tons and tons of phone calls to all sorts of cancer organizations only one was actually able to help, The American Cancer Society. They are wonderful! They introduced me to Fertility Centers of Illinois. Since I did indeed have cancer the fertility doctor was able to just charge us for equipment, the proceedure and medications! Which was still very expensive but ultimately it was a must since chemo could leave me infertile. It's a 50/50 chance. And a chance I wasn't willing to take.
Okay! So I have a plan! Now what? Now I need to tell my parents. HARDEST thing I've ever had to do. It was of course over the phone since our immediate families lived in Missouri. Having to tell people is extremely hard. You have to comfort them. It's very bizarre. But it's just what comes natural. Mike told his family for me. I couldn't do it. And he told most of our friends. I told the rest. It never got easier telling people...
So now my entire existence is getting the fertility medications. Finally I found Walgreens through The American Cancer Society's help. Walgreens actually helps cancer patients. Who knew?! I have definitely learned so much through all of this. It took a solid month to track down all the medications I would need for the fertility process.
It was only one week after diagnosis that I had a surgery date. September 3rd. Time has never gone by so slowly. I just wanted the cancer out! I was kept very busy with trying to work as much as possible (which was very very little), planning my wedding and doctors appointments. I had on average seven appointments per five day week sometimes two and three a day. It was just tons of testing and information processing. My fertility doctor had been hoping my cycles would sinc up so that we could harvest the eggs before my surgey but it didn't work out that way. I had to wait until after surgery. Chemo would absolutely wait until I've had a successfull egg harvest.
Finally, September 3rd came! I really wasn't nervous. I was still processing everything and as I talked with my surgeons that morning while being prepped for surgery I asked "Am I able to keep my nipples?" The look between the two surgeons was awful. "No" they both said. I really do not know how I somehow overlooked that part... I was pretty bummed and felt pretty stupid for not realizing this. The whole reason for all of the appointments was so I knew EVERY DETAIL and I overlooked a big one. Well, It wasn't the first and it won't be the last!
Surgery went as well as it could. While my surgeon took the cancer out and a Lymph Node the plastic surgeon took the rest of the breasts and placed tissue expanders where my new breasts would be.
I awoke having a bad reaction to the anesthesia but at the time the doctors and nurses thought it was a bad reaction from the morphine so I was immediatley taken off of the morphine which only cause a lot of pain. It was about 2 hours later that they finally realized it was the anethesia causing the reaction so I finally got the pain medication that I very desperatley needed. I couldn't even get out of the bed to walk. Being in so much pain and unable to walk right after surgery ultimately caused more problems.
I was released on the second day. I really didn't feel ready to go home. I was having a hard time breathing since the surgery was on my chest. I could still barely walk for just a couple minutes at a time. But I finally relented and went home.
Standard protocal is to have drainage tubes coming from the breast and out through your sides, one on the right and one on the left right below your ribs. To hold the bags conected to them I had to wear a fanny pack... I HATED THE TUBES! They had to stay in for one to two weeks depending on how much fluid was draining... So yeah my poor mom had to drian my bags every few hours and measure the volume. Your not allowed to shower for two weeks as well. Sponge baths it is!
On day five from surgery I had severe pain, swelling and bruising in my left leg. It was a superficial blood clot.
I am very lucky it was superficial but I was still worried. After seeing a Vein doctor I was relieved to know that the treatment wouldn't be awful, lots of injections and office appointments but nother major.
I also found out that my cancer was in Stage 2. On a good note my Lymph Node came back negative for cancer so I wouldn't have to do radiation! Just the chemo.
I healed very fast from the double mastectomy. I was driving within the first week and felt 100% by the second week when my drainage tubes came out! My surgeon had instructed me to see a cancer boutique in Chicago to have my wig made. WOW wigs are expensive!... So I went ahead with the wig, knowing it would be worth it.
Well I felt so great that I had my Bachelorette party just three weeks after surgery! It was a great time!
