Help Sarah Barone Fight Cancer & Medical Debt

Hello Everyone,

My name is Sarah Barone. I grew up in Sandusky, Ohio, and my maiden name was Brown. I have 3 amazing kids who are all busy and successful. Starting years ago, I was not feeling right and began to see doctors. Each one would tell me I am fine and say everything is perfect, I’m the picture of health, and send me on my way. Between losing my hair, memory loss, severe migraines, always being cold, always being sweaty, having no energy, and my hands going numb and tingly, I knew there was something wrong that they weren’t finding.

My family moved to Colorado 1.5 years ago. The doctors out here have been amazing. It took a couple of tries to find my doctor, but I found a doctor who actually dug into my issues. He ordered an ultrasound on my thyroid and a “worrisome nodule” was found. This led me to get a biopsy of my thyroid. Thyroid biopsies are awful for anyone wondering. As a side note, I went in and they told me it would be $1,600 even with my insurance for the biopsy. I told them I can’t do that, I cried, and I left. I came home and made insurance calls, and my mom talked me into rescheduling. I went back 1 week later, had, and paid for the biopsies. When I was in there, they told me my lymph node needed biopsies too.

In the meantime, I had a routine visit with a dermatologist. I walked in, her eyes got big, and she said, “That on your face is melanoma, may I please biopsy it and send it out?” Coincidentally, both these appointments were on the same day. 3 biopsies in 1 day. One week later, on November 7th, I got a call from the dermatologist saying that I have skin cancer called melanoma. She led me through the next steps. My doctor said he didn’t want to tell me my results over the phone; he wanted to meet in person. At this point, I knew it was bad. I did have thyroid cancer and cancer in my lymph nodes. 3 biopsies and all 3 were cancerous. Phone calls were made, appointments were booked, and surgeries were scheduled. I got my face cancer-free first. This now involves a beautiful big scar across my entire face. Days ago, I had my thyroid surgery. My doctor said it was worse than he thought. He had to take several lymph nodes out, my thyroid out, and my parathyroid glands that regulate calcium were shot. He had to take all but one out and tried his best to repair the remaining one.

I’m 4 days out from surgery. **$8,000 in credit card debt.** I have good insurance; it’s just the out-of-pocket and deductible had to be met. Being that we are usually very healthy, we had to pay the whole thing, and of course, it happens at the end of the year, so I will have to repay all of the deductibles and out-of-pocket again in a matter of weeks. Next up, I have to meet with an endocrinologist for radioactive iodine. After that, I will get a body scan to see if the cancer has spread anywhere else through my body. This has been a very scary time and will continue to be until that scan, fingers crossed, reads no cancer…

A lot of people have reached out and said please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help. **This is it, helping to pay off my medical credit card debt to relieve that stress and focus on my healing health.** Thank you for listening to my story. Get your routine checks, advocate for yourself if you know something is wrong with your body. I never in a million years would’ve thought I would be fighting this battle because “I take care of myself.” I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs, I don’t smoke, I only have 4 oz of coffee a day, I do yoga, meditate, walk daily, I don’t drink soda, I don’t eat processed foods, and here I am, fighting cancer. Thank you, friends and family ❤️