Lauren's healing journey through breast cancer

June 28, 2022

My dear friend and soul sister Lauren is facing some of the most difficult challenges that life has ever thrown her way and is reaching out for help. A beloved Wharf Rat and member of the grateful dead community, Lauren needs her chosen family now more than ever! My name is Amy Depa and I am writing this on her behalf. Any help in any way is welcomed and beyond appreciated. At the bottom, there are ways other than monetary donations that help is needed. Breast cancer and now losing her home are the the big hurdles right now. Her story goes like this…

Lauren has Grade III, Stage III triple negative breast cancer, the most aggressive kind. She found the lump after coming home from seeing the Steal Your Face band with friends at Bube's Brewery on April 21. A week later, while she was serving as the overnight medic at the Some Kind of Jam festival, she learned the tumor was breast cancer.

It was hard news, especially because she had learned her father has stage IV cancer a couple of weeks before.

Lauren started weekly chemotherapy treatments at the Ann Barshinger cancer center in Lancaster on May 16. Right now, the plan is to continue chemotherapy until October, then surgery to remove the tumor, then radiation, and then another six months of immunotherapy.

Lauren has worked in nursing homes for 10 years around Lancaster, PA. She kept going to work until the last day of May.

The doctors and nurses she works with told her it was too dangerous for her to continue coming to work.

"I'm unable to work because I have no immune system," Lauren says. "It's wiped out by the chemotherapy."

It's been difficult to get the mix of drugs right.

"They wanted to put me on an anti-psych med for nausea. I said no to that. Then for the first three weeks of chemo I had an allergic reaction to the IV steroids that almost landed me in the mental ward."

Lauren will have five years sober on September 5.

"I'm grateful for Sue, my sponsor. She comes to all of my infusions. People ask her who she is. She tells them she's my service animal."

Just as Lauren was settling into the treatment routine life threw another curveball. The landlord of the house she's rented in Lititz for nine years told her she has to go by the end of July so he can "make some repairs."

"I've paid my rent on time for nine years, and now this. It's not a good time," Lauren says. "I've exhausted my savings. I need help."

Lauren's son, Chris, is going to Iowa State in the fall. Her dream is to find a mobile RV and travel to new jobs.

"I want a place of my own, that I can't be kicked out of. Even if I'm taking it with me. I need a space to heal."

Other ways to help

Lauren says she will be grateful for any sort of support.

Visits.

Prayers.

Visits.

Music.

Help packing and finding a short-term rental around Lancaster so she has a place to recover from surgery.

throwing pots

making watercolors

dancing

Bodywork.

Bounty from your garden or your foraging or your tincture making.

Vitamins, broth, cacao, herbs, kava and valerian.

Adventures and outings. Boat rides, horse riding, a place to swim.

"I want to be circled by friends. "I'm hoping lots of people love me. Maybe more people than I thought."