My Fight Against Terminal Cancer
Donation protected
Hi everyone, I would first like to say a huge thank you to everyone that has been there for me over the past year. I have received a huge amount of emotional support from everyone in my personal and business life. Unfortunately, since I closed my little pin business, I have no income this year. Cultural Void just got to be too much for me to keep up with. Between my fatigue, my fevers, the chemo, every time I got an order I dreaded it. What I didn’t realize was that my health insurance would be way more expensive for someone with no income, I’m not sure how that makes sense. My deductible went from $200 to $3,500. My max out of pocket went from $2K to $8K. Not to mention my monthly premium is about $517. Ouch.
For those of you that don’t know my back story, here is a little about my cancer. In November of 2019 I noticed I was passing some blood with my stool. I thought it was hemorrhoids until one day I passed some blood without stool. I went to my regular doctor, she did a manual exam but didn’t see anything and referred me to a gastroenterologist. He suggested a colonoscopy even though he didn’t think it was cancer, he figured I had Ulcerative Colitis. I got a colonoscopy and they found a tumor in my rectum. I immediately quit my job, broke my lease, and went home to my parents house in Michigan. It turns out my cancer was caused by HPV. HPV is an extremely common sexually transmitted infection. About 80% of sexually active people have had HPV at some time in their lives. Most people clear the infection with no treatment but in some lucky people it persists. It takes between 10-30 years for this infection to turn into cancer. I always thought I would know if I had HPV because I get regular Pap smears and they test for it, my tests were always negative. What I didn’t know, was that you can get HPV from anal sex and it can be present in your rectum and not your vagina. Anal sex was never something I was interested in when I was young and I had never had it until 2001 when someone decided they weren’t going to ask permission. I was raped anally and not vaginally. I strongly believe this is how I contracted the infection. They were not gentle, so there was bleeding for several days after the assault. This isn’t easy for me to share, it’s very personal, but I want to spread awareness. The more people know about this kind of cancer, the more likely they are to get tested for HPV or to go get that colonoscopy. I was only 41 when I was diagnosed and my cancer had already spread to my liver. I was stage four.
An update on my treatment:
Over the past year I’ve undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy but they always seem to work for a few rounds and then stop. I had 5 weeks of radiation but now my spine is deteriorating. I had one chemo infusion called Oxaliplatin that really messed me up. I got up to leave and my toes curled under, I just started to fall. My hands formed into stiff claws, I was slurring my words. I was hypertensive, my vision was blurry, I was having body tremors. I was so scared that I couldn’t walk, talk, use my hands, I just started to cry. I had an anxiety attack and nearly hyperventilated until I passed out. My most recent chemo gave me 4 weeks of extremely high fevers (up to 104.8) after every infusion. I’m at the point where I have 7 tumors, one in my rectum and 6 in my liver. Two of my liver tumors are the size of softballs. I’ve decided to stop chemo for now and try immunotherapy. I’m trying to get into a clinical trial for Opdivo and Yervoy. I googled just Opdivo and saw that it’s about $13,000 alone. I don’t know if that’s with or without insurance, but I would at least owe my deductible of $3,500 right away. Hopefully the trial is cheaper but I don’t have any information about that yet, I haven’t been accepted but I have an appointment with them Tuesday.
I want to leave this saying that I absolutely hate asking for money. I’ve worked hard my entire life and I’ve never asked anyone other than my parents to help me out here and there. I’ve lived in 7 states as an adult and I’ve always found my own way, paid my own way, even if that meant working multiple jobs at once. I am so incredibly grateful to everyone who has helped me through this. Sometimes you don’t realize how much you have to be grateful for until you find yourself in the middle of a crisis such as this. I love you all, thank you for reading my story.
For those of you that don’t know my back story, here is a little about my cancer. In November of 2019 I noticed I was passing some blood with my stool. I thought it was hemorrhoids until one day I passed some blood without stool. I went to my regular doctor, she did a manual exam but didn’t see anything and referred me to a gastroenterologist. He suggested a colonoscopy even though he didn’t think it was cancer, he figured I had Ulcerative Colitis. I got a colonoscopy and they found a tumor in my rectum. I immediately quit my job, broke my lease, and went home to my parents house in Michigan. It turns out my cancer was caused by HPV. HPV is an extremely common sexually transmitted infection. About 80% of sexually active people have had HPV at some time in their lives. Most people clear the infection with no treatment but in some lucky people it persists. It takes between 10-30 years for this infection to turn into cancer. I always thought I would know if I had HPV because I get regular Pap smears and they test for it, my tests were always negative. What I didn’t know, was that you can get HPV from anal sex and it can be present in your rectum and not your vagina. Anal sex was never something I was interested in when I was young and I had never had it until 2001 when someone decided they weren’t going to ask permission. I was raped anally and not vaginally. I strongly believe this is how I contracted the infection. They were not gentle, so there was bleeding for several days after the assault. This isn’t easy for me to share, it’s very personal, but I want to spread awareness. The more people know about this kind of cancer, the more likely they are to get tested for HPV or to go get that colonoscopy. I was only 41 when I was diagnosed and my cancer had already spread to my liver. I was stage four.
An update on my treatment:
Over the past year I’ve undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy but they always seem to work for a few rounds and then stop. I had 5 weeks of radiation but now my spine is deteriorating. I had one chemo infusion called Oxaliplatin that really messed me up. I got up to leave and my toes curled under, I just started to fall. My hands formed into stiff claws, I was slurring my words. I was hypertensive, my vision was blurry, I was having body tremors. I was so scared that I couldn’t walk, talk, use my hands, I just started to cry. I had an anxiety attack and nearly hyperventilated until I passed out. My most recent chemo gave me 4 weeks of extremely high fevers (up to 104.8) after every infusion. I’m at the point where I have 7 tumors, one in my rectum and 6 in my liver. Two of my liver tumors are the size of softballs. I’ve decided to stop chemo for now and try immunotherapy. I’m trying to get into a clinical trial for Opdivo and Yervoy. I googled just Opdivo and saw that it’s about $13,000 alone. I don’t know if that’s with or without insurance, but I would at least owe my deductible of $3,500 right away. Hopefully the trial is cheaper but I don’t have any information about that yet, I haven’t been accepted but I have an appointment with them Tuesday.
I want to leave this saying that I absolutely hate asking for money. I’ve worked hard my entire life and I’ve never asked anyone other than my parents to help me out here and there. I’ve lived in 7 states as an adult and I’ve always found my own way, paid my own way, even if that meant working multiple jobs at once. I am so incredibly grateful to everyone who has helped me through this. Sometimes you don’t realize how much you have to be grateful for until you find yourself in the middle of a crisis such as this. I love you all, thank you for reading my story.
Organizer
Michelle Hodges
Organizer
Taylor, MI