Donate to Ali beating stomach cancer

On September 21, 2022 Ali went in to get genetic testing done at the recommendation of her OBGYN to see if she had a BRCA gene mutation since her mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer at a younger-than-typical age. If someone has the BRCA mutation it means there is a 50% chance of getting breast cancer during their life. Ali did not even realize the test would actually look for multiple types of mutations, but found out when she got her results on October 12th. While Ali did not have the BRCA mutation, she learned she did have a mutation on her CDH1 gene. This gene puts her lifetime risk of developing breast cancer at 39-52% and her lifetime risk of developing gastric cancer at an alarming 83%. For comparison, the average person has a less than 1% risk of gastric cancer. This news came at a complete shock and things got real scary real fast.

While statistically most people with stomach cancer get it sometime in their 40s or 50s to aire on the side of caution, and because the type of stomach cancer the gene causes can spread fast, the first step was to make sure there wasn’t currently cancer in her stomach. On January 31st, Ali went in for an upper endoscopy, the only way to test for stomach cancer. The endoscopy consisted of going into her stomach and getting around 50 samples of tissue from different parts of the stomach lining. Why 50 you ask? Because stomach cancer is a nasty bastard that can hide on one tiny spot of the stomach wall and eventually spread quickly and to other organs if not caught.

On February 10th via a document sent to her email, Ali got the results — “A. Stomach, anterior wall, white patch @70cm, biopsy: singlet-ring cell carcinoma” — is what the first and most bold part of the biopsy results read. With no doctor around and her appointment not for another couple of days Ali did what we all do… she googled. With the results of her internet search too scary to speak aloud, Ali thought about keeping the information to herself. She eventually shared her results with her sister and her best friend, who dispute their frantic efforts to find some search result different than Ali’s, but ended up coming to the same heartbreaking conclusion… Ali had cancer in her stomach.

On February 13th, Ali’s doctor confirmed the tragic info we had been hoping was some kind of mix up. The universal standard of care recommendation is a surgery that Ali (with her weeks of time to research) knew was the best plan of action, a Total Gastrectomy. Ali will need to get her entire stomach removed as it’s the only way to ensure that all the cancer will be removed and also guarantee her risk in the future is 0%.

Ali’s surgery is scheduled for March 28th. Fortunately, like Ali’s doctor told her “someone is watching over her” because the chances of her doctor suggesting she get genetic testing done, and the chances of getting the test that included CDH1, the chances that one of the 50 stomach samples was in just the right spot… no matter if you are religious or not, we can all agree that the universe was watching over Ali for us. Unfortunately though, this surgery means high costs and no work for Ali for a while. Even with insurance, she has a high deductible and many work days ahead that she will be missing. This Go Fund Me is to help Ali in any way we can, large or small. So please donate.

We have learned a few things along the way: You can live without a stomach, there is a higher power keeping Ali safe, without a stomach you don’t feel hunger (crazy we know!) but one thing we knew all along is that Ali has an amazing support system and is surrounded by loads of people that love her. So if you can’t donate make sure to send Ali your love in whatever way you can!! We can all only imagine what life would be like after losing one of your organs, so while this will not be the easiest time in Ali’s life let’s make sure it’s one she remembers as the time she realized how many people care about her.

And lastly to bring it back to statistics for one last final number: Ali’s doctor, who specializes in stomach cancer and gastrectomies, has a 100% success rate!