Help support Sara's terminal cancer battle

Buckle up, this ones a doozie…

Sara Rodriguez : Stage 4 metastatic cervical cancer

My husband just lost his job and I just lost my health insurance. I am so scared right now.

This is my story.

Hi my name is Sara and I’m 34 years old. I’m from San Diego, California and consider it the greatest place in the world! I’ve had the privilege of finding true love and happiness in the little amount of life that I’ve been able to live and for that I am eternally grateful. In 2017 I had to move to Phoenix, Arizona for work and it has been one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had. Not only have I been completely isolated from friends and family, after 2 grueling years of unbearable pain, getting gaslit, lied to and belittled by numerous medical staff, for my 30th birthday I was unfortunately diagnosed with incurable Stage 4 Cervical Cancer that had metastasized and spread to almost all surrounding tissues, including (but not limited to) my bladder, pelvic floor, cervix, parts of my intestine and most recently my left lung, lymph nodes and an obscure area behind my abdomen. I was bullied by medical staff into agreeing to a surgery that would remove my bladder and sentence me to a lifetime of paying out of pocket for essential medical supplies. I was also not given the option to retrieve and freeze viable eggs in order to be able to start a family down the road, should I ever want to.

External and internal radiation was given to me under the pretext of how my bladder would be fine after the fact, as bladders “bounce back” extremely well after radiation. I was told this was one of the only options left for someone in my situation. A situation that wasn’t at all my fault but was still mine to deal with. I was at the mercy of medical staff. The same kind of people who put me in this position to begin with. My doctor assured me that “bladders can take a pounding and due to your age, I am more than confident that the positive outcomes entirely outweigh the negative” and that this was the only option combined with aggressive chemotherapy to ensure the best outcome. These doctors assured me I would be able to keep my bladder as long as the cancer presented shrunk.

Let me also piggyback that statement with the fact that if the doctors had listened to me initially YEARS before when I had come to them, I would have been at an early enough stage to have been curable. I have been handed a death sentence all because women’s health isn’t taken as seriously as it should be.

Also, I have found that in being completely transparent with my health/terminal cancer journey, there are so many people out there that share eerily similar stories with mine. It is not only heartbreaking but also fills me with a white-hot rage because of so many people’s health and quality of life not taken seriously at all. That all it took was literally ONE person to care, and these people would be alive or at the very least living the quality of life they deserve.

Since the beginning of this dehumanizing journey, I was forced to embark on, I have lost countless organs, friends, family, living situations, money, job opportunities, I mean the list goes on. On top of the irreparable damage that cancer continues to do to my body and mind, I am now forced to use medical equipment every day for the rest of my life and my insurance doesn’t even cover any of it. I have immunotherapy infusions every 21 days until I die as well, and believe it or not my insurance fights me every chance they get because they believe that I deserve to foot the outrageous bill for this life-prolonging infusion therapy.

As a direct result of dying from cancer at such a young age, I have no savings to fall back on, no nest egg, basically nothing to help me. Any money that I had managed to save was quickly depleted because of the everyday bills I struggle to fund. As a young recipient of state disability, let me tell you first hand that it isn’t even enough to pay my rent. All I want to do with what little time I have left is be able to be back in southern California so I can make funeral arrangements and be buried where all my friends and family can come visit as much as they can. I just want to spend time with my husband, I just want to spend my time left with loved ones. I think that’s something we all deserve.

There is no bucket list for me, well at least not one that matters. I'd love to be able to have a more reliable car instead of having to pour what little savings I can scrape together into one that is prone to issues. When it rains it pours and this would be the icing on the cake if it finally decided to die on us. Sure I could sit here and tell everyone how its my dream to have a real wedding reception with my husband and have a real dress instead of going to a 24 hour chapel with 2 witnesses. How spending time with him is my idea of heaven and its all I want to do. I would say how I want to start the first of many non-profits that cater to the less fortunate and provide free healthcare and supplies so no one has to struggle the way I’ve had to and scrape together what little money I have in order to make sure I don’t get an infection as a result of not having the medical equipment I need.

