Amy's Fight:

About 2.5 years ago, I was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. I underwent a year of both chemo and immunotherapy, which shrank and killed a great deal of the cancer. Then, in June of 2024, they removed one of my kidneys, my spleen, and an adrenal gland. The surgery went well, and all the tests afterward were encouraging. I continued to remain cancer-free through another year of chemo and immunotherapy, which concluded in June of this year. Unfortunately, the cancer returned at the end of summer, and I resumed the therapies. As a result of a severely repressed immune system, I had a number of illnesses this time, which often kept me from even the smallest parts of my daily routine. The end result of my poor health and cancer treatment was the formation of a clot, which led to a heart attack, a helicopter flight to another hospital, and a week in the ICU. Surprisingly, at the moment, I feel quite good because, in addition to treating my heart attack, they treated what were apparently a number of longstanding infections, which were no doubt due to a suppressed immune system. All this has been trying both emotionally and financially for my family because while we have health insurance, there have still been significant out-of-pocket expenses. We have become a one-income household, and my husband has at times had to severely curtail his work schedule to help care for me.

We are fundraising to help cover the significant out-of-pocket expenses and support our one-income household during this challenging time.