Julie’s STAGE 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer PLS SHARE

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Hi my name is

Julie OSteen

I am a mother of one precious little 5 years old girl. Her name is Lulla. The LOVE of my life.

Oct 5th 2021

I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic BREAST CANCER that spread to my Pelvic Bone.

6 years ago my husband and I decided to try and have a child.

Before that I was busy running my business YB NORML in Palm Harbor Fl since 1996 and living life.

2015-

I went for my annual Mammogram and there was a small mass. The radiologist said well let’s do an ultra sound.

They said go ahead and leave. As soon as I left I got a call from the nurse and she said, The radiologist said consider it your lucky day. It was just a shadow. I was like ok thank god !!!

He said all he’d suggested was a Mamo in 6 months.

Meanwhile, My Husband and I were trying to have a child. We tried and tried and failed. We decided to do IVF. I did 4 treatments of IVF. Injecting and dosing my body full of hormones. Not having a clue of the CANCER dangers.

Finally,

October 1st 2015 from the 4th treatment I got pregnant.

It was a very bad pregnancy for me! I felt horrible everyday. Something was off.

February 14th Valentine’s Day 2016

My face hands and feet stared swelling. My sister said stop at cvs and check you leave pressures.

I stopped and my pressures were off the charts. I had know idea what pressures were. I had never had any health problems.

The pharmacist said go to Publix theirs pressure machine is calibrated. I drove down the street and checked. I told the pharmacist the pressure and that I was 6 months pregnant. He immediately said call your doctor now.

I called and my doctor told me to get up to the hospital ASAP. They would be waiting. I got checked in and the

when I got there the doctors told me I was very very sick woman.

I was transferred to ladies and babies of Tampa. I had severe preeclampsia and I didn’t know but the doctor told me I almost died.

The next day , we had lost our little baby Garnet Anne Disney at 6 months of being pregnant. I gave birth to her and held her little 10 inch body in my arms.

Garnet had passed.

I lived in a state of darkness and depression for a long long time.

I was frantic. I was going to have a baby in 4 months but no baby was coming.

I had a baby room, baby clothes. All

The things preparing me to bring this special little life In to the world and become a mother.

We had tried so hard but we lost again.

My husbands niece said she would help us to have a baby.

She would be our surrogate. The kindest gift of all.

She was healthy, had no complications with the pregnancies.

Things were going smoothly.

Two months before Lullas birth I had the 6 month mamo appt. I had changed the doctor group for the mamo. I went and had the mamo. I Waited and the nurse came out and said the radiologist wants to see you.

Ok, I walked back sat down and he said I want to show you your breast tissue.

He said most likely you have breast cancer. I almost fell on the floor. I said “But the other doctor 6 months ago said it was a shadow”. He said “this is you now and here are the images from 6 months ago” ITS CANCER!!

OMG !

The CANCER ball started rolling. I got 2 opinions. I settled on the second opinion. He is a great doctor!

3 weeks before our daughter Lulla would be born We began testing and scheduled surgery. I was terrified.

I Had a lumpectomy. I had 2 nodes positive and removed.

After surgery my Doctor told me I was stage 2 and I needed radiation and a hormone blocking pill. My doctor said I’ll give you 3 weeks before starting radiation.

Lulla was born a week later.

May 4th 2016 Our little baby Lulla, was born

I’m a new mommy now. It really happened. After trying so hard for so so long it really happened.

After Lulla was born , 3 weeks came and went and I had to start radiation.

It was challenging and uncomfortable.

I remained healthy. Enjoying the growth of the baby I tried to have for so so long. That’s all I ever wanted.

I continued to have regular consults with doctors and mammograms.

Thanksgiving morning 2017

I got a call at 4:30 AM in the morning. It was an officer and he said that your store is on fire. I got in my car. I rushed to my store all alone and sat there so scared and crying. Upset after dealing with what I’ve already dealt with the year before now my store was burning down to the ground.

Yet again I was frantic and scared and not know how I was going to survive. It was tumultuous. Over a period of several months I picked a location across the street from my original store and tried to start rebuilding again. And it’s still a work in progress. I also want to give thanks to all my customers that came in to an empty building when I had nothing to sell hardly and bought whatever they could just for support.

April 2021

Nearly Five years had passed since my cancer battle.

I went to have my final blood work and it came back normal. Normal tumor markers. So my oncologist doctor said you free to go and not come back.

It was glorious. No more cancer. No more cancer doctors. NO MORE !!!

July 6th 2021

I had to go for my routine mamo.

The nurse said the radiologist wants to see you. OMG NO !!!

She said here is your mammogram from last year and here is your mammogram now.

She pulled up a side-by-side screen showing me that the current one had grown three tumors two in my right breast and one of my left within the past year. She said you’ve been down this road before. Just have a tissue removed and go on with your life. Going on with my life wasn’t quite that easy.

I contacted my cancer surgeon for consultation and he suggested that I have both breast removed which is called a bilateral mastectomy. 2 days after the surgery

my daughter of 5 yeas old , was now entering kindergarten. I went to her kindergarten open house medicated, 4 drains hanging out and breastless. But I did it to be apart of her first day of school.