My bucket list quickly turns into a well of sorts when I start to think about my imminent and impending doom. None of this is fair. I am so sad and gutted that I’m hurting my loved ones in this way. That no matter what happens I still won’t live to see 40. I won’t be able to watch my nieces and nephews grow up. I won’t be able feel the joy of being a mother with my husband who would be the perfect dad. Not only have I been robbed of the joy of creating life and a family, but he too has also been stripped of that happiness. Everyone who loves me has to watch me slowly and painfully die, all because multiple doctors refused to help me, chose to misdiagnose me and refuse me pelvic exams until my tumor had grown so large they had to put stents in my kidneys with nephrostomy tubes connected to drainage bags, only to give me a radical hysterectomy all before I turned 31. They also kept me drugged, confused and alone only to inform me upon waking up from a 7+ hour surgery that I no longer had a bladder and the “Ostomy/Ileal Conduit” section of the hospital was being demolished and they gave me zero resources as to where to find the equipment I would need for the rest of my life. That is absolutely something I would not have agreed to in my right state of mind. And the fact that I wasn’t allowed to have anyone there to advocate for me while I was on so many prescribed narcotics is a glaring violation of my rights as a patient. Every morning when I wake up, I’m reminded how my life is forever changed because of doctors making decisions for me. My appearance is forever altered. Even on my best days I feel like an ugly shadow of the bright, beautiful person I once was before all of this. It breaks my heart everyday.

Banner Boswell in Sun City, Arizona definitely needs a lesson on bedside manner.

My goal with this fund is simple; I would like the opportunity to move back to San Diego and be as close to my loved ones as possible before die. All I want is to be able to hug everyone. I miss them all so damn much. Moving here to Arizona was never meant to be permanent. It was a job relocation turned into a cancer diagnosis nightmare from which I’ve never been able to financially recover. I live with my husband, 2 senior dogs and a mom who is currently living with end stage kidney failure and is slowly inching towards a life hooked up to a dialysis machine. So, on top of having to manage this grueling disease, scraping together just enough money to pay my rent and put food on the table, I also have help take care of my ailing mother. Put aside all the stress that comes along with that, I feel very honored and blessed to be fortunate enough to get to see my mom everyday and make her laugh as much as I can. It’s my job to make her smile and be as comfortable as possible. All we can do is our best with what we’ve been given. In that respect I am one lucky girl.

So please, if anyone knows of anywhere that is willing to rent to my family and I, I would appreciate the recommendation. My husband just lost his job, and my insurance with it which is just awful. without it I can't get my cancer treatment and I will die even sooner in a place that I hate, far away from my loved ones. We always pay our rent, my husband is very handy and can fix almost anything and honestly, we will do whatever is required to get out of Arizona and back to California. The summer is fast approaching, and we won’t be able to pay the 500.00+ in monthly electric bill and that part of the year gets so hot that the temperature reaches upwards of 115 degrees for up to a month straight and it quickly turns into a life or death situation! This California girl will never get used to the Arizona heat, but I mean, does anyone really?

So please, if you can find it in your heart to at least get the word out about my situation I would greatly appreciate it! I would like to say thank you even for just reading.

In these uncertain times where inflation is at its highest and we’re all living paycheck to paycheck I absolutely understand if you can’t donate. I never thought I’d publicly ask for help but then again, I also never thought my life would turn out this way. The universe is funny that way I guess. You have to see the good in every situation. Also please remember to always take the time to see your doctor, get check ups as often as possible and do not, I repeat, DO NOT take this life for granted! Advocate for yourself as much as you can. Don’t ever stop fighting and give yourself grace and love. Tell people you love them. Don’t spend any more time doing things you don’t want to do. Live your life with love and devotion. Take it from someone who was diagnosed with a terminal illness at a young age, life is so short. Make sure you can look back on everyday that you get to live and are proud of how you lived it.

Thank You so much for taking the time to hear my story. Although it is ending on what feels like an unbearably sad note, I’d like to be remembered not for my illness or tragedies, but as someone who stayed positive and hopeful until the end. Someone who looked death in the face everyday and rolled her eyes into oblivion. Someone who believed in the good of humanity and how love is the most important thing to learn and share in the short time we’re given. I have loved and lost, battled and won, I have truly lived and for that I am eternally grateful.