Supporting Brit through her Cancer journey

Hi everyone, my name is Heather and I wanted to tell you Brittany’s story.

We have been friends for close to a decade and I wanted to create this page to help her through her cancer journey.

On 12/12/23, she got the call that she has an Invasive Ductile Carcinoma, or Breast cancer for short. She is stage two, triple negative - a more aggressive, faster growing cancer. Therefor, her treatment has been more aggressive.

Brit and I work together, so I know how her insurance works, and it’s terrible. She has been struggling with working as many hours as she can with the amount of doctors appointments, and testing she has been going through since her diagnosis. She has a very high deductible, large copays for all of her appointments, and a pharmacy deductible as well as large copays for her medicines. With having to pay the copays 3+ days a week, she is struggling with bills, food, and just about everything. And her infusion center is an hour from her home, because our insurance won’t pay for anything but a stand alone infusion center.

She is not eligible for any state help, and all of the programs she has applied for has denied her because she has commercial

insurance.

Brit has 3 amazing kids, Riley, Kingston, and Remi. And the most caring husband, Zach - who has also missed a lot of work to be there for his wife and all of her appointments.

Please help out in anyway that you can - here is her story below:

So now that I am officially 1 month out from my cancer diagnosis, I thought I’d share my story.

So for anyone who doesn’t know, my mom passed away from Inflamatory Breast Cancer in 2001. She was diagnosed 2 years prior and she was just 39 when she passed. Inflamatory BC is quite rare. Typically it only accounts for 5% of all BC and by the time they finally diagnosed her, she was stage 4 and it had metastasized to multiple places. Back then, it was a lot of “hurry up and wait” - and that was her downfall. I have heard from so many people that, what she went through was the absolute worst thing they have ever seen a person endure. And I am determined that my family will not have to experience that again.

Starting in 2022, I made an appointment to have genetic testing done - primarily for the BRCA gene. I received my BRCA2 positive test in November - this is linked to Breast, ovarian, skin, prostate, and pancreatic cancers. We went through my ENTIRE family tree and she wrote down every single person who had cancer that I knew of (with the help of my dad) and thank god it was covered in full by my insurance. Because of this, I decided to profalactically have a double mastectomy with reconstruction to cut my chance of BC down by 95% - I was planning this for spring/summer of 2023.

Because of the positive test result, my amazing PCP, who has a very aggressive approach to my care, said “welp, you’re new norm is now breast MRI’s, no more mammograms”. And I said “BET, they don’t hurt”. So I got my first MRI with contrast in December of 2022. That showed a result of a very small “something” close to my chest wall that was only seen with contrast. And with the aggressiveness of my PCP, we scheduled me for an ultrasound guided biopsy.

The day of my biopsy, we tried to find it on US but we couldn’t. We tried every position, every pressure, anything we could and we just couldn’t see it. So they wanted me to get an MRI guided biopsy - only 1 problem. The day of my US biopsy, it was my last day at my job and my insurance ran out the last day of that month, which was the next day, 12/31/22. So I had to wait.

4 days before my wedding, 04/18/23, I went in for my MRI biopsy. And let me tell you… it was horrible. I LOVED my doctors and nurses and they took GREAT care of me, but I hope I NEVER have to do that again. But the result was “suspicious calcifications” - so we schedule me to get another MRI for 6 months. My mother’s first test result was also, suspicious calcifications.

I did notice after that biopsy that I was very sensitive on that side. Just putting a shirt or a bra on hurt and I had constant little thuds of pain. But I ignored it. Chalking it up to the trauma of the biopsy.

Fast forward to December 07, 2023 - I went for my next MRI. And this time, my doctor calls me on his personal cell phone the next day, Friday, to tell me I’m scheduled for Monday first thing for another biopsy.

“It got bigger. I’m hoping that it’s a hematoma or scar tissue because the procedure takes a lot of tissue. But I’m not letting this wait”

Monday comes, and there it was on the ultrasound machine, plain as day. MUCH bigger than in November 2022 and April 2023. MUCH bigger. This biopsy was much better. I was numbed completely and he got 3 great samples.

Tuesday 12/12/2023, the nurse calls me

“You tested positive for breast cancer”

The first person I called was Heather because I needed to cry and scream and just tell someone right in that moment. And I think she cried harder than me. I made a lot of phone calls on the way home, but I would not tell Zach on the phone, I was going to sit down and have that conversation with him. However, I burst into tears as soon as I got into the house and then the cat was out of the bag.

Cue the Stage 5 clinger husband.

He also cried harder than me.

And longer.

I was told, from the moment I decided to do the Genetic testing, that I was too aggressive with my treatment. I’m taking it too far. I’m a hypochondriac. “Why do you want to know that stuff? It’s only going to make you worry - it’s only going to make you over exaggerate”. But I also got “dude, that’s awesome, you’re advocating for yourself - Your mom didn’t have this choice so you’re taking it upon yourself to make sure you get everything you need - Good for you, this will help you make decisions for your future and the future of your children” but I heard more negative feedback than good.

I won’t even mention the comments I got when I decided to cut the girls off. They were so much worse.

In lue of all of that - if I decided against the genetic testing, I wouldn’t have known I have breast cancer. I have had 4 doctors, and MANY nurses give me breast exams over the past 30 days - and let me tell you, my left boob has had MORE action in the last 30 days than it has in the last 30 years she. is. sore. And she is grumpy - and NONE of them can feel my tumor.

NONE OF THEM.

Over 15 people have touch my boob, and 15 people have not felt anything out of the ordinary. Because it’s next to my chest wall. By the time I would’ve found it on my own, I would be like my mom - Shit out of luck and on the way to dying.

She was stage 4 - I am Stage 2.

She had Inflamatory BC - I have an invasive ductile carcinoma.

She accounted for 5% of women with her type - I account for 85% of women with my type.

She had no chance to save her life - I do.

I have an aggressive oncologist who is positive that this time next year, they will not even be able to detect cancer at a microscopic level.

She didn’t get to watch me, Joshua, and Brandon grow up, graduate, get married, have babies - but I WILL be cured. I WILL watch my babies grow up.

I am my mother’s daughter, and I am thankful she pushed me to do this - my mother saved my life.

I am 30 years old, I just started living. And I’m not going to stop now.

My children will be tested at the appropriate age, and I have encouraged my family to do the same.

I’m going to be honest, I am struggling. My mental health isn’t the best. We are struggling with money and time. I am over the moon thankful that my job has been nothing but the MOST supportive and idk how I will ever thank them enough!

I am grateful that my chemo experience has been smooth and my only side effect has been exhaustion. This has allowed me to work as much as I can. But it’s still a struggle. And my infusion center is an hour drive from my house - insurance reasons. But I’ll get through it.

❤️