
this GFM page is set up on behalf of my best friend in the entire world, lauren. a little background info: lauren is a first year english I and IV high school teacher at a title I college prep charter school. she just recently moved to dallas, TX over the summer of 2015 through her participation in teach for america. after college, lauren worked in marketing, but said that she felt like she wasnt doing anything meanigful with her life. thus, she applied for TFA and became placed in the 2015 dallas-fort worth corps shortly after. she picked up her life, moved to a state shes never been to before, and left her friends and family to enter the world of education and serve the children that need it most. she brought along her dog, her boyfriend, kory, who also ended up becoming a high school teacher at the same school where lauren recieved her job assignment . now, lauren and kory both live to serve the community through education.
at the beginning of thanksgiving break, lauren was scrolling through facebook and saw an article titled "HGTV'S flip or flop host finds out he has thyriod cancer because of THIS amazing event." lauren and kory both love this show, so she opening the article to read that a fan of the show, who was also a registered nurse, emailed the host to tell him that he had a large lump at the bottom front of his neck that he should get checked out. he did, and it turned out to be thyriod cancer. lauren says that after reading this article she checked in the mirror herself. low and behold, there was a lump at the bottom of her neck. she said she wasnt positive if she could see/feel the lump or not, as it was very wide and flat, and after discussing back and forth with kory, she decided she was just being a hypochondriac and forgot about it for a few days while her family was in town for the holiday. one week later, lauren noticed the lump again and became worried. a friend and co-worker recommended that she visit the school nurse, and the nurse told lauren to get the lump checked ASAP. she was able to get into a doctor that day, and recieved some blood work which turned out to be normal, and a sonogram.
the sonogram revealed three masses on laurens thyriod one ( the largest) on the right side, the second largest in the middle and the smallest on the left side. all of these masses contained mircocalcifications, and the masses are solid (as opposed to fluid). her largest mass is 4.6 cm. these are all features that can be seen with thyriod malignancy. lauren was able to get in for multiple bioposies at baylor university medical on monday, dec 21st. two days later, the day before christmas eve, she recived her diagnosis: papillary thyriod cancer in all three masses. she is only 25 years old.
fortunately, research and real life examples present the fact that thyriod cancer is VERY treatable. but, lauren has a long road ahead of her. she will now need to recieve surgery to remove her entire thyriod. she may also need to remove some lymph notes, dependent on whether or not the cancer has spread. after surgery, lauren will have to wait four weeks ( with no thyriod medication) before then recieving radioactive iodine treatment. lauren has an apt with MD anderson in houston, TX on january 4th to meet with a cancer specialist and surgeon. we will continue to update this page as lauren recieves more information.
lauren and kory have just under $5000 in life savings that will be used for medical expenses. she has health ins through her school, but it will not cover everything. these procedures are very expensive and then lauren will still have to take thyriod medication her entire life, in addition to follow up appointments and biannual cancer scans. we are not sure yet, but we are estimating the medical bills to end up at approx 20 thousand. the removal surgery alone is approx $11,500 but could be more.
lauren and kory work incredibly hard. unfortunetly, regarding costs, this is an extremely tight time for them both. lauren took a large pay cut to switch professions into teaching, and is currently in the midst of paying off the $3500 (intrest free) loan she had to take out in order to move (payback is over 18 months). because she is a first year teacher, she also has $450 deducted from her paycheck to cover the cost of her teaching certificate- a requirement of her school. this deduction takes place over 12 months, from aug 2015-aug 2016. since lauren and kory are both teachers, they do not make much money. as all teachers know, the job is done for goodwill, not the paycheck
again, they do have some savings to use for medical expenses. unfortunetly, though, their savings will only put a dent in the heap of bills lauren will recieve. i am asking anyone to please donate anything they can to this fund. if friends and family members can donate, this page may be able to expand to others in the gofund me network and lauren may be able to touch the heart of a generous stranger. anything at all helps.
lauren is the most self less person i know. she travels with a pack of goodies that she can hand out if she see homeless people along her day. if anyone deserves good karma in her time of need, it is this person. i love her with all my heart and ill do whatever it takes to help. she deserves any and all donations more than anyone i know.
thank you so much!
Organizer and beneficiary
Aria Edelman
Organizer
Fort Lauderdale, FL
lauren webber
Beneficiary