Behind the Blue Ribbon: Krystan's Fight For Her Life

How many times have you heard - the worst things happen to the nicest people? Well, unfortunately, this is one of those stories. My sister, Krystan, is a kind and beautiful soul, she is selfless and raised 3 beautiful kids on her own. She has 3 grandsons under 7.

Here is her story and while it may seem long - all of these things just transpired over the last 2 weeks:

Over the last few months, Krystan found herself weak, dizzy and lightheaded. She attributed the symptoms to a very strong antibiotic she was taking. The final straw was barely making it up the one flight of stairs in her home without having to lay down to 30 minutes because she was so winded. She went to the ER where a quick blood draw showed her hemoglobin had dropped to 5 (in women, it should be between 12-16). She was admitted immediately and was given 3 blood transfusions, but her hemoglobin levels would not rise. She was losing blood. An endoscopy found nothing, so next step was a colonoscopy. During a colonoscopy done the next day, doctors found a large tumor roughly blocking 50-70% of her colon and in fact the colonoscopy could not even be completed due to the blockage. While conducting the colonoscopy, doctors removed 5.5" of her colon and also took a wedge of her liver due to visible lesions. Results from tumor testing indicated it was an adenocarcinoma and had already invaded one lymph node and her liver. It is Stage 4. We are devastated. Doctors say the cancer has likely been present for ~6 months and beyond seeing visible blood in a stool, there would've been no way to know until it was almost too late (unless she had had a colonoscopy in last year).

She just did her baseline PET scan today to determine where else cancer may be present. We are anxiously awaiting those results. That will determine any other next steps beyond chemotherapy (i.e. additional surgeries).

Krystan's treatment starts this week where she will undergo chemotherapy port implant surgery and begin chemotherapy next Wednesday on 8 May. She hasn't started chemotherapy and she has thousands of dollars in medical bills. That doesn't even include the 7 day hospital stay. My sister is continuing to work and does have health insurance, but it's not enough. She makes just enough to pay her bills, but never for anything extra. She doesn't splurge, she doesn't go on vacation, she doesn't even own a car. When you are living so thin, how could she possibly pay these medical bills?

I know there are so many stories on Go Fund Me just like my sister's. Any help you can give would be so appreciated. I’d like to try and ease the financial burden on my sister in any way I can so she can focus on fighting this.

Thank you so kindly for your consideration.

Lisa Perez