Hello guys! My name is Albita, I’m 32 years young and was living my best life in Colorado.

Unfortunately, back in January I went in for a colonoscopy after dealing with some stomach issues that continued to get worse. They found a malignant tumor near the end of my stigmoid colon. Initially, my gastro thought a quick resection surgery would do the trick. But after some scans, we found that the cancer had burrowed into the muscle, a couple of lymph nodes and spread into my liver. As you can imagine, this flipped my entire world upside down. I was fortunate enough to have insurance and be able to have most of my claims covered (after hitting my deductible), however, I am still facing a lot of out of pocket expenses that aren’t covered by insurance (pathology tests, genetics testing, and blood work costs).

I consider myself to be very resilient who refuses to give up. I kept up working as much as I could, but ultimately, have had to take leave as I approach liver resection surgery. This is all so scary to me as I’ve never not worked.

At this point, I’ve had four rounds of chemo (with immunotherapy for one round) We are holding off on treatment until my surgery coming up on May 14. While there are some programs I qualify for through our state, the loss of income through my primary job and secondary job is a lot. Which is why I’m here While having cancer sucks and I would highly not recommend it, I do find some silver linings in the midst of all this mess. For me, it’s been learning when to ask for help and accepting help from people who want to be there to help!

Even if it’s just words of encouragement and/or strengthening words, I appreciate every little bit that comes my way!

Much love always,

Alba.