Help Rebekka during her battle through Stage 4 Cancer

Help me help Rebekka!

I’m reaching out to friends and family or anyone willing to help through this impossible time.. As you probably can’t even begin to imagine, being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer has turned our dear friend Rebekkas life upside down.

I met Rebekka through work and she’s the kind of coworker you want to keep around. Through this she’s shown me what a good human looks like. The most kind and caring, considerate individual. She’s so determined and just doesn’t give up. Her pride simply won’t let her.

It’s hard seeing such a great person face such huge obstacles and that’s why I’m here. Rebekka’s diagnosis happened very quickly, which I’m sure feels like a blink of an eye to her… since then she’s not able to work the 40+ hours that she had been used to for obvious reasons and also to be able to apply for assistance. The problem with assistance is that she cannot receive any funds until 6 months from the diagnosis. As you can imagine it’s impossible to only be able to work 18 hour weeks when she feels good enough to, and still be able to take care of herself, her son, and her home. Along with things like a car payment, insurance, rent, gas, and just necessities.. We’re asking anyone that can help donate or share this to get the word out to make things easier for Rebekka. Even if you’d like to pay a bill directly rather than donate something we can set that up!

Rebekka knows Rebekka best, so here is her story, from her:

“Stage 4 Metastatic Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Anus

Yup. I suppose I’ll begin by addressing the word that made most of you flinch and some of you stop reading already…Anus.

It’s taken me the majority of the past three months to say it out loud myself instead of shielding my embarrassment under the umbrella of other colorectal cancers.

I’m not some weird deviant, I am quite a regular person, really.

I am 44 years old. I have a 15 year-old son, I was born and raised in St. Louis, I have a bachelors degree, I have hobbies and I participate and support my son in his.

It just so happens that my (ahem) anus is where my cancer originated. An uninvited obnoxious T4 tumor, which apparently, for however many years, decided to park itself right *there* and divide and multiply its nasty cells uncontrollably, with no rules, no boundaries, and no detection.

Wednesday, April 24th I had swelling and intense pain in my inner thigh. I looked at the area and could tell that I had an infection inside, underneath the skin because in two spots I could see it towards the surface. It was the color of death…that dark, blackish greenish brown color. and it was the color of death beneath my skin…and as if in a sci-fi or horror movie, it was doubling in size every hour.

I drove to the ER. I had expected to be admitted probably overnight with antibiotics and an IV

I had no idea at that moment l, from that moment forward, my life, my timeline veered on a tangent, an alternate course which I could have never predicted.

April 24th: CT scan and Emergency surgery

April 25th: Debridement surgery #2

April 26 debridement surgery #3

Diagnosis: Necrotizing Fasciitis, Severe Sepsis, Hypokalemia, AKI (acute kidney injury), rectal mass, and abscess of anal and rectal regions

The debridements left me with a very large wound on my right side read end about 4“ x 6“ and extended internally so deep that you could literally have pinched my glute. Everything was exposed, all the way up to my gluteus Maximus, all the way down my rectum exposing just about my entire internal pelvic region. It also exposed a massive tumor.

April 27: additional pelvic and abdominal MRI’s, chest CT, and in conjunction with the biopsies, confirmed that it was in fact a T4 N2 tumor and that there were multiple cancerous legions throughout my liver, legions in my lungs, and metastasized lymph nodes.

It was this day that the diagnosis was explained to me. Stage 4, metastasized, lymphatic, anal carcinoma with a massive primary tumor which had grown through the confines of the rectal canal allowing debris from each bowel movement to escape internally, where obviously human waste is not designed to go, therefore causing the life-threatening necrotic infection.

The first word out of my oncologist’s mouth was “palliative”. Eminent end of life consequences within the next few months if I opted to simply go home, or if I were to participate in their palliative care plan, a marginal chance that I may see my 15 year old son graduate from high school.

Diagnosis: Stage IV Metastatic Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Anus

April 28: Infectious Diseases determines 3-4 month intense antibiotic therapy is necessary for the massive debridement wound to heal and reduce the chance of tue infection reoccurring

April 30: PICC line procedure

May 2: ostomy surgery performed to divert internal waste away from the anal rectal area, thus ensuring that human waste would not infect or reinfect any other internal regions or organs

May 4: discharged from hospital

May 5-27: daily appointments at Infectiius Diseases for continued antibiotic treatment administered via portable IV machine through the PICC line

May 14: Radiation therapy mapping

May 15: chemo port surgery

May 29-June 18: daily radiation therapy

June 28-present: 28 weeks of Chemotherapy (Paclitaxel and Carboplatin)

Since April 24, I have have been living on the tangent timeline of 2024, which is and will be my reality. Because the reality is that Cancer is everywhere in me and there is no cure for it.

I do face tremendous obstacles to navigate through- because of the physical changes to my body, because of the changes to daily routine with daily appointments and therapies, because of the changes in my thought process. However I’ll obviously still face real challenges of operating and living with the same expectations and obligations that every living adult has.

However, strange it may seem, My way of coping and processing all of this is rather comical and sarcastic. I wear my new ‘accessories’ (ostomy pouch, exposed tumor) flawlessly day in and day out. I was smiling and laughing when I realized it had been weeks since I had to shave my legs or my armpits and that was only during radiation therapy. I hadn’t even begun chemo yet. I laugh about each mosquito bite that I get, because that mosquito just got a sucker full of some of the most toxic, poisonous substances. I joke about instead of dream home shopping for retirement that I am funeral home shopping for my internment.

Sarcastically, I boast that my body must absolutely thrive on poison because I feel great. And that’s the amazing thing. I am not joking or being sarcastic when I say with complete honesty that despite all of the life changing aspects of the last three months I truly feel healthier happier and have such an incredible sense of relief. I feel so much better than I did in the months, the years leading up to that hospitalization. I am eternally thankful that I have an opportunity to be comfortable, to be myself, and to have friends, acquaintances, and family to share my eternal gratitude and sarcasm with.“