Tani Easterling's Melanoma fund

May 29th, 2014 is a day Kenny and I will never forget. Just a week before my 29th birthday and almost 6 months after giving birth to our daughter, Hailey, I recieved a phone call from the doctor informing that the test has come back positive for Melanoma. It was crippling but we decided to stay optomistic and hope that we caught it early. July brought a gambit of testing MRI, CTScans and finally, on July 8th, my first surgery where they cut a 12 inch scar in my back and another one under my arm to remove 5 sentinel lymph nodes and get all the cancer.  
I went into my postop two weeks  later fully expecting the doctor to say "all clear cancer free" but that wasn't in our cards. What he did say was there was a large deposit in a lymph node, we need to go back in for another surgery. I won't lie I sat there and bawled with my mother before calling Kenny and letting him now we were a stage 3B. This wasn't suppose to happen I just couldn't believe it.  A week later bad went to worse when one of my stitches became infected and opened up my 12 inch incision on my back 75% so I had a gaping hole in my back that all we could do was pack and take antibiodics for that was bloody and very disguesting to even look at.  It is October 21st now and it has still not fully healed but we are down to a quarter size scab.
August 5th, 2014 I had my second surgery to remove 32 lymph nodes out of my right armpit and they installed a drain which stayed in until the last week in August when Hailey managed to pull it out herself. OUCH!
Sept 3rd I was back at the Surgical oncologist this time good news all 32 lymph nodes this time are clear!!
Just when we thought I was clear of hospitals we ended up back in the hosital again September 29th when the lymph fluid swelled to over 30oz  and made a infection that went all they way from my right breast into my armpit and on into the middle of my back. We spent almost 6 days in the hospital fighting the high fevers and infection and on day 3 recieved another surgery to remove the fluid and this time they putnot one but two drains in.

Now its time to start Interferon because Metasistic Melanoma has 45% recurrance rate. Today we found out that its going to cost a copay of $990.94 a month for the next 1-2 years after fighting with the insurance company to cover it in the first place. This on top of our thousands of hospital bills we just can't afford. So we are asking for some help. We understand some just can't afford to so we ask that if you are religous send up a prayer if you are atheletic next May join the AimforMelanoma 5k and if you are able please donate if you can. The most important thing we can say to you is PLEASE protect yourself and kids with sunscreen and hats and find some shade when you are out doors. Thank you!