Angie has not had the best luck when it comes to her medical history.  Her most recent medical needs started in April in 2014 when she was diagnosed as being a BRCA-1 carrier, which is the gene mutation that greatly increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, among many others. She was told that given her family history of breast and ovarian cancer, that there would be a 90% chance that should would develop breast cancer at some point in her life. The doctors recommended a bilateral double mastectomy by age 40, and a full hysterectomy by age 35. This news would put anyone into a tailspin, let alone a 32 year-old Angie. This would not drag her down, however, and Angie made the decision to take control of the BRCA-1 gene and go ahead with the bilateral double mastectomy. Unfortunately, Angie already had a knee reconstruction scheduled for July 2014, which would turn into a staph infection 3 weeks after, and would delay the bi-lateral double mastectomy for a year. 

In the meantime, Angie started preparing for her next surgery. She found a new job within the department of nursing at Mayo which would be less strenuous on her body. She also took a chance on me and became my wife.  Angie's managers in her new job seemed very supportive of her decision to reduce her cancer risk. She made new friends in her new role, and scheduled her surgery for July 2015.  

Surgery was a success, and after 4 days in the hospital, we returned home.  Recovery was trying and painful, but Angie returned to work 8 weeks after surgery. However, 4 weeks later, Angie developed a staph infection on her breast, and was again hospitalized. The surgeon had to remove and replace the breast expander and began Angie on IV antibiotics. After another 4 days in the hospital, Angie was released with a PICC line and took 3 times a day antibiotics for 2 weeks. The PICC line then caused a blood clot in Angie's arm, which led to an Emergency Room visit, followed by 8 weeks of anti-coagulation shots, a lifetime of blood thinner medication, and a fashionable compression sleeve for her Arm.  

Finally, Angie's health stabilized enough that she could start looking at her breast implant exchange surgery. Angie scheduled this surgery for mid-February and began her preparations. For most patients, this is an outpatient surgery. But, given Angie's infection history, we thought it would be best to spend one night in the hospital, to be sure that everything was ok before we went home. Less than a week later, Angie was struggling. Her pain medications were not keeping her pain under control. In addition, Angie had an allergic reaction to her antibiotics. We again made our way to the emergency room to try to get things back under control. After being admitted, it was also determined that Angie had another infection. This led to another 3 days in the hospital where her pain was brought under control, new antibiotics were started, and hopefully her healing could begin. This of course led to more at home antibiotics, and no guarantee of success.  Luckily, the antibiotics worked and Angie did not have to go into surgery again, yet.  

Angie returned to work in Mid March and discovered a hostile work environment that she hadn't experienced before. Less than 2 months later, she would be set up and terminated. 10 stellar years at Mayo Clinic down the drain in two months as she was forced out, presumably because of her medical history. 

Angie had originally planned on having her total hysterectomy in August of 2016, but due to being unemployed for the first time in her adult life, and the loss of her health insurance looming, she scheduled her surgery for May. Thankfully, this surgery went as planned. Unfortunately, Angie had to start over in her career. She quickly found a new position at Olmsted Medical Center, and began there in June. This led to a lose-lose situation for Angie's health insurance. She could either start new insurance from her new job and start over at zero on her deductibles, or pay the $4200 for 7 months of COBRA insurance. Sadly, the $4200 was ultimatly cheaper.

In addition the the already numerous surgeries, Angie would need at least one more fat-grafting surgery to helped fix irregularities in her breasts. This surgery occured 1 week ago, and instead of the 4-6 weeks recovery time, Angie had return to work in 5 days as she is still on probation, and hadn't accrued enough PTO and couldn't use short-term disability.  We also could not afford for her to take this time off unpaid. So Angie has been fighting through the pain at work. Thankfully, her manager and coworkers have been more than willing to accomodate her as she does her best to recover while working.

As you can imagine, 1 surgery can really take a toll on a person emotionally, physically, and financially. In the past 2 years, Angie has had 7 surgeries, 5 hospitalizations, 3 full rounds of IV antibiotics, and countless appointments. This has cause a financial hardship for us, as our savings has been depleted, and bills are getting harder to pay. Like I said, Angie hasn't been able to take time off to recover, as we can't afford to take off work unpaid. 
We plan to use any money for upcoming hospital bills, as Angie still may need 1 more surgery in approximately 6 months. Money and a lack of money can cause so much stress, and it has for us. We would be forever indebted to anyone that could donate to us.  It's not easy to admit that you need help and to ask for it. Know that we would be eternally thankful to each and every one of you