A helping hand for Patty

All of us have had an experience (or experiences) that teach us that life can change in the blink of an eye.  We know what it's like to feel panic when we are diagnosed with an illness that may affect our ability to support our family, to meet our out-of-pocket expenses not covered by our insurance, to count our sick days and realize we simply don't have enough of them, to worry how we will pay our bills and keep our home. 

We are silently grateful when an unexpected event doesn't affect us directly, but we are also fiercely loyal and protective when a friend or family member is affected.  Our dear friend and colleague has been diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma, a common type of breast cancer whose definition says: the cancer cells have broken out of the lobule where they began and have the potential to spread to the lymph nodes and other areas of the body. Already, there have been many medical tests that were needed to rule out the spread of the cancer to other areas of her body, and these tests required her to miss work.  There have been emotional days of waiting and hoping that the tests don't reveal something even more devastating.  No doubt the medical bills will soon start coming.  Treatment consists of medicine once a day for 24 weeks and two injections into the muscle ever four weeks for 24 weeks.  After treatment, more testing and monitoring will be required, including biopsies, mammograms, blood tests, ultrasounds, etc.  After 6 months of treatment, surgery will be performed and the results of that surgery will determine whether chemotherapy will be required.  

We know how important help and support is when a friend is diagnosed with an illness.  We want to do anything we can to alleviate that friend's worries.  Help is the easiest thing to offer.  We can't give our friend bravery.  We can't give our friend strength.  We can't give our friend a different diagnosis.  What we can do is prop our friend up with love and financial support.  We can alleviate some of the worries.  We can let our hearts and pocketbooks work together and we can give whatever we can to help ease the weight on our friend.  Please consider giving whatever you can to help our friend Patty.  She would be the first one in line to do the same for each and every one of her friends.  Thank you!