Our good friend Melissa (Silverio) Mosley

Hello Everyone,

Our good friend Melissa is dealing with a serious medical issue.  She's tackling this challenge with the same tenacity and positive outlook we know and love her for.  Unfortunately, her medical insurance is refusing to cover her final treatments.  Below is her story.  Let's help her out by doing what we can.

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Hi Everyone: 

I found a lump in my throat early December. I didn’t know it at the time but it is a rare cancer … leave it to me to remind everyone I know how “special” I am :)  ha ha ha 

Almost six months have gone by and I’ve had surgery to remove the tumor, 6 scans, 2 pathology reports, 2 biopsies, 2 cancer panel tests, spit my saliva into a cup for testing and send my whole genome for sequencing on my tumor and blood healthy cells. It’s quite a journey and I feel good about it … laughing my way to the finish line with my very supportive family & friends (you). I’ve already had a lot of support from you all (prayers, meals, messages of support, baby sitting and a group of generous colleague paying for a Disney vacation with my soon-to-be 4 year old son Adron!!!) and I am so grateful for everything. Now I need (hopefully) one last round of help. 

I’m entering the next phase of treatment – and I found a new option for radiation that would have less side effects. Long story short we are dealing with an area on my neck, right on top of my jaw & nerves leading to my brain so keeping these effects to a minimum is really important. Apparently my insurance doesn’t agree so I am on a mission to raise $10,000 to cover the minimum guarantee in order for my treatments to begin.  

If you can help me get to the $10,000 goal that would be awesome. I know not all of us are in a position to help so a prayer and a text to say hi are also welcome. 

Some pictures of my journey are attached.  If you want the full details, I have outlined the full story below …

Early December last year I returned from travelling for work and found a lump on my throat. I went to the doctor after two of the girls at work just ragged at me and they gave me some antibiotics to treat the condition because I also had sinusitis at the time. A few weeks later I was walking in the mall and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. At first I thought “Dang girl, you gotta stop eating chicken nuggets and burgers with Adron – you’re getting chunky” but then I realized that the double chin I was looking at was actually the lump again. I went back to the doctor to discuss it and he referred her to the ”on-call” Otorhinolaryngologist (ENT) after I managed to convince him it had been there for over 6 weeks.

 It took a few weeks but I got scheduled and had my first appointment with Dr. Saltman on February 15th. He immediately sent me for a sonogram; and decided then to proceed for a second test to biopsy the sample by fine needle aspiration. On March 25th the pathologist confirmed the tumor type to be a rare form of cancer called “Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma” in my left submandibular salivary gland and scheduled me for surgery. He had a great bedside manner … never really alarmed me once. In retrospect when you get told you have cancer the panic usually settles in but somehow he managed to keep my crazy self pretty settled.

 The tumor was removed on April 16th and was very successful. They believe they have gotten it all but now I am entering the next part of the recovery which is postoperative radiotherapy to help limit local failure. ACC is relatively slow growing but a stubborn cancer type where most patients with these tumors tend to recur and progress. What I keep focusing on is being around when Adron graduates college and stuff. He’s my “little mimpy” and I’d like to see him grow up, get stinky like teenage boys do and then watch him until I’m old enough that he has to change my diapers. You know, circle of life!

So getting me to that ripe old age of 90 means that I need to get some radiation to kick this cancer out once and for all… best I can. The doctor at the proton center said if it was him this would be his course of action too. ACC is not to be messed with - it’s as stubborn as me from what I’ve been told J The goal with the radiation treatment is to “cast a net” in the surgical area as well as along the nerve path going up towards my brain to stop it from recurring. This is important for ACC because that is how is travels … along the nerve. Traditional radiation has a lot of side effects and one of my doctors from Moore’s cancer center had suggested I look into an alternative form of radiation known as “Proton Therapy” once the tumor was removed. This type of radiation is more targeted with lower side effects following Bragg’s Law. I sound like I know what I am talking about now; thank you google and the class I attended; but basically this form of radiation has the proton beam entering the body at a lower number (known as gray) and then the pencil beam is calculated to peak at the target area. The heat map will look like an eggplant. The secondary benefit, following that scientists discovery, shows that the radiation just drops off so my targetted neck and nerve path receive the required radiation but then it just stops so no more radiation hits the other side of my neck” so the side effects are way waaaaaaay less.

They submitted the request for pre-authorization to medical insurance but proton therapy is not widely understood or approved. Only medicare covers it but I’m not quite 65 (yet!!!). A few years ago only 2 centers existed now there are 29 of them however my insurance declined it. The Proton Cancer therapy center said that if it was declined they would proceed with the treatment but they require their patients to pay $10,000 to cover their minimum operational costs. I’m going in on Tuesday, May 21st to get an MRI and CT of my neck and head so that they can create the mask that covers my head for my treatment. Radiation will begin about 2 weeks after that once they have calculated the exact areas where to send the proton beam. I has 33 treatments to go through (5 days a week, for 6 ½ weeks) so by Adron’s birthday I should be done. It's a huge out of pocket expense and I don’t have much saved. Like any of us paying sunshine California tax J but I’ve got to do this.