Help Danielle Fight Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma

Hi there, this is Jennifer Mensen, Danielle Carver's mom. We are starting a funding page to help out Danielle with all her expenses that are happening right now. Since Danielle is not able to work and it could take months to get her some help through SSI if approved.

Danielle's 2024 started out so great it is hard to think of where this year has led her. An amazing friend, sister, girlfriend, and daughter, who always can make you laugh, and now we need to keep her spirits high and be strong for her.

Losing 40 pounds in 6 months, she was slowly becoming not herself. Working and still having fun, she struggled with back and leg pain; nothing was helping. Without health insurance, she did her best to go to low-cost clinics, chiropractic care, and massage therapy and keep the bills paid. Sciatica was what so many were associating this pain with, knowing there are back issues in her family, it totally made sense.

Soon it was too much. An ER visit with a follow-up with her primary doctor the following week got pain meds started and acknowledgment that her pain wasn't in her head. Her doctor knew that there was something very wrong right away. Not seeing her for a year, she was a totally different girl, and she ordered blood tests and wanted to schedule a CT scan the following week to see if there were any issues with her back.

The CT scan showed there was a mass in her abdomen, and an ultrasound was ordered to see if there was more information they could see from it. The blood tests were normal, nothing jumping out. After the ultrasound, more information was needed. Originally they thought she had an ovarian cyst, which she had had in the past, so it was a relief to show there was something pushing on her back. It wasn't in her head; the pain was caused by a mass. Her pain continued to worsen, and she no longer could work; standing and walking had become so painful.

Next, an MRI was done, and the mass was shown not to be on the ovary, but possibly from her soft tissues in her abdomen or her spine. An urgent referral to the U of M in Minneapolis was done, and Danielle saw an orthopedic oncology doctor. Figuring whether the tumor was benign or malignant, it was the place to start. A biopsy was ordered for the large tumor, and it was a very painful procedure to go through, but she got through it.

24 hours later, the doctor called and had a diagnosis of what the mass was. Cancer. A rare, aggressive cancer called Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma. A PET scan was ordered, and Danielle was scheduled to see a specialist in sarcomas. Going over her PET scan, it was found that she did have a mass in each of her lungs, and the doctor scheduled Danielle in for her first round of chemo treatment at the U of M and ordered another biopsy of the lung tumor and nearby lymph node while she was inpatient. Knowing that the treatment wouldn't change if they were the same type of tumor or if it was something else, the chemo would be aggressive and the treatment would cover all.

The first round was brutal, and after a week in the hospital, Danielle went home to recover. A week later, the biopsy results were in, and it was the same cancer; it had already spread to her lungs. This now made this cancer not curable. Being aggressive and metastatic, she would need to be on chemo the rest of her life to keep it at bay. Devastating is an understatement of what was felt with this news.

Round two of chemo is going on right now, and it has been even worse. The "red devil" chemo is the hardest of the three types that she is receiving. Fatigue, nausea, and pain totally take over.

Danielle has been able to secure health insurance, but there will be ongoing co-pays for visits/hospitalizations, medicine co-pays, and keeping her small amount of freedoms of a car and cell phone. Transportation costs, food, and items to keep her comfortable are other items that this fund will be used for.

Please feel free to send all the prayers and positive thoughts her way, she has had a lot to take in and deal with in just a short few weeks. Knowing this fund can take some of her burden off her, will ease her mind tremendously.

Thank you for anything that you can contribute,

Jennifer