Michelle's Battle Against Cancer
Donation protected
I am writing this on behalf of my beautiful wife Michelle who was recently diagnosed (1/16/16) with a rare form of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma called Burkitt's Lymphoma.
She is a strong 34 year old woman that is relunctant to ask anyone for help because she has always managed to make her own way. As a single mom at 17, she raised her son while working multiple jobs to do it.
As a wife, she left the only home (Spokane, WA) that she had ever known to take a chance on me. She supported me while I deployed on two separate occasions to the Middle East while working, caring for her son and taking college classes.
In early 2015 she earned a Business Degree and began her career as a Human Resources Manager for a reputable national Auto Parts Company. After a short 10 months on the job she was nominated and won Manager of the year. She was the first person from her region to ever win this award. As a result, she won a trip to Las Vegas, to accept her award; however, she will not be able to attend due to her condition. I am going to try and set up a facetime event so she can be seen by her peers and accept her award.
Her cancer is a very rare, but aggresive form of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Approximately 1,200 cases are reported each year in the US. We were not told what her prognosis is or what stage she is. What I do know is, she has a cancerous mass in her abdomen (near her terminal illium) next to an enlarged lymph node, but nothing else has been identified. Her White Blood Cell count was also at 96,000 when she was diagnosed.
Since January 16th, she has been in the hospital everyday, but 5 days. She has unfortunately had some complications with an infection and subsequent fever landing her in the Emergency Room (as seen above) and the Intensive Care Unit (where she currently is).
She is scheduled to undergo a week of Chemotherapy in the hospital every 21 days. When she isn't in the hospital she has to go to her Oncologist's office for booster shots and other fun stuff Monday through Friday.
This will be her life for the next 8 months (8 cycles) unless her cancer doesn't respond to the Chemotherapy. If that happens, we will have to move to Seattle, WA to get a bone marrow transplant.
On Febuary 8th she will begin the 2nd cycle of chemotherapy where they are going to drill a hole in her head to put a shunt in (to delivery meds directly into her Central Nervous System), put a hole in her chest (a port for future chemotherapy treatments), and to undergo another painful bone marrow biopsy (she is NOT looking forward to that again!).
When I mentioned I wanted to create this page she was uneasy about it, because she says she is good to go and she will beat this and because she doesn't feel anyone should have to help her.
Truth is we don't need much help. She has a huge support system via her friends, my Navy Command and the Naval Special Warfare Community. I think her medical bills will be 100% covered, or at least I am hoping they wil be.
I am asking for two things:
#1) Help to support the costs of future plane tickets for her family to come visit throughout this entire process. We are currently stationed in Hawaii and it is not cheap to fly here. We have already paid for family members to come visit costing us over $2,600.
#2) Regardless of how this turns out, I want to take Michelle on an epic Las Vegas trip to make up for the trip she won, but is unable to go on.
A link to Michelle's facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/michelle.friesen1
As soon as she opens it up to the public, you will see everything I have just said to be true.
I greatly appreciate the time you spent reading this. I promise any donations given will be used for exactly what I said they would be used for.
Thank you.
She is a strong 34 year old woman that is relunctant to ask anyone for help because she has always managed to make her own way. As a single mom at 17, she raised her son while working multiple jobs to do it.
As a wife, she left the only home (Spokane, WA) that she had ever known to take a chance on me. She supported me while I deployed on two separate occasions to the Middle East while working, caring for her son and taking college classes. In early 2015 she earned a Business Degree and began her career as a Human Resources Manager for a reputable national Auto Parts Company. After a short 10 months on the job she was nominated and won Manager of the year. She was the first person from her region to ever win this award. As a result, she won a trip to Las Vegas, to accept her award; however, she will not be able to attend due to her condition. I am going to try and set up a facetime event so she can be seen by her peers and accept her award.
Her cancer is a very rare, but aggresive form of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Approximately 1,200 cases are reported each year in the US. We were not told what her prognosis is or what stage she is. What I do know is, she has a cancerous mass in her abdomen (near her terminal illium) next to an enlarged lymph node, but nothing else has been identified. Her White Blood Cell count was also at 96,000 when she was diagnosed.
Since January 16th, she has been in the hospital everyday, but 5 days. She has unfortunately had some complications with an infection and subsequent fever landing her in the Emergency Room (as seen above) and the Intensive Care Unit (where she currently is).
She is scheduled to undergo a week of Chemotherapy in the hospital every 21 days. When she isn't in the hospital she has to go to her Oncologist's office for booster shots and other fun stuff Monday through Friday.
This will be her life for the next 8 months (8 cycles) unless her cancer doesn't respond to the Chemotherapy. If that happens, we will have to move to Seattle, WA to get a bone marrow transplant.
On Febuary 8th she will begin the 2nd cycle of chemotherapy where they are going to drill a hole in her head to put a shunt in (to delivery meds directly into her Central Nervous System), put a hole in her chest (a port for future chemotherapy treatments), and to undergo another painful bone marrow biopsy (she is NOT looking forward to that again!).
When I mentioned I wanted to create this page she was uneasy about it, because she says she is good to go and she will beat this and because she doesn't feel anyone should have to help her.
Truth is we don't need much help. She has a huge support system via her friends, my Navy Command and the Naval Special Warfare Community. I think her medical bills will be 100% covered, or at least I am hoping they wil be.
I am asking for two things:
#1) Help to support the costs of future plane tickets for her family to come visit throughout this entire process. We are currently stationed in Hawaii and it is not cheap to fly here. We have already paid for family members to come visit costing us over $2,600.
#2) Regardless of how this turns out, I want to take Michelle on an epic Las Vegas trip to make up for the trip she won, but is unable to go on.
A link to Michelle's facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/michelle.friesen1
As soon as she opens it up to the public, you will see everything I have just said to be true.
I greatly appreciate the time you spent reading this. I promise any donations given will be used for exactly what I said they would be used for.
Thank you.
Organizer and beneficiary
Aaron Latimer
Organizer
Ewa Beach, HI
Michelle Latimer
Beneficiary