My name is Becky and I'm fundraising on behalf of my little sister, Melissa Joy. In December of 2023, Melissa had lower abdominal pain, and it felt hard to the touch. A trip to the E.R. and a CT scan opened up Pandora's box. Melissa had so much cancer in her abdominal cavity that they didn't know how to proceed. Merry Christmas... She had to stay quarantined for the holidays to not risk any illness that would prevent surgery. After a failed attempt to remove the cancer, it proved that it was more invasive than we thought. Biopsies came back malignant, stage 4, goblet cell adenocarcinoma of the appendix.

6 IV chemo treatments later, we were in the Danbury Hospital waiting for them to take Melissa in for surgery. They cut her from breastbone to pelvic bone. They did a full hysterectomy because they found that the cancer had spread to her ovaries, uterus, abdominal wall, spleen, gall bladder, appendix, and part of the right side of her colon. They removed it all, then they scraped her entire abdominal cavity. Once they felt they removed all cancer cells that could be seen to the naked eye, they poured chemo inside that cavity for 90 minutes. Melissa's recovery was tough to watch. She cried through the pain while thanking her team for all they were doing for her.

Once recovered, it was 12 more bi-weekly rounds of chemo. The specific chemo that Missy was on causes temporary neuropathy in her fingertips, throat, and whatever else is exposed to cold. She had nausea, vomiting, headaches, diarrhea, lethargy, mouth sores, and ended up weighing just over 100 lbs.

Today - Missy had her 1st scan since 12 rounds of chemo, and we are so blessed to say that there are no signs of cancer!!!!!!

Unfortunately, during this process, Missy herniated a disc in her spine and developed an abdominal hernia after her major surgery, which are preventing her from working. Melissa is a school bus driver with her class B CDL and is unable to drive on pain meds. In order to stop the meds, 2 more surgeries are needed. The 1st will be on January 22 to fix her spine. After 2 failed epidural treatments, this is her only hope. 6 weeks later, she will go back under sedation to repair the hernia that is also causing her severe pain. Once both surgeries are complete, Melissa will be due for her next round of scans to see where she stands with treatments.

In the meantime, Melissa is a mom to 2 teenagers, she has a few kitties that she rescued years ago and loves dearly, and she has no income. She doesn't qualify for disability because she hasn't worked since the beginning of this nasty disease.

The fact that my beautiful sister has finally agreed to let me post this shows me that she is finally ready to stop fighting this fight herself and to let us help her.

The reality is that we don't know what stage 4 of this very rare disease means, so she lives in the moment. If we could help relieve some of the financial burdens of life, Melissa can focus on her upcoming surgeries and recovery instead of the stress of making ends meet. I thank you on behalf of Melissa, her 2 beautiful children, and our entire family.