
Loving Michelle Through Her Breast Cancer Journey
Doação protegida
Hey Everyone- Thanks for checking on my mom Michelle, and supporting her through her breast cancer journey! She could use all of the love and support at this time. As those with family members with cancer know, treatment is scary, invasive, and extremely expensive.
To give you some background on why we would like to set up this support system for her, let's start from the beginning. Michelle was going in for her routine mammogram appointment 2 months ago on December 16th. Everything seemed normal until they called her back multiple times for additional imaging and ultrasounds, turning a typical doctors visit into a 3+hr nightmare. She knew there was something wrong when the radiologist asked to do a second ultrasound in the same visit. They informed her that she did not need to wait to tell her loved ones: she has breast cancer. Biopsies on Dec 26th confirmed the diagnoses. We were bewildered, as our family has no history of breast cancer. After a total of 12 biopsies in the past few weeks, she was confirmed to have Triple Negative Grade III Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Breast Cancer, with results on Jan 16th indicating Stage 3. This aggressive form of cancer has already spread to lymph nodes, so as you can imagine, we were anxious to get her treatment started immediately.
Her first step to treatment is 6 months of chemotherapy to try and shrink the tumors, along with taking a drug called Keytruda taken simultaneously. Her first chemo treatment started Friday Feb 7th. So far she has been super lethargic, and faint. She stated that she started to "feel human again" after about a week, but this will get harder each iteration of treatment. Her next steps will be a double mastectomy surgery, and likely radiation at some point. But that will be determined as we get results from pathology and surgery.
As anyone who knows Michelle knows- my mom is tough as hell. She's determined to beat this with the love and support from family and friends. As she says... "This is just another hurdle thrown at me."
With that being said, we all know she won't be one to ask for help. And nobody can do this alone, so let's get together to support her. With only one treatment in the books, she already has amounted about 2k in bills with a long journey ahead of her. She recently changed career paths after 15years, moving from Allergy & Immunology to working at the VA hospital, which results in not having much sick or vacation time accrued. Additionally, she does not have short term disability available at work, and will need 6-12 weeks to recover from her surgery alone. Even when off work, she will need to pay her insurance premiums monthly to keep her insurance covering the many office visits, co-pays, and out-of-pocket expenses, drugs, and testing. They're predicting a full year of treatment.
If you are able and willing to donate for her medical care, I know she would be extremely grateful to have some of that burden relieved. Regardless, I know she will need support in other ways as she begins her journey to wellness. Sending her your thoughts, prayers, and good vibes are crucial to healing as well! Thank you all in advance!
Organizador
Samantha Webster
Organizador
Ypsilanti, MI