Just days after that I started the fertitlity treatments and injections in my tissue expanders! Lots of injections, injecting each tissue expander once a week and injecting myself in the stomach daily and daily appointments to check the status of my eggs. Everything was going so smoothly, even great until two days before the egg retrieval. I went to the appointment that morning having the same cramps and feelings as I had since starting all of the medicines but when they saw that I had had a cyst rupture not on just one but both ovaries we were all totally bummed. I went from having over 30 very healthy harvestable eggs to 8. This was very disheartening. The more eggs the better. 8 was so little to be hopeful about.
I had already begged to have chemo pushed back until after my wedding and now we weren't sure if I'd have to push it back again which obviously wasn't ideal, not to mention getting all of the expensive medications again.
Well we went ahead with the egg retrieval on the planned date. All 8 eggs were removed and fertilized. In the next few days I was contacted three times by the fertility specialists. They were telling me when one of the now embryos died. All of this being just days away from my wedding day. Ultimately 5 embryos made it! Thats 5 babies! This was the first time I cried. I was just so happy that we had a chance to have children, no matter what we had a chance! Mike and I had actually just picked up our marriage license when I got the great news! So now all I had to do was focus on our wedding for the next couple of days! My ovaries were still very swollen from all of the fertility medications so my wedding dress had to be let out. I wasn't even mad!
Our wedding on November 2, 2013 was everything and more! It was perfect! I'm very thankful that I had a wedding to plan during all of this honestly. It kept my mind occupied with the happiest of thoughts.
We haven't had a honeymoon yet.... After the wedding the first of the medical bills started rolling in... It was devastating to say the least. But for the moment I just wanted to focus on being a wife and my brand new husband (even if we had been together for 8 years at the time).
Just two weeks after my wedding day, November 13, 13 I started chemo. Chemotherapy was hard on me. I took a break from the weekly injections for my tissue expanders and treatment for the superficial blood clot for the first few rounds of chemo. Chemo was every other week for four months. I couldn't work, I was a dental assistant. I wasn't well enough for travel, to talk to friends... I wasn't well at all. Chemo was very hard. My second treatment was the day before Thanksgiving. We decided we couldn't travel all the way home to Missouri so my parents and Mike's brother came to celebrate with us. In our one bedroom apartment! I didn't partake in the festivities... Thanksgiving Day was the day my hair started falling out... I hadn't had it cut yet... I wanted my long hair for as long as I could have it. And it being Thanksgiving the salon that cuts cancer patients hair was closed and my wig that was specially made to look just like my hair wasn't ready just yet. So I basically hid all that Thanksgiving Day. the very next day I contacted the hair salon and got in right away to cut my hair but by the time I got there it was mostly gone so I decided to just stop by the American Cancer Society on our way home. I'm so glad I did! They give cancer patients a FREE WIG! I went in a lovely room and tried tons on until I found one that looked right. I was even given a few hats and scarfs to keep my head warm, let me tell you your head gets COLD bald! The next week I picked up my special wig, It was amazing! My friends had no idea I was bald! The Boutique went above and beyond with this wig!
To be honest I only left the house for treatments and doctors appointments. We did travel to Missouri to see our families on Christmas. I had chemo on Christmas Eve. It was a short trip but we were very glad to see our family and friends in Missouri.
Our Chicago friends came to our house to celebrate New Year's Eve!
I was done with the Adriamyacin and neulesta shots now and starting to feel a bit better. I was now taking Taxol everyother week. Since I felt a little better I resumed treatment on my blood clot and injections in the tissue expanders.
Before I knew it it was my last chemo treatment! February 19th 2014. Honestly I do not remember much from all the months on chemo except feeling sick... It's kind of just a blur now.
Well I had been maintaining all of my appointments, post ops, expander injections, etc. It was March 26th 2014 when I went into the plastic surgeons office for hopefully one of the last expander injections (they hurt more and more as they got bigger) only to find out the right one had a leak! I felt so helpless! I had been through so much and now this! Well surgery was set for March 31st 2014 to replace the leaking expander and unfortunately they had to start almost from the begining with the injections on that one! Surgery went well but I had been getting very sick after I ate for a few weeks now. I was pushed from one doctor to the other finally my Oncologist said we need to do a Gastroscopy and biopsy of my stomach to find out what was going on. So once again I had to go under anesthesia. So on April 3rd just three days after the leaking expander surgery I went under again to see what was going on with my stomach. Well everything came back totally normal. I still had nausea after eating occasionally for a few months after and then it just went away. I have never found out what caused it.
