Strong as a Mother - Adriennes Fight against breast cancer

To our friends, family and community-

My name is Whitney Wellard we humbly ask for your prayers, positive healing thoughts and support for Adrienne and her family as she continues a fight against cancer. Adrienne is my sister in law and our family has been at a complete loss since Adrienne received her cancer diagnosis the end of 2023. Adrienne is only 31, she is a mother to two beautiful boys ages 1 and 3, she married the love of her life, and she is a nurse.

Toward the end of 2023 Adrienne discovered a lump near her left breast. At the time she was breast feeding her youngest and chalked it up to a clogged duct. When It wouldnt go away she decided to make an apt with a dr to get it checked out. When she went in for that initial apt she wasnt expecting the Dr to tell her "she would be surprised if it wasnt breast cancer". At that same apt they biopsied it and within 24 hours lives would change forever.

The biopsy came back positive for breast cancer. Invasive ductal carcinoma stage 4 to be exact, the most aggressive breast cancer there is. Next step was to make a plan for what treatment would look like. 12 weeks of chemo, 4 treatments of a harsher chemo after that, double mastectomy, removal of tumor, and finish off with radiation therapy.

Treatment started shortly after the plan was put in place, they would measure the tumor every few weeks to see how treatment was working. Even though there was a plan, cancer doesnt always follow the plan. It didnt seem like the chemo was shrinking her tumor. She finished the initial 12weeks of treatment, had a couple weeks before the much harsher chemo treatment would start. Once that treatment started it landed her in the hospital for several days, she had to have blood transfusions because the new treatment had wiped out her platelets and everything else. Her Dr's told her that the "chemo almost killed her". This chemo was a no go, so a new plan was put in place, still chemo just a diff chemo med. While Adrienne did as well as she could do on this chemo her tumor was still not shrinking. She had PET scans and MRI's to confirm it had not spread. It was time for surgery, the surgery went well, double mastectomy and 4 lymph nodes removed and the tumors removed, after which the cancer was determined to be meta plastic ductal cancer. Less than 1% of breast cancers are meta plastic. Her recovery went well. Once recovered she started radiation therapy, 2 rounds of radiation therapy and Adrienne discovered another lump on her left side. It was quickly biopsied and pathology came back positive for cancer.

Here we go with the treatment plans changing once again because cancer doesnt play by any rules. A second surgery was scheduled, they removed a 3 more tumors from the left chest, and 6 lymph nodes. After this surgery they decided to add in an oral chemotherapy drug and to start radiation therapy before the wounds fully healed. This recovery seemed to be a little harder than the first, but she continued on with radiation therapy. 10 rounds into radiation therapy and her husband took her to the hospital for migraines. They wanted another MRI to see if it had spread to her brain because of the headaches she was having. MRI showed her brain was clear, but they did do a scan of her chest and it had been confirmed that it had spread to her left lung and right chest wall. 3 nodules on the lung measuring about 5-6mm, and the one on the right chest wall measuring 1.4 cm.

Within 24 hours lives would change once again. Adrienne spoke to her oncologist and was told at this point none of the medications they were throwing at her were working and they had nothing else to try. They told her they couldnt find any clinical trials and at this point it would be palliative care, and what treatments she would want to continue, and what she would want her last days to look like. It was time to have the hard talks and get things in order.

This is setup to help Adrienne find care outside of the care she has been receiving, her insurance does not cover the mayo clinic , or homeopathic Dr's. If you can donate to help Adrienne fight this, to find other opinions by research specialists or homeopathic Dr's that would be amazing. If you cannot that is ok, please just share the crap out of this maybe someone somewhere knows of a clinical trial or things for her to try. Please send me a message if you do.

I won the lottery when it comes to amazing sister in laws. Funds from this will go to seek alternative treatments, and anything left will go to help them with finances.