Donate for Christina's Cancer Treatment Costs

A little over a year ago, shortly after a doctor’s appointment for Christina, she and I took a day to drive out and finally buy myself a new-used car. It wasn’t my favorite idea and she had to drag me out a bit reluctantly (I hate the idea of spending the money). By the end of the day, though, I had a new-to-me car, and we’d had lunch at a nice little Italian market next door to the dealership. I’m thankful for that day because the next few changed our whole world.

 

The next day, Christina would get the call that our worst fears were true.

Results of testing at the doctor’s appointment confirmed that she had cancer. 

 

This wasn’t any old cancer, either, it would turn out. This was Stage III Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), an aggressive type that requires immediate intervention. 

She was, thankfully, rushed into chemotherapy just as soon as it could be arranged. From the day of her diagnosis to now, not a week has passed that she’s not had a doctor’s appointment, contact about treatment, chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, surgery consult, etc., etc., the list goes on.

The good news we cling to: Following months of chemo, dual mastectomy surgery, and lymph node removal, Christina effectively achieved pathologic Complete Response (pCR), meaning there remains No Evidence of Disease (NED). These are important terms, and constitute the best possible short-term outcome in the given situation.

Throughout the process, and in true Christina fashion, every step came with its own off-color joke, weird comments, and the attitude we all know and love. She found funny shirts to wear to chemo and demanded she was awaiting superpowers from radiation — if she had to go through all this, she at least deserved to be a mutant like the X-Men. You should ask about the tattoo idea that shocked a laugh out of nearly all the medical staff.

 

Even with her efforts to adapt to the situation as positively as possible it was a profoundly challenging time. It has been, after all, a battle she’s essentially fighting against her own body.

But one could best liken combatting TNBC in our country to a sprint… …with hurdles… …on top of two marathons.

 

We’re now moving past the sprint’s biggest hurdles: 

 

The rush into 8 rounds of chemo. The AC+T (Adriamycin & Cyclophosphamide + Taxol) regimen standard for TNBC is usually administered over 12 sessions, but our oncologist recommended a dose-dense 8 sessions over four months, concluding August 6th. During the process, a thick layer of Christina’s heels peeled off, making it painful to place weight on her feet. Despite some early success with cold-capping kindly donated by some wonderful family members, she experienced the hair loss typical of chemotherapy. And most profoundly, she was impacted by the fatigue, at times struggling with stairs and being left out of breath simply walking from one room to another.

 

On September 22nd, 2021, Christina had a double mastectomy, including the removal of 26 lymph nodes (for those lacking context, that’s *a lot*), followed by a lengthy healing process. (She would like it noted that out of all her new cancer friends, she gets awarded “Head of Class” for most lymph nodes removed).

 

On January 13th, 2022, Christina began her first of 28 rounds of radiation that would be administered over a month, to which she showed impressive resilience.

 

On March 10th, 2022, Christina got her port out! This was a relief and a little milestone — while she often joked about it as her “doorbell” (because it did feel like they’d implanted a doorbell mechanism, she insisted), it annoyed, felt alien, and was uncomfortable at times.

 

…but even with all that, she has more to follow; reconstruction, continuous physical therapy to help prevent lymphedema, fatigue recovery, and therapy to help with all the changes.

 

And then comes The First Marathon: Years of vigilance and check-ups to ensure nothing escaped to proliferate at a later date in her body. Her result of pCR is the best guarantee we have against that, but it’s not 100%. If it comes back, she returns to The Sprint.

 

The Second Marathon she’s been running this whole time, but it continues to grow in front of her. That Second Marathon is the one you can help with; it is the growing cost of medical treatment. Although Christina concluded chemotherapy last year, she continues to see bills from it. There are bills from her past surgery. She has only just recently completed radiation and has not yet seen all the bills from that. And of course, there are surgeries yet to come.

 

Throughout this, she has been the most amazing trooper. She worked through chemo, rarely taking time off but for the unavoidable demands of scheduling doctors appointments and chemotherapy sessions during which she could not be at her computer to do the work her job demands. She also continued to take classes to further her education, negotiating that path around the rigors of major surgery and recovery.

 

Her upbringing imbued her with a selfless drive to help others, paired with an indomitable sense of independence and self-reliance. So indomitable in fact that she will not make this appeal for assistance herself.

 

But I can see the toll these pressures are taking on her. And she’s been through so much already. So, I am asking you for her — for her health and well-being — to help retire the mounting medical debt placed upon her by an utterly unfair disease that will touch us all in one way or another. That is all I am asking.

I have done all that I can. It was our plan upon buying our house in 2019 to split everything 50/50, but since this, I have taken on the costs of housing — mortgage payments, utilities, a recent whole HVAC replacement, and other bills — myself, so she can place her focus on her medical costs. We purchased wisely and within our means, so one of us alone can support the whole, but my job — one never meant to make me rich — leaves me running out of resources to help further.

We live, it is said, in a country with some of the best, most advanced medical care. However, our country is better known for that care costing the most of any in the developed world, making it the best… …if you can afford it. There are no good answers for why that is; there is only need.

And Christina needs your help now. Please give.