#Strength4Sara

On 4/28/23 Sara received the devastating news that no mother ever wants to hear. She has been diagnosed with a rare and often terminal form of ovarian cancer. This news came at a happy time, as we had just gotten married one week prior. It was surreal being told by her physicians things like “it doesn’t look good” and “this is very, very serious.” The particular form of cancer is a carcinosarcoma, in her case 95% carcinoid and 5% sarcoma. It is one of the rarest forms of cancer affecting women, 1-3%. It is considered an MMMT (malignant mixed mullarian tumor). Sara has none of the risk factors associated with developing this type of tumor and very little is known about the best treatment approaches, as most specialists see one or two cases in their entire career, if at all. This cancer is aggressive and does not respond well to the usual treatments. Her doctor has recommended a full hysterectomy which Sara has undergone on 5/17/23. Her doctor is now recommending 6 rounds of chemo. The odds of the chemo working at all is 17-25% with and 80% chance recurrence with the first two years. Immunotherapy appears to have a higher success rate than chemo for her particular type of tumor, but is not being offered to Sara at this time.  Because there is so little known about this type of tumor. A second and possibly third opinion is necessary. Also, there are cutting edge treatments