Join Kirsten's Journey to Beat Cancer

On 1/7/25, Kirsten went in for her annual OBGYN appointment and pap smear, feeling completely healthy. That weekend, she received a call from her doctor stating, “Do you have somewhere private you can talk right now.” and her stomach dropped. Her pap smear came back with a severe amount of abnormal cells, and she would be required to go in for an urgent procedure involving multiple cervical biopsies.

On 1/28/25, in-depth test results diagnosed her with Cervical Cancer at just 28 years old. She will be going in for surgery to remove the cancer on the morning of 2/25/25 at St Vincents through Hartford Healthcare and will have a post-op procedure done on 3/12/25 to determine if another surgery is necessary.

The donation goal is a sum of the below expenses:

If you are unable to physically donate at this time, Kirsten requests your thoughts and prayers for her while battling cancer.

UPDATE 2/26/25:

Kirsten’s surgery went well under Dr Gottschall at St Vincents Hospital. Recovery is painful, so your continued support and prayers are much needed at this time. Kirsten’s diagnosis is an extremely rare non HPV related cervical cancer. There are concerns currently about the abnormal rate at which the pre-cancer originated and became invasive (less than a year). She will go into a post-op procedure on 3/12 to determine if the cancer is eradicated. She will need routine exams to ensure that the cancer has not returned.

UPDATE 4/21/25

Pathology had came back and indicated that although Kirsten’s uterus was precancer and cancer free, the surgery had not rid her entirely of her cervical cancer. Due to healing time, further procedures to treat her cancer can not be completed until 9/26/25 at the soonest. In the midst of everything, Kirsten was admitted to the ER on 3/19, due to neurological concerns including episodes of confusion, short term memory loss, food aversion, extreme fatigue, and an increase in absent seizures. Lab work has indicated a possible autoimmune disease with the hormonal changes due to the cervical cancer causing these neurological flare ups. She is also consequently dealing with an extreme Vitamin D deficiency. Kirsten will be going to the neurologist on 4/25 for a MRI and further tests to determine a treatment plan with her medical team whilst she has to hold off on further surgeries. There’s good days and bad days, but Kirsten is hanging in there and appreciates all of the support and prayers.

UPDATE 4/28/25

After visiting the Neurologist, Kirsten now has a treatment plan in order. She will be undergoing a brain MRI through Hartford Healthcare Radiology, an EEG through Neuology Specialists (HH) of Stratford, a sleep study through Hartford Healthcare Sleep Neurology, and a followup jointly between her PCP and Neurologist. All of this treatment will be costly, so she appreciates all support she gets to pay for this. After multiple labs and a review of her symptoms, her Neurologist feels that her cancer is causing her fluctuating hormones to cause a flare up NOT of Hashimoto, but rather a different autoimmune disease; Narcilepsy. She will also be tested for suspected Epilepsy due to frequency of her absent seizures. Unfortunately, if Narcilepsy and Epilepsy are indeed the cause of her symptoms, on top of having low functioning Panic Disorder, Kirsten will have to give up her goal of being able to drive-one she has held on strongly to despite everything being against her.

Although cancer treatment looms on the horizon of this Fall, Kirsten hopes to spend her time before then treating the neurological symptoms, teaching and doing activities with her kids during the summer, being productive at work and spending time at events with her coworkers, watching her best friend get married to his sweetheart, and attending her sister’s wedding as the maid of honor- arguably the hardest thing of all!