In May both of my expanders were the same size and finally done expanding! So now I just had to let them sit for six months and I was able to get my permanent implants! Finally! Those expanders not only hurt but felt hard as rocks! I was so happy to be rid of them!
So on October 6th 2014 I had my Final Exchange Surgery (the permanent implants). Surgery went ok, I had been given to much anesthesia and was very sick for days from it. But anesthesia aside everything was great! I even got to have my PORT taken out on October 13th! We were given even better news back in August, 1: On August 11th I had my first PET Scan after chemo that came back NEGATIVE and 2: that if we were wanting children we could start trying for them, naturally. Seeing as with the type of cancer I have my ovaries could have to come out as soon as 35 years old. Mike and I decided to wait a little longer though. I did in the meantime see my Gynocologist. She informed on everything and helped me with the first steps to becoming pregnant. Unfortunately my cycles hadn't come back totally normal after chemo so she ran a few tests to see if I was even fertile still. In September we found out that I infact was not fertile. Well this was what I had planned for anyway. Mike and I had our five frozen embryos. So I wasn't to let down, actually I still had hope. I knew we wouldn't be able to afford to have the embryos implanted in me any time soon but I still had hope that my fertility would come back...
Before I knew it it was Christmas time again and I had a tiny bit of hair, a new job... Things were looking great!
Knowing my ovaries need to come out sooner then later I was monitoring my cycles and using the clearblue ovulation kit monthly. Nothing seemed to be happening so I decided to give it a break in January. It was just causing me to stress. Well... Febraury rolled around and guess what? I was PREGNANT! Mike and I were the happiest people on planet earth! We still are! We had our miracle son, Harrison on October 8th 2015. He was as healthy as could be at 8lbs 14ounces and 22.5 inches long. I had preeclampsia during the pregancy causing some problems and some hospital stays but Harrison is as healthy as can be!
I see my oncologist every 3 months for blood work. It will be this way for the rest of my life. I also need a PET Scan every year for the first 5 years and then every other year there on out for the rest of my life. The oncologist appointments are very managable financially but the scans cost $5000. Not including the $380ish for the doctor to read them. We are also still paying bills from chemo and all of the surgeries. The injections were $250 each breast, each week alone. The surgeries were upwards of $3500 each time. I presently will be due for a scan on my implants in October due to the left implant looking suspicous, the plastic surgeon thinks there might be a leak but wont touch it until I have a scan. The scan costs $3000. If I have to have another surgery It'll be upwards of $3500 again. And once again I'll be due for my PET Scan in November, thats $5000. I'm also not finished with the breast reconstruction and once again in the future I will have to have my ovaries taken out.
I do have insurance and It's obviously awful.
I think thats just about everything. It's been one hell of a journey! Im so happy I'm here!
This stress from all these bills just tear me apart though. We truly need help with them. I'm not asking for the future bills, the $20,000 is the current medical bills I owe all from September 2013-October2014. We have paid so much on them but even if you can help with a $5 donation or sharing this will help significantly!
I am forever thankful to you! On behalf of my family and myself, with so much love, THANK YOU! Thank you so much for caring! And taking time out to read this, share this and donate! Thank you! As broken as I sometimes feel I definitely feel REAL. And feeling REAL means more than anything because it means I'm here!
'You Become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to those who break easily or have sharp edges or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are REAL, most of your hair has been loved off and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are REAL you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.'
I'm Jessica. I'm a lot of things, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife and I'm most definitely REAL. I'm also a cancer survivior. You could say I have terrible, horrible luck. Maybe I do but I'm still here to tell you about this terrible, horrible luck so maybe I am the luckiest person alive. Who knows?
