Annie's Fearless Fight
Donation protected
Annie Moroney was diagnosed on May 23rd, 2019 with Ewing's sarcoma, stage 4 cancer. A very rare cancer. The mass is 8 cm. in the upper middle part of her chest.
Annie had extreme chest pain for 5 days back in May, and one of her coworkers at Ingalls Hospital finally talked her into going down to the ER. After all her cardiac labs came back normal, the morning of May 23rd, she had a chest CT. It showed an 8.3 cm. mass in the upper middle part of her chest, pushing her lung and heart down and her trachea and esophagus sideways. She was immediately admitted to the hospital for further testing and to get her pain under control. The following day, she had a needle biopsy which had to be sent to the University of Chicago for identification because her cancer is so rare. It took awhile for identification. In the meantime, she had a chemotherapy port implanted and further bone scans and a brain MRI to check for any metastases. Thankfully, she still only has the primary tumor in her chest. Once the cancer was diagnosed as Ewing's sarcoma, a chemotherapy plan was drawn up. She started chemo June 11th. Within a week, she developed a neutropenic fever and was admitted to the hospital for a week. Her white blood cell count dropped down to zero and she was at severe risk for any kind of infection killing her. It was determined that she couldn't handle the chemo dose, so her dose was subsequently reduced each time. She did chemo every other week from June through September, 5 days a week, sometimes 8 hours a day, she was in the infusion chair getting chemotherapy. At one point she became so anemic, that she needed a blood transfusion.
Through all of this Annie took care of her daughter and continued to work 3rd shift in the same hospital she was getting treatment through the whole course. At the end of chemotherapy, she had another scan and there wasn't much change to the tumor, it only shrank down to 6.9 cm. At that point, Annie went to see a surgeon at the University of Chicago Hospital. The surgeon wanted to go in and remove the tumor, but the tumor board said no. They wanted Annie to begin radiation therapy to shrink it further. In between the end of chemo and the beginning of radiation, the tumor grew back almost to the original size.
Radiation treatment finally started October 21st Annie goes for treatments Monday through Friday. Annie had to stop working starting on Oct 6th, she could no longer do it. She was in too much pain, tired, sick, and needed medication that made her to groggy to work. By Friday, the treatments cause her right arm to become very weak and her chest is very painful. Its causing inflammation of her lungs and other organs, so she had to go on steroids to control that. Radiation so far has not shrunk the tumor any measurable amount. It has made the tumor less dense, but not smaller. They are concerned about its involvement with the nerves that control her right arm. They would prefer it to shrink away from the nerves, but so far it hasn't.
Eventually, when she has the surgery, Annie will lose the top lobe of her right lung, possibly a couple of ribs, and possibly some function in her right arm if they can't shrink the tumor away from the nerves. In order to remove as much of the tumor as possible, the surgeon may have to remove some of the nerves. Hopefully, the surgery will be sometime in December. Once Annie has the surgery she will be in ICU for a week and then not sure what the plan is after that.
Through all of this Annie has had an amazing positive attitude. Annie just turned 40 in July and is a single mother to her beautiful and smart daughter Hannah! Annie cannot work and any donation would help her and her daughter through this very difficult time.
Annie had extreme chest pain for 5 days back in May, and one of her coworkers at Ingalls Hospital finally talked her into going down to the ER. After all her cardiac labs came back normal, the morning of May 23rd, she had a chest CT. It showed an 8.3 cm. mass in the upper middle part of her chest, pushing her lung and heart down and her trachea and esophagus sideways. She was immediately admitted to the hospital for further testing and to get her pain under control. The following day, she had a needle biopsy which had to be sent to the University of Chicago for identification because her cancer is so rare. It took awhile for identification. In the meantime, she had a chemotherapy port implanted and further bone scans and a brain MRI to check for any metastases. Thankfully, she still only has the primary tumor in her chest. Once the cancer was diagnosed as Ewing's sarcoma, a chemotherapy plan was drawn up. She started chemo June 11th. Within a week, she developed a neutropenic fever and was admitted to the hospital for a week. Her white blood cell count dropped down to zero and she was at severe risk for any kind of infection killing her. It was determined that she couldn't handle the chemo dose, so her dose was subsequently reduced each time. She did chemo every other week from June through September, 5 days a week, sometimes 8 hours a day, she was in the infusion chair getting chemotherapy. At one point she became so anemic, that she needed a blood transfusion.
Through all of this Annie took care of her daughter and continued to work 3rd shift in the same hospital she was getting treatment through the whole course. At the end of chemotherapy, she had another scan and there wasn't much change to the tumor, it only shrank down to 6.9 cm. At that point, Annie went to see a surgeon at the University of Chicago Hospital. The surgeon wanted to go in and remove the tumor, but the tumor board said no. They wanted Annie to begin radiation therapy to shrink it further. In between the end of chemo and the beginning of radiation, the tumor grew back almost to the original size.
Radiation treatment finally started October 21st Annie goes for treatments Monday through Friday. Annie had to stop working starting on Oct 6th, she could no longer do it. She was in too much pain, tired, sick, and needed medication that made her to groggy to work. By Friday, the treatments cause her right arm to become very weak and her chest is very painful. Its causing inflammation of her lungs and other organs, so she had to go on steroids to control that. Radiation so far has not shrunk the tumor any measurable amount. It has made the tumor less dense, but not smaller. They are concerned about its involvement with the nerves that control her right arm. They would prefer it to shrink away from the nerves, but so far it hasn't.
Eventually, when she has the surgery, Annie will lose the top lobe of her right lung, possibly a couple of ribs, and possibly some function in her right arm if they can't shrink the tumor away from the nerves. In order to remove as much of the tumor as possible, the surgeon may have to remove some of the nerves. Hopefully, the surgery will be sometime in December. Once Annie has the surgery she will be in ICU for a week and then not sure what the plan is after that.
Through all of this Annie has had an amazing positive attitude. Annie just turned 40 in July and is a single mother to her beautiful and smart daughter Hannah! Annie cannot work and any donation would help her and her daughter through this very difficult time.
Organizer and beneficiary
Tina Reilly-Beyler
Organizer
Mokena, IL
Ann Moroney
Beneficiary