Thyroid Cancer Fund for Aurora

Hello. My name is Tina, and on September 24th my best friend Aurora was officially diagnosed with stage 4 Thyroid Cancer. She found 15 lumps (tumors) in her neck, and her right side of her Thyroid is partially calcified and enlarged. There is some question as to if it has started to spread down into her chest. She has been scheduled for a surgery on December 14th, though the date may be pushed back due to her insurance coverage lacking coverage on surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and anesthesia. Three of those procedures are ones she needs absolutely (Radiation treatments and anesthesia for her surgery). She desperately needs funds to help pay for some of her surgery costs, and doctor visit bills. She is expecting to owe/pay over $15,000 dollars. This may only be the beginning of what she will need to pay. 

Any donations will instantly be sent to her, to cover bills and surgery costs. Donations will be accepted from today, until December 14th, and if needed, past December 14th and until February.  

So far, her process is listed below:
1. Find an insurance that covers what she needs for her surgery, as well as part of the surgery. She attempted to receive Medicaid, but was denied. Her current insurance does not cover any surgery, or any of the procedures she'll need alongside surgery or following surgery. On November 23rd she will be meeting with a broker to discuss a new insurance plan and is hoping to keep her surgery date on December 14th.
2. Attend her surgery on December 14th. Her surgery will remove all lumps in her neck, which will involve also removing a majority of infected Lymphnodes from her neck. She will have her entire Thyroid removed as well. Following this surgery, she will be in the hospital for two days or more.
3. She will then need to get radiation treatment with Iodine 131, which will cause her to be quarantined for a while during this process.
4. When her surgery and radiation treatments are finished, she will be attending physical therapy to gain strength in the muscles left in her neck. She will be unable to turn her head from side to side or even lift her head much, and will need to meet with a physical therapist to learn to move her head again.
5. Sometime after Radiation and during the Physical therapy process she will need to start taking Thyroid Hormone replacement pills daily (Which will continue for the rest of her life) and will need to get adjusted by the doctors until she has the right dose.

It will be a very long hard road, and my friend is very scared. She is so uncertain, and does not make much money to cover these costs. She is very stressed, and very anxious. I want to try to help her as best as I can to make her long recovery process as comfortable for her as possible. We have known each other since elementary school, and grew up together most of our child hood as nearly next door neighbors in the same neighborhood. She is a wonderful, hilarious and smart young woman. She is 22 years old. She is one of the brightest, most entertaining people I’ve ever met and she has so much to offer the world and it hurts to see her hit such a hard road at such a young age, and early part of her life. It would mean so much to me to see some donations along the road through this difficult time, and would mean even more to her and would relieve a lot of stress. 

I know this will be a long road for my best friend, but I hope to be there every step of the way. If our goal is reached, or if we recieve funds well over our goal, those leftover funds will be donated to ThyCa for thyroid cancer research, or even be put as proceeds to send Aurora to Washington DC to donate her blood for genetic thyroid cancer research to a current study.