I haven't shared very much of my story with anyone, my husband and our parents are the only one's who really know all that we have gone through these past 3 years. It has been very hard but through all the struggle and pain I think that we have all come to realize how very much we love and need one another. I'm truly blessed to have such an incredible husband, both of our families and our friends! I would be completely lost without them! I have a very hard time relaying my own struggles with others, I know it's not complaining but I do find it very hard to talk about and to ask for help.
Well I'm asking for help now. My medical bills have been out of hand since the get go... The tremendous stress of the bills is hurting not only myself but my husband, Mike as well.
So, as I ask you for help with these medical billsI am going to share EVERYTHING with you. I do hope this can help someone with their own journey.
It all started on a saturday in May of 2013. Mike and I were engaged and at the time living in Chicago, we're both from Missouri. I was 25. We had friends in for the weekend and were having a blast showing them the city. Well That saturday night I felt the lump for the first time.... Honestly I didn't want to alarm Mike or our friends so I didn't say anything and I just pushed it aside and forgot about it for a while.
It was July 2013 that I once again noticed it. So I decided to see my doctor. My doctor got me in immediatley with the news of a lump. She decided I was to young to be overly concerned and we should wait a month to see if it changes in size at all. At this point we we're all just thinking it was a hormonal thing that will go away on it's own. I really wasn't worried.
Well, that month rolls around and it definitely hadn't gone away. So I was sent to a surgeon for an ultra sound and possible biopsy. The surgeon feels the lump and says "well it moves so it's very likely nothing to be worried about". As the ultra sound progresses I see the concern form on the surgeons face. I'm pretty terrified now. So he numbs me up and takes one, two then three biopsies. Stitches me up and says I'll have the results in a couple days. And NOT TO WORRY, You're much to young for cancer. Right! Well, I was a little worried so I told a couple of friends, my mom and my mother in law. Mike already knew everything and was keeping his cool! He was definitely more concerned than I was until now.
Did I mention we were planning our wedding? We had three months left until the big day! We were both working a ton, Mike had been in Nebraska and Ohio the first 6 months of the year so he had literally just gotten home at the end of May and I had been working two jobs. Everything seemed PERFECT. All of our PLANS were coming together beautifully.
PLANS they are something aren't they?!
It was a wednesday night, August 5th 2013. It was about 9:00pm and I was just sitting down to eat dinner after working both jobs that day. My surgeon calls. He hasn't read my results yet so he's just as chipper as ever as he tells me about his day and asks about mine... Say's "okay, I'm opening your results now... OH MY. .... .... It's DUCTAL CARCINOMA. BREAST CANCER". That's all I hear.
The next morning I try to go to work before my appointment to FIX THIS. I didn't last ten minutes at work. Thankfully my coworkers were very understanding. Mike came to my work and we went straight to the surgeon's office.
And now the fun begins... First of all I need a second opinion. Well I live in Chicago so RUSH is the obvious second opinion. All the while I'm having tons of information, tests and appointments with other doctors thrown at me. I'm LOST. I haven't cried and we haven't told ANY OF OUR FAMILIES yet. The biggest thing I learned this first day was that I was likely Stage 1 Ductal Carcinoma and that I'm TRIPLE NEGATIVE. Thats not good. Being Triple Negative means the cancer is VERY AGGRESSIVE and they have no idea why it started, why I have it. I was given tons of information. All that sunk in at this point was 1: It's bad 2: I have to do chemo 3: I'm losing my breasts and eventually my ovaries.
I have my second opinion at Rush the very next day. They agree on the treatment plan, I just need to choose between a private doctor route or the Rush route. I immediately knew I felt much more comfortable at the private doctors offices. So here is the game plan at this point:
1: Double Mastectomy needs to happen ASAP! The doctors just needed to run a few more tests then the boobs and the cancer gotta go! (I really wanted the cancer OUT at this point so I honselty wasn't letting the mastectomy details set in.) The ovaries have to go as soon as we are done having kids or around the age of 35 if they stay healthy.
2: Chemotherapy. STRONG CHEMO.
Adriamycin. The Neulasta Shot. Taxol.
I will lose my hair. (Can it wait until after my wedding, November 2, 2013? The doctors all finally agreed, YES! It can wait until after the wedding!)
3: Harvest eggs now if you want children of your own.
