On April 30, 2024, Brittany was diagnosed with invasive squamous cell carcinoma, a very aggressive cancer of the tongue and mouth. She was given 2 treatment options for the cancer to include either chemotherapy (chemo) and radiation or reconstructive surgery. She was told the treatments could possibility create either permanent speech impediment and/or voice change.

 

On May 30, 2024, Brittany was told the cancer was still treatable but it was a quickly and aggressive cancer with the tumor continuing to grow. The doctors told her the cancer would likely spread to her lymph nodes and other organs in a short amount of time. At that point there were no options available for treatment.

On June 24, 2024, and June 25, 2024, Brittany went to Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa to meet her team of doctors that would provide her with exceptional care. The doctors provided her with 2 treatment options, Chemo and radiation or tongue reconstructive surgery. They did a scan that showed the chemo and radiation option not being valid since the cancer would spread uncontrollably with that form of treatment so the safest option was surgery to extend her life.

The surgery would consist of removing half her tongue and could be more by the time the surgery was completed. The doctors also said they would be cutting her neck from side to side to reconstruct the floor of her mouth and to remove her lymph nodes. To reconstruct her tongue, they would create a graft from her left arm by taking her blood vessels, muscles, and skin from her wrist to her elbow. They would graft from her leg to replace the arm skin with cadaver skin being used on her leg. The surgery would last at least 9 hrs with her being hospitalized for at least seven days and up to 8 weeks being at home. After the surgery she would go through radiation treatment to kill any additional cancel cells remaining after the surgery. 

On August 6, 2024, she had her surgery that lasted 13 1/2 hours with the doctors removing 60 percent of her tongue, the entire right floor of her mouth, and all of her lymph nodes. The doctors rerouted all the nerves and muscles in her mouth so the blood would continue to flow during the healing process for the tongue and mouth. 

On August 26, 2024, Brittany received her pathology report from her surgery.  The doctor told her the cancer in her mouth was at Stage 3 so she would have to have chemo and radiation.

On August 28, 2024, her oncologist told her that the lymph nodes they took out during surgery were stage 4a. 

The doctors told her if she did both the chemo and radiation that she would have a 80 to 90 percent survival rate but if she did just the radiation her survival rate would be 15 percent with a chance of the cancer coming back even worse within a year. So she did both chemo and radiation everyday for the next 6 weeks in October 2024. During her chemo and radiation treatments, her left arm got infected from one of the stitches.

 

Brittany still goes to Tampa at least every 3 months for at least 2 to 3 days. She is in constant pain from the nerves growing back in her tongue, which the doctors want to do another tongue surgery. She has problems eating soft foods and drinking basic water from the scar tissue from the first surgery so she is having the scar tissue removed at her surgery scheduled for June 1, 2026. She is scheduled to see an oral surgeon in St Petersburg on May 29, 2026, to determine if she gets to keep her lower jaw which has started popping in and out of the socket from all the radiation she has already endured.  She has numerous appointments scheduled during the 2-3 days while she’s in Tampa and currently has upcoming appointments that she has to come up with $60,000 for just the two surgeries and oral surgeon office appointment mentioned above  to cover her co-pays that insurance doesn’t cover. 

She was told by the doctors when this all first started that she may not be able to sing again. Within a month of coming home from the hospital, Brittany was in church singing to praise her Heavenly Father above.

 

She will need more than the amount of money listed above so any financial assistance for back-and-forth expenses and copayments would be greatly appreciated by Brittany and her family.  She humbly thanks everyone for reading her story and for taking the time to donate to her desperate cause.

 

Please help Brittany keep on fighting for a chance at life. Any amount is greatly appreciated along with remembering her and her family in your prayers.

One thing Brittany has going for her and she constantly says God has her and she’s not worried about it all cause God will make a way and she is a winner either way regardless of whatever happens.

 

Thank you all for your support, donations, and prayers. God Bless.