After the surgery he told me that I had for lymph nodes in my left arm pit and one in my right.

I consulted with my oncologist who told me that I needed to proceed with radiation and chemo therapy. And again I had to start a hormone blocking pill. The anxiety was through the roof.

I was anxiously awaiting the beginning of all the procedures trying to calm myself down and tell myself you’re alive and it’s going to save your life. You can live your life with your daughter for a long time. Who cares if you lose your hair as long as you live. It grows back.

I visited my oncologist and he asked me if anyone had asked for a PET scan and I said no. I have no idea what that is. He said we just want to see since I had nodes positive and check everything. He scheduled a pet scan.

He called me up for the results came back and said it looks like you have some spots on your pelvic bone but they look odd and we don’t know what they are. you need to go have a biopsy.

I went for the biopsy and waited about a week for the phone call.

I was so scared terrified.

October 5th 2021

My phone rang. It was my oncologist.

I got my husband and put him on speaker phone. I wanted to run and hide I was so scared. I was shaking so bad I felt like I was going to throw up. The words came out of his mouth that it came back as CANCER on your pelvic bone. He said the staging has to be changed to

STAGE 4 METASTATIC BREAST CANCER.

I fell down shakIng and started crying so hard. My thoughts were DEATH at any moment.

My life has never been the same.

My oncologist told me that I needed to be on a hormone blocking pills. The hormones are whats feeding the cancer.

I said “Am I going to die?” And he said, “typically these pills last for about eight years”. No solid answer. He said by then they’ll “PROBABLY” come up with a different pill by then.

I can’t tell you how my world has been crushed. All of this caused from IVF. Trying to get my little daughter into this world has caused me to get STAGE 4 metastatic breast CANCER.

I CANT leave her. I can’t. I have to seek out something else. Get a second opinion. To see if there’s a way I can save my life. She cannot live without me. How cruel.

I started doing research. A lot of it. Battling thoughts of staying alive and facing death.

Battling thoughts of suicide. Battling depression. Just battling. thinking it’s best people aren’t around me now. Because im in a horrible mental state.

Trying to fake it around my daughter.

Lulla doesn’t understand nor would we get her involved in what is going on.

I want her to remain a little innocent Sweet 5-year-old self. Without having to worry about mommy.

I’ve never felt the love from anyone much as I feel from her. I’ve never loved anyone this intensely.

It’s hard not to cry around her and break down. I tell her mommy has to go potty. I go into the bathroom and hide and yell and scream into a towel.

During my research online desperately looking for something and knowing that STAGE 4 is bad news. I ran across a facility in Arizona. They’ve been there for 20 years.

They take late stage cancer patients. They have help people possibly go into remission or even get rid of the cancer all

together. They help people that other cancer hospitals across the country cannot. They have to deal with insurance blockages and can only go so far with health care.

The facility in Arizona takes a look at your own DNA and genetic structures. They do immuno therapy and other therapies.

They try to figure out what is going on with your immune system and what is causing this cancer to function and spread.

I reached out to the facility and they are taking on my case. Unfortunately insurance will not cover most of it.

If any of you have dealt with insurance You know how difficult they are to deal with. All of my doctors are frustrated with insurance all the time..

For the most part it’s all out of pocket.

I have been Blessed as a female business owner for 25 years running my own little Boutique in Palm Harbor Florida. I started with a concept of creativity. I open the 1996 it has give me a humble life. I have always been so humbled that people love my store. That I put my creativity and heart into my business. People responded to and liked it.

Thank you so much to anyone that is reading this that are my customers and friends. You mean the world to me. I truly mean that. Times have been very hard on everyone. People that own small businesses have been challenged.

I feel the struggle as well.

I’ve never been a person to ask for money or help. I rescued so so many animals out of my own pocket. I get joy and am fulfilled by doing so.

I am usually a very private person never asking anything from anyone. I’ve always been able to manage on my own and take care of my own affairs.

But now I am in trouble and I need help. I don’t even know how to begin this part of the conversation.

After exhausting research

I feel confident that if there is hope this medical facility can help me.

I will have to move out there for 2 to 3 months and be away from my daughter. I have to have treatments five days a week.

I have to have a place to live and some type of transportation.

If you can spare anything to help I would greatly appreciate it. I am leaving in 3 weeks to get testing started. I will move soon for the next 2-3 months. I will have to have treatments everyday. We will try to figure this out and stop this spreading , put into remission or possibly kill the cancer all together.

I feel desperate and URGENT.

I feel so loved. If there’s a possibility for me to live my life with my little daughter and watch her go through life and being there for her. She the best person I know.

She is kind , empathetic and super smart.

Raising a strong successful young woman is what I want to be here to do. I don’t want to change the course of her life by dying.

Thank you to anyone who is reading this and took the time out of your day. I have often felt embarrassed about this. This is really hard for me to go through cancer and having the fear of death in front of me