4: Meet with the plastic surgeon to discuss breast reconstruction.
Seems simple enough, right?... Wrong. This was all consuming for MONTHS.
I had total confidence in my surgeon to walk me through everything and he did. He is an amazing doctor! His staff made my appointments and all I had to do is show up. The next place I went was to a fertility doctor to freeze some embryos. It turned out that even if you have cancer this is VERY EXPENSIVE! After tons and tons of phone calls to all sorts of cancer organizations only one was actually able to help, The American Cancer Society. They are wonderful! They introduced me to Fertility Centers of Illinois. Since I did indeed have cancer the fertility doctor was able to just charge us for equipment, the proceedure and medications! Which was still very expensive but ultimately it was a must since chemo could leave me infertile. It's a 50/50 chance. And a chance I wasn't willing to take.
Okay! So I have a plan! Now what? Now I need to tell my parents. HARDEST thing I've ever had to do. It was of course over the phone since our immediate families lived in Missouri. Having to tell people is extremely hard. You have to comfort them. It's very bizarre. But it's just what comes natural. Mike told his family for me. I couldn't do it. And he told most of our friends. I told the rest. It never got easier telling people...
So now my entire existence is getting the fertility medications. Finally I found Walgreens through The American Cancer Society's help. Walgreens actually helps cancer patients. Who knew?! I have definitely learned so much through all of this. It took a solid month to track down all the medications I would need for the fertility process.
It was only one week after diagnosis that I had a surgery date. September 3rd. Time has never gone by so slowly. I just wanted the cancer out! I was kept very busy with trying to work as much as possible (which was very very little), planning my wedding and doctors appointments. I had on average seven appointments per five day week sometimes two and three a day. It was just tons of testing and information processing. My fertility doctor had been hoping my cycles would sinc up so that we could harvest the eggs before my surgey but it didn't work out that way. I had to wait until after surgery. Chemo would absolutely wait until I've had a successfull egg harvest.
Finally, September 3rd came! I really wasn't nervous. I was still processing everything and as I talked with my surgeons that morning while being prepped for surgery I asked "Am I able to keep my nipples?" The look between the two surgeons was awful. "No" they both said. I really do not know how I somehow overlooked that part... I was pretty bummed and felt pretty stupid for not realizing this. The whole reason for all of the appointments was so I knew EVERY DETAIL and I overlooked a big one. Well, It wasn't the first and it won't be the last!
Surgery went as well as it could. While my surgeon took the cancer out and a Lymph Node the plastic surgeon took the rest of the breasts and placed tissue expanders where my new breasts would be.
I awoke having a bad reaction to the anesthesia but at the time the doctors and nurses thought it was a bad reaction from the morphine so I was immediatley taken off of the morphine which only cause a lot of pain. It was about 2 hours later that they finally realized it was the anethesia causing the reaction so I finally got the pain medication that I very desperatley needed. I couldn't even get out of the bed to walk. Being in so much pain and unable to walk right after surgery ultimately caused more problems.
I was released on the second day. I really didn't feel ready to go home. I was having a hard time breathing since the surgery was on my chest. I could still barely walk for just a couple minutes at a time. But I finally relented and went home.
Standard protocal is to have drainage tubes coming from the breast and out through your sides, one on the right and one on the left right below your ribs. To hold the bags conected to them I had to wear a fanny pack... I HATED THE TUBES! They had to stay in for one to two weeks depending on how much fluid was draining... So yeah my poor mom had to drian my bags every few hours and measure the volume. Your not allowed to shower for two weeks as well. Sponge baths it is!
On day five from surgery I had severe pain, swelling and bruising in my left leg. It was a superficial blood clot.
I am very lucky it was superficial but I was still worried. After seeing a Vein doctor I was relieved to know that the treatment wouldn't be awful, lots of injections and office appointments but nother major.
I also found out that my cancer was in Stage 2. On a good note my Lymph Node came back negative for cancer so I wouldn't have to do radiation! Just the chemo.
I healed very fast from the double mastectomy. I was driving within the first week and felt 100% by the second week when my drainage tubes came out! My surgeon had instructed me to see a cancer boutique in Chicago to have my wig made. WOW wigs are expensive!... So I went ahead with the wig, knowing it would be worth it.
