Nessa survived cancer now she needs heart surgery
Donation protected
Nessa , my best friend needs your help. She survived breast cancer and now faces heart surgery.
She did not want me to tell her story but after extensive and relentless annoyance from me, she finally gave in and gave me permission to share her life experience. She was embarrassed about me doing this. That broke my heart. She is so independent and prideful and never wants to be the person that needs any help. We need to help her and let her know that there is nothing to be embarrassed about and that we are not here to feel sorry for her but to raise her up! Give her a shot at a better life, a life without dooming debt. Her story is unbelievable and heart wrenching. Please read it. Please donate if you can and if you cannot, you can still help by sharing her story with your friends, your coworkers, and the community.
Nessa's story :
One of the first memories that Nessa shared with me about cancer, was her coming home from her first communion to find her mother with drainage tubes protruding from her chest. The next 17 years of her life consisted of witnessing her mother battle breast cancer. From 8 years of age to 25, she teetered between feelings of hope, pain, and insurmountable fear as her mother under went every treatment in the book. Each new treatment laid seeds of hope- hope that Lorraine would get better. Each failure enshrouded Nessa with the fear of loosing her mother.
Lorraine’s battle with breast cancer ended when Nessa was 25. The summer she was going into her senior year of college she lost her best friend, mentor, and guiding light. She was devastated and lost. A month after her mother’s passing another crippling loss shook the family when her cousin and his fiancé were murdered. Needless to say, she went into her last year of college with incredible grief and pain.
A year later, almost to the date of her mother’s passing, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The same disease that Lorraine succumbed to was now ravaging Nessa’s body. The prognosis was not good- stage 3 in her right breast and stage 2 in her left. She immediately thought of her mother, of how hard she fought for the family, and she found strength through her memory. She knew she would do whatever it took to stay alive.
To say that the next few years of her life were hard is an understatement. Life became a cycle of chemo and radiation. Giving up both breast to a double radical mastectomy was beyond difficult. She then found out that she was not eligible for reconstructive surgery due to the massive amount of radiation she had received. Implants were off the table. She feared that she would never feel whole again. She was only 26.
When a doctor offered an alternative to implants, T.R.A.M. or free flap surgery, she said yes. This procedure uses your excess stomach skin and fat to rebuild your breasts. Nessa had to gain 35 pounds in 3 months, only to have it cut off and replaced elsewhere on her body. She was not prepared for the painful recovery- not able to stand for over a month, and surgical revisions every three months for years. She just wanted to feel safe and whole again, and so when she felt unable to continue, she thought of her mother's strength and endured.
After everything was said and done- years of treatments and surgeries, the doctors told her that she had an 85% chance of recurrence in 5 years. She had an 85% chance of dying despite everything that she suffered through. All she could think about was not wanting her family to go thru this again. So she moved away.
10 years later, cancer free and feeling confident that she would not waste away in front of her family, she moved home. She wasn’t sick, and she had beautiful nieces and nephews in need of a cool aunt. Unfortunately, she was wrong about her health.
A few months ago Nessa collapsed at work and started having strange symptoms regularly - dizziness, fatigue, back pain, and more. She was terrified. After what felt like hundreds of tests and doctor visits her diagnosis became clear- a left atrial myxoma. That’s a fancy way of saying a large mass on the left side of her heart.
The only chance of surviving is surgery to remove the mass. This is no small feat due to all of her previous radiation treatments and surgeries, as she has extensive scar tissue in that area. Surgery is the only chance for survival.
She has no idea how she will pay for this. She has no idea how she will afford recovery costs when she survives this.
Nessa is not eligible for short-term or long-term disability and will be out of work for months. She will need to be under specialized care for an undetermined amount of time. Medical bills will pile up yet once again.
Life has not been fair to Nessa. Not that it is to any of us. But it seems that it has been particularly unbalanced for her. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
She did not want me to tell her story but after extensive and relentless annoyance from me, she finally gave in and gave me permission to share her life experience. She was embarrassed about me doing this. That broke my heart. She is so independent and prideful and never wants to be the person that needs any help. We need to help her and let her know that there is nothing to be embarrassed about and that we are not here to feel sorry for her but to raise her up! Give her a shot at a better life, a life without dooming debt. Her story is unbelievable and heart wrenching. Please read it. Please donate if you can and if you cannot, you can still help by sharing her story with your friends, your coworkers, and the community.
Nessa's story :
One of the first memories that Nessa shared with me about cancer, was her coming home from her first communion to find her mother with drainage tubes protruding from her chest. The next 17 years of her life consisted of witnessing her mother battle breast cancer. From 8 years of age to 25, she teetered between feelings of hope, pain, and insurmountable fear as her mother under went every treatment in the book. Each new treatment laid seeds of hope- hope that Lorraine would get better. Each failure enshrouded Nessa with the fear of loosing her mother.
Lorraine’s battle with breast cancer ended when Nessa was 25. The summer she was going into her senior year of college she lost her best friend, mentor, and guiding light. She was devastated and lost. A month after her mother’s passing another crippling loss shook the family when her cousin and his fiancé were murdered. Needless to say, she went into her last year of college with incredible grief and pain.
A year later, almost to the date of her mother’s passing, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The same disease that Lorraine succumbed to was now ravaging Nessa’s body. The prognosis was not good- stage 3 in her right breast and stage 2 in her left. She immediately thought of her mother, of how hard she fought for the family, and she found strength through her memory. She knew she would do whatever it took to stay alive.
To say that the next few years of her life were hard is an understatement. Life became a cycle of chemo and radiation. Giving up both breast to a double radical mastectomy was beyond difficult. She then found out that she was not eligible for reconstructive surgery due to the massive amount of radiation she had received. Implants were off the table. She feared that she would never feel whole again. She was only 26.
When a doctor offered an alternative to implants, T.R.A.M. or free flap surgery, she said yes. This procedure uses your excess stomach skin and fat to rebuild your breasts. Nessa had to gain 35 pounds in 3 months, only to have it cut off and replaced elsewhere on her body. She was not prepared for the painful recovery- not able to stand for over a month, and surgical revisions every three months for years. She just wanted to feel safe and whole again, and so when she felt unable to continue, she thought of her mother's strength and endured.
After everything was said and done- years of treatments and surgeries, the doctors told her that she had an 85% chance of recurrence in 5 years. She had an 85% chance of dying despite everything that she suffered through. All she could think about was not wanting her family to go thru this again. So she moved away.
10 years later, cancer free and feeling confident that she would not waste away in front of her family, she moved home. She wasn’t sick, and she had beautiful nieces and nephews in need of a cool aunt. Unfortunately, she was wrong about her health.
A few months ago Nessa collapsed at work and started having strange symptoms regularly - dizziness, fatigue, back pain, and more. She was terrified. After what felt like hundreds of tests and doctor visits her diagnosis became clear- a left atrial myxoma. That’s a fancy way of saying a large mass on the left side of her heart.
The only chance of surviving is surgery to remove the mass. This is no small feat due to all of her previous radiation treatments and surgeries, as she has extensive scar tissue in that area. Surgery is the only chance for survival.
She has no idea how she will pay for this. She has no idea how she will afford recovery costs when she survives this.
Nessa is not eligible for short-term or long-term disability and will be out of work for months. She will need to be under specialized care for an undetermined amount of time. Medical bills will pile up yet once again.
Life has not been fair to Nessa. Not that it is to any of us. But it seems that it has been particularly unbalanced for her. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Organizer and beneficiary
Charmayne Malloy
Organizer
Honolulu, HI
Nessa Rapone
Beneficiary