Carla's Fight With Terminal Metastatic Breast Cancer

My fight with the devil (Cancer)

Back in 2009, when I was only 29 years young, I was diagnosed with HR2+ stage 3C invasive ductal carcinoma, aka... aggressive breast cancer. After going through a double mastectomy and 6 months of chemo and years of hormonal therapy, I was just over my 5-year cancer-free mark when the devil wanted to dance with me again in December of 2015. This was a scary recurrence; two tumors were found just under my clavicle (collar bone). Because of the location, the doctors decided after almost a month of discussing my case with the board of doctors that it was just too risky. The next plan of attack was a year of extremely harsh chemotherapy treatments with radiation. Just after I'd finished all my treatments and was getting my hair back yet again, the devil came at me even angrier this time, and not the gift I wanted on my 40th birthday back in August of 2018. Now he's really ready to fight McGregor style, and that meant I was no longer going to be able to hang up my boxing gloves ever again, no matter how exhausted I was. As I unwrapped the news from my oncologist that my cancer had packed up and moved to the other side of my body, it had now metastasized to my lungs and lymph nodes, becoming stage 4 terminal metastatic breast cancer. Giving up was never an option, and I faced my biggest fears with God by my side. Here we are now in February of 2025, after many different chemotherapy treatments and lots of progression throughout the years, I've managed to beat the median survival rate of 5 years with metastatic breast cancer. However, it comes with the cost of knowing my fate won't last forever. The cancer has been getting out of control and spreading and progressing into more places in my body. We've reached a point where any future treatments will be a lot more aggressive and harder on my body that's already weak and damaged from 16 years of this. Choosing between being sick from the side effects and losing the majority of my quality of life just to prolong the inevitable or stopping chemo altogether and just doing maintenance treatments and letting me live out whatever time left God gives me here on earth. And I can be happy, making memories and checking off my bucket list items. After a month of tears and fears, I have decided that I choose quality of life over quantity. My oncologist has a game plan that I started last Thursday. Here's the new plan: I will get the lowest dose possible of this new chemo treatment Enhertu just until we can get the cancer stable, meaning to stop the current tumors from growing and have no more progression, and for my cancer markers to start trending back down. At that point, we can stop the chemo with the nasty side effects and start living my life.

Cancer takes more than just your health; it kills you financially, kills your relationships, your mental state, your pride. I struggle daily not being able to work, paying my bills, the thousands and thousands of dollars in medical bills, stressing about food, the care for my fur babies (my cats), a roof over my head, gas in my car, car maintenance and insurance amongst a hundred other things, all while still wanting to go out and enjoy life and see the world.

Any donation in any amount will be a Godsend to me and will take so much stress off of my plate. Please know that prayers & shares help just as much. Thank you all for following my broken road and helping me to mend the end of it so that I can find peace and comfort after this exhausting and difficult path I've been forced to go down.