Well I felt so great that I had my Bachelorette party just three weeks after surgery! It was a great time!
Just days after that I started the fertitlity treatments and injections in my tissue expanders! Lots of injections, injecting each tissue expander once a week and injecting myself in the stomach daily and daily appointments to check the status of my eggs. Everything was going so smoothly, even great until two days before the egg retrieval. I went to the appointment that morning having the same cramps and feelings as I had since starting all of the medicines but when they saw that I had had a cyst rupture not on just one but both ovaries we were all totally bummed. I went from having over 30 very healthy harvestable eggs to 8. This was very disheartening. The more eggs the better. 8 was so little to be hopeful about.
I had already begged to have chemo pushed back until after my wedding and now we weren't sure if I'd have to push it back again which obviously wasn't ideal, not to mention getting all of the expensive medications again.
Well we went ahead with the egg retrieval on the planned date. All 8 eggs were removed and fertilized. In the next few days I was contacted three times by the fertility specialists. They were telling me when one of the now embryos died. All of this being just days away from my wedding day. Ultimately 5 embryos made it! Thats 5 babies! This was the first time I cried. I was just so happy that we had a chance to have children, no matter what we had a chance! Mike and I had actually just picked up our marriage license when I got the great news! So now all I had to do was focus on our wedding for the next couple of days! My ovaries were still very swollen from all of the fertility medications so my wedding dress had to be let out. I wasn't even mad!
Our wedding on November 2, 2013 was everything and more! It was perfect! I'm very thankful that I had a wedding to plan during all of this honestly. It kept my mind occupied with the happiest of thoughts.
We haven't had a honeymoon yet.... After the wedding the first of the medical bills started rolling in... It was devastating to say the least. But for the moment I just wanted to focus on being a wife and my brand new husband (even if we had been together for 8 years at the time).
Just two weeks after my wedding day, November 13, 13 I started chemo. Chemotherapy was hard on me. I took a break from the weekly injections for my tissue expanders and treatment for the superficial blood clot for the first few rounds of chemo. Chemo was every other week for four months. I couldn't work, I was a dental assistant. I wasn't well enough for travel, to talk to friends... I wasn't well at all. Chemo was very hard. My second treatment was the day before Thanksgiving. We decided we couldn't travel all the way home to Missouri so my parents and Mike's brother came to celebrate with us. In our one bedroom apartment! I didn't partake in the festivities... Thanksgiving Day was the day my hair started falling out... I hadn't had it cut yet... I wanted my long hair for as long as I could have it. And it being Thanksgiving the salon that cuts cancer patients hair was closed and my wig that was specially made to look just like my hair wasn't ready just yet. So I basically hid all that Thanksgiving Day. the very next day I contacted the hair salon and got in right away to cut my hair but by the time I got there it was mostly gone so I decided to just stop by the American Cancer Society on our way home. I'm so glad I did! They give cancer patients a FREE WIG! I went in a lovely room and tried tons on until I found one that looked right. I was even given a few hats and scarfs to keep my head warm, let me tell you your head gets COLD bald! The next week I picked up my special wig, It was amazing! My friends had no idea I was bald! The Boutique went above and beyond with this wig!
To be honest I only left the house for treatments and doctors appointments. We did travel to Missouri to see our families on Christmas. I had chemo on Christmas Eve. It was a short trip but we were very glad to see our family and friends in Missouri.
Our Chicago friends came to our house to celebrate New Year's Eve!
I was done with the Adriamyacin and neulesta shots now and starting to feel a bit better. I was now taking Taxol everyother week. Since I felt a little better I resumed treatment on my blood clot and injections in the tissue expanders.
Before I knew it it was my last chemo treatment! February 19th 2014. Honestly I do not remember much from all the months on chemo except feeling sick... It's kind of just a blur now.
