Jennifer's Cancer Journey

Hi, my name is Jennifer.

My journey began on March 25, 2024. I went into the emergency room with cognitive issues. I couldn't put my thoughts into words. I was having trouble writing and was in a mental fog. They did some bloodwork and an MRI. The results came back, I had a mass in my head! They did another scan of my body, and that came back with another larger mass in my left lung!!

CANCER!!

Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer stage 4.

On March 29, 2024, I had brain surgery to remove the tumor. The surgery was a success; they removed all of the tumor! Right away, I noticed a difference. I was back to my old self!

So, on to the next step, treatment. The plan was radiation to the head, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. I received 3 rounds of radiation to the head. I also received rounds of chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

Move forward to August 6, 2024. I had another PET scan done to see if the treatments were working. It did!!!! The mass in my lung had shrunk!!! But it was not gone. So I was not in the clear yet. They had me do more rounds of chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

On September 23, 2024, they did another PET scan to check the progress. This time the news wasn't as good. The tumor in my lung stopped responding to treatments. It started growing again. Devastating news!!

I was heartbroken. As a 45 year old mother, grandmother and wife.....so many questions ran through my mind! I asked my doctor, "Now what?" He responded with a new plan.

I will be exposed to daily radiation sessions for the next 6 weeks to the lung and chemotherapy weekly, with another scan in the future to see if anything is helping!

This journey has not only affected my health obviously, but also paying for everything has become a challenge. Unfortunately not having insurance has been the biggest challenge of it all. I fortunately live in the same town as my treatments are but it's still impossible to pay for the treatments that the doctors have tried and for what is yet to come.

I have qualified for financial help through a discount program with the hospital. But so far even with their help, the cost of my treatments is still over $100,000. I am only able to work roughly 20 hours a week due to side effects of the treatments. So bills are adding up fast.

Anything will help my journey going forward and I will be forever grateful.

With that being said that is the plan so far for my battle with stage 4 lung cancer. One day at a time......

Thank you,

Jennifer