Alison's Cancer Fighting Fund

I set up this accout to help my friends, Alison and Tom, through their financial struggles during Alison's impending victory over cancer. My beautiful friend Alison is one of the most kind and calm natured, strong, and accepting people I've ever met. Her battle just recently began, and her and her supportive husband have already begun to take a financial hit. They both work full time and have a home with their sweet canine friend, Daisy. Their lovely daughter, Emily, attends school in NH and they see her often. 

Unfortunately, Alison's job has had to (and will continue to) be put on hold, off and on, throughout her surgeries, follow-ups, and chemotherapy.  In the meantime, they have a major home repair issue that is going to be a financial burden as well.

Here is Alison's story:

I have always had extra breast care, since I was in college. I was told I had Fibrocystic breasts. Dense, lumpy breasts which don't image well or accurately. It's harder to diagnose cancer with dense breasts because mammograms come out as white blobs. (About 10 years ago I had a radiologist tell me "Oh, we cant see anything in your mammograms!!") I discovered my first cyst in college. A hard rubber ball above my nipple on the left breast. The doctor tried to aspirate it, but it was solid. So it stayed in place for observation. It never changed in 30+ years. I did self exams. I never felt
very good at it, but I tried to remember my lumpy patterns. I'm thin so it was a bit difficult for me to tell the difference between my regular old lumps, my ribs and just regular breast tissue.

I have had lots of mammograms over the years. Not every year in my 20's, but I tried to keep tabs on it as often as I had health insurance. Once I hit 35 or so I went to more regular mammograms. A cyst was found in the right breast, approximately 7 years ago. I had my first ultrasound then, I believe. Much better resolution! The results were benign. More mammograms every 6 months, then yearly, everything always came back negative. Because the results were always benign, I naively let myself think that would always be the case. I also had my mothers breast care history in the back of my mind. And I was healthy.


My mother had some cysts when I was young, but did not need surgery, they were just drained. Then when I had just finished college, she had a "close call" with breast cancer, kind of. After her diagnosis, she had a single mastectomy. After her surgery, the second opinion biopsy results returned as negative and the doctors discovered she did not have cancer after all. She soldiered on and proceeded with her reconstruction. During that surgery, a mesh panel was not placed in her abdomen, replacing the muscle that created her new breast. A second surgery was needed to repair her herniated stomach and to implant the mesh. My mother is an amazing woman, she is simply grateful she did not have cancer. It is still a bit of a mystery as to what the first biopsy showed that made the doctor think she had cancer. I believe my mother did have something abnormal, it just didn't warrant a mastectomy. I swore to be a more proactive patient, not
believe everything a doctor tells me.

So in August of 2016 I had my usual mammogram and a follow up with my Gyno. She didn't like the feel of my right breast and ordered an ultrasound to get a closer look at the clusters of calcium that were found on the mammogram, a biopsy was then also ordered to coincide with the ultrasound. The biopsy was done, several samples were taken. Still, I had no fear of a diagnosis. It's always negative. A nuisance I go through every few years. No big deal. Right??

Till I got "the call". I had been playing phone tag with my nurse practitioner and had gone to the lunch room to try again. I sat in my favorite sunny seat in the corner of the room, as usual, still not expecting the C word, AT ALL. My nurse Lynn is wonderful, a straight shooter, which I really appreciate. She did not mince words, I had DCIS - Ductal Carcinoma In Situ. It was possible it had infiltrated outside by ducts, but she was hopeful. The "carcinoma" word was out, floating in the air in front of me, I felt stunned. Then I cried. Me??? Really??? Shit.

At first no chemo or radiation was thought to be needed, I was caught VERY early, only stage 1. My surgeon was amazing, She was able to get 5mm margins around the tumor they found, but the cancer was not "in situ" as they had hoped. It had moved outside of the breast glands. However, my 4 lymph nodes all came back negative. But, once all my labs had come back, chemo was back on the table. I am HER2 positive, my body over manufactures a protein that attaches to cancer cells and causes them to reproduce too fast. Only about 20% of breast cancers are this type. Luckily there is a great treatment for HER2+ cancer, but it works best when given in conjunction with chemo. I was very happy to continue to avoid radiation!

I chose to get a double mastectomy, even though my left breast is cancer free, I only want to do this once! I think the stress of monitoring the remaining breast would get to me, waiting for the other shoe to fall. My healing seems to be going well, technically. The reconstruction is more uncomfortable than I anticipated. I chose to put my implants under the muscle for a more natural look. Being so thin, and small busted originally, makes stretching the skin more necessary and painful. It reminds me of having braces as a kid, that discomfort after each adjustment, finally lessens, only to be adjusted again. And I'm not going for the Dolly look, believe you me!! I am definitely looking forward to that process to be over, but it will be the fall before I have my regular implants put in.

January 17th, 2017, I started my chemotherapy. I chose to be somewhat aggressive in treatment, again, I want to do this once only. Kill the cancer! My doctor explained my cancer, what my recurrence chances where if I did not choose chemo (30-35% in the next 10 years) and what the different chemo choices were. There are 3 treatment options, we chose the middle one (TCH). She did not think the most aggressive treatment was warranted, but if I felt I wanted the most aggressive choice, she would consider it. The least aggressive choice was based on a study out of Dana Farber, a well regarded institution, of course. That more recent study was conducted for 4 1/2 years, on a group of about 425 patients. Based on what I know about drug studies through work, and the fact that the other studies had gone out 10 years and had a larger pool of patients, I felt that option was not aggressive enough.

The chemo I chose was a combination of Taxotere, Carboplatin and Herceptin (TCH). I will receive 6 chemotherapy treatments, 3 weeks apart, with all 3 medications. I will then finish the year with the Herceptin, every 3 weeks, but with no side effects! Round one went smoothly, no reactions to anything they gave me, always a bonus. The absolute worst part was the severe constipation. Nausea and body aches were there, but no comparison to my belly pain. I will adjust accordingly the next round!


Any support will help. Thank you. We will be updating as her treatment continues.