Well I had been maintaining all of my appointments, post ops, expander injections, etc. It was March 26th 2014 when I went into the plastic surgeons office for hopefully one of the last expander injections (they hurt more and more as they got bigger) only to find out the right one had a leak! I felt so helpless! I had been through so much and now this! Well surgery was set for March 31st 2014 to replace the leaking expander and unfortunately they had to start almost from the begining with the injections on that one! Surgery went well but I had been getting very sick after I ate for a few weeks now. I was pushed from one doctor to the other finally my Oncologist said we need to do a Gastroscopy and biopsy of my stomach to find out what was going on. So once again I had to go under anesthesia. So on April 3rd just three days after the leaking expander surgery I went under again to see what was going on with my stomach. Well everything came back totally normal. I still had nausea after eating occasionally for a few months after and then it just went away. I have never found out what caused it.
In May both of my expanders were the same size and finally done expanding! So now I just had to let them sit for six months and I was able to get my permanent implants! Finally! Those expanders not only hurt but felt hard as rocks! I was so happy to be rid of them!
So on October 6th 2014 I had my Final Exchange Surgery (the permanent implants). Surgery went ok, I had been given to much anesthesia and was very sick for days from it. But anesthesia aside everything was great! I even got to have my PORT taken out on October 13th! We were given even better news back in August, 1: On August 11th I had my first PET Scan after chemo that came back NEGATIVE and 2: that if we were wanting children we could start trying for them, naturally. Seeing as with the type of cancer I have my ovaries could have to come out as soon as 35 years old. Mike and I decided to wait a little longer though. I did in the meantime see my Gynocologist. She informed on everything and helped me with the first steps to becoming pregnant. Unfortunately my cycles hadn't come back totally normal after chemo so she ran a few tests to see if I was even fertile still. In September we found out that I infact was not fertile. Well this was what I had planned for anyway. Mike and I had our five frozen embryos. So I wasn't to let down, actually I still had hope. I knew we wouldn't be able to afford to have the embryos implanted in me any time soon but I still had hope that my fertility would come back...
Before I knew it it was Christmas time again and I had a tiny bit of hair, a new job... Things were looking great!
Knowing my ovaries need to come out sooner then later I was monitoring my cycles and using the clearblue ovulation kit monthly. Nothing seemed to be happening so I decided to give it a break in January. It was just causing me to stress. Well... Febraury rolled around and guess what? I was PREGNANT! Mike and I were the happiest people on planet earth! We still are! We had our miracle son, Harrison on October 8th 2015. He was as healthy as could be at 8lbs 14ounces and 22.5 inches long. I had preeclampsia during the pregancy causing some problems and some hospital stays but Harrison is as healthy as can be!
I see my oncologist every 3 months for blood work. It will be this way for the rest of my life. I also need a PET Scan every year for the first 5 years and then every other year there on out for the rest of my life. The oncologist appointments are very managable financially but the scans cost $5000. Not including the $380ish for the doctor to read them. We are also still paying bills from chemo and all of the surgeries. The injections were $250 each breast, each week alone. The surgeries were upwards of $3500 each time. I presently will be due for a scan on my implants in October due to the left implant looking suspicous, the plastic surgeon thinks there might be a leak but wont touch it until I have a scan. The scan costs $3000. If I have to have another surgery It'll be upwards of $3500 again. And once again I'll be due for my PET Scan in November, thats $5000. I'm also not finished with the breast reconstruction and once again in the future I will have to have my ovaries taken out.
I do have insurance and It's obviously awful.
I think thats just about everything. It's been one hell of a journey! Im so happy I'm here!
This stress from all these bills just tear me apart though. We truly need help with them. I'm not asking for the future bills, the $20,000 is the current medical bills I owe all from September 2013-October2014. We have paid so much on them but even if you can help with a $5 donation or sharing this will help significantly!
I am forever thankful to you! On behalf of my family and myself, with so much love, THANK YOU! Thank you so much for caring! And taking time out to read this, share this and donate! Thank you! As broken as I sometimes feel I definitely feel REAL. And feeling REAL means more than anything because it means I'm here!
'You Become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to those who break easily or have sharp edges or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are REAL, most of your hair has been loved off and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are REAL you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.'
Organizer
Jessica layton
Organizer
Soddy-Daisy, TN