Hello World!

My name is Amanda, and I have the distinct pleasure to be Emily’s older sister. I know everyone says this, but I truly have the coolest and best little sister. Kind, funny, compassionate, and quick to help anyone that she can - she always goes above and beyond. Unfortunately, she has apparently also applied this to getting stage 4 cancer at the ripe age of 26. Bonus points for a rare variety - Leiomyosarcoma (arterial). This is traditionally a cancer that is caught much later in life, as it affects smooth muscle that we do not notice in our day to day lives. As such its prognosis is typically rough for the older people who finally find it as it spreads and spreads fast. Emily’s is pretty well spread (that's what the stage 4 part means) and she has begun aggressive chemotherapy to help fight it.

(Chemo - day 1!)

This has been a whirlwind few years for us all, but for our family specifically, between the loss of our Dad, Great Uncle Franz, Uncle Kevin, a cancer and health scares for our Opa and Oma, Mom’s knee replacement, Grandmas hip surgery, being laid off from work, and then the blood clots Emily thought she had to turning out to actually be cancer - Emily has definitely been the spoon you accidentally forgot was in the drain before turning on the garbage disposal.

Luckily, Emily’s diagnosis of leiomyosarcoma came during our COBRA time period after being laid off. This means she can continue her previous insurance coverage and receive the best care through the Mayo Clinic Cancer Treatment Center. Unfortunately this means that she’s paying COBRA premiums at just shy of a grand a month plus any other medical expenses that seem to keep piling up (healthcare, I tell ya). We want Emily to focus on staying healthy, positive, and fighting this rare and aggressive type of cancer - not worrying about being able to cover her COBRA payments/etc as working is definitely not in the cards currently.

This brings us to you all! We have had such an outpouring of love and offers of support to help during this time, and many of you have asked if there is a gofundme - well here we are! Any help is greatly appreciated and will go towards Emily’s premiums, copays, medications, and other medical expenses that can help free up her brain power to focus on her and her healing.

We’ll definitely keep this updated for any news and excitement and hope you’ll reach out if you have any questions! Emily is a fighter and we’re ready to kick butt!