June 18th, 2024 I had my first follow-up PET scan following my completions of Surgeries and Chemo's in 2023. The set of scans came back showing that I had a tumor growing in my pulmonary artery and I would begin chemo right away. Six rounds of chemo later, the tumor has shown decreased activity and has slightly decreased in size. The only way to have a shot at a cancer-free life is to have open heart surgery sometime in November. This by far is the most riskiest surgery to date, out of all my cancer-related surgeries and the recovery post-surgery will be long and hard. Typical recovery time is 4-6 months, however, I'll also be undergoing 6 additional rounds of chemo post-surgery, which will inevitably slow down the recovery time and take even longer.

During a significant portion of the recovery time, I will not be able to work. Not only will we experience a significant drop in income but we will also be responsible for new deductibles and out of pocket expenses occurring the beginning of 2025.

At this time, I would like to restart this GoFundMe with the $30,485 being essentially $0.

Thank you all who have donated in the past - it was tremendously helpful last year for the 10 months that we were impacted financially last year! In hopes of staying out of further debt and being able to alleviate stress on my wife who has been tirelessly working a 2nd job, your donations are extremely helpful and much appreciated! #fuckcancer

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Update: I finished my 4th round of chemo 4 weeks ago and I am scheduled for surgery tomorrow to remove the mass, replace my knee, and a 4-5" femur resection. Overall the mass on my femur, rib and lung are showing inactivity. There is not a timeline yet as to when they will remove the mass on my rib and lung.

The overall recovery time for this surgery will be many months. I'll be in the hospital for 3-5 days following surgery to make sure there is no infection. I'll be off work for around 2 weeks and I meet with my ortho surgeon again 6/26 and my Oncology Doctor on 6/27. From there chemo will resume sometime in early July. It will be different than the chemo I had prior- at this time we are unsure how long each chemo will be but I do know it will go well into the New Year with Chemo treatments to ensure it's not in my bloodstream.

I appreciate everyone's support so far! The GoFundMe has been very helpful with days off as they have been and will continue to be unpaid for days missed due to anything Health/Cancer related.

I'll update everyone in the next few weeks to let everyone know how post-surgery life is going! Thank you all for the love and support - Nicole

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My name is Amber Peters and I am writing on behalf of my dear friend and co-worker Nicole Hoeneman. She recently went to what she thought would be a routine doctor appointment as she was having some pain in her knee. However, the MRI revealed she had a 5 centimeter tumor in her femur bone. After doing a biopsy, she found out that she has sarcoma, a rare soft tissue and bone cancer. Nicole right away started making appointments with her oncology doctors and nutritionist to get a head start on treatment. She had a PET scan last Wednesday and received the devastating news that the cancer is stage 4 and has spread to her right lung and left rib cage. Shortly after the PET scan, the radiologist informed her she needed to go to the ER right away because she had a pulmonary embolism in her lung that needed immediate attention.

While in the ER, they were able to get a PICC line inserted so she could start chemo right away. She has finished her first round of chemo after 5 days in the hospital and is resting at home as comfortably as possible. Nicole has a long road ahead of her as the plan is to do 4-6 rounds of aggressive chemo treatments which could be a 4 month process. After chemo, she will have radiation to further shrink the tumors and if that is successful then she will have surgery to remove the tumor on the femur. They will have to reconstruct her femur bone because of where it’s placed.

With all of this being said, Nicole will not be able to work as much as she would like to as she is going through chemo and radiation treatments. She still has bills to pay and the medical expenses are piling up. I am setting up this go fund me to help alleviate the financial burden of this all so she can focus her energy on her health and beating this cancer! If you are unable to contribute financially, I please ask that you keep Nicole and her fiancé Nikki in your thoughts and prayers as they are going through an unimaginable time right now. Appreciate any positive thoughts and uplifting comments to send her way!

Lots of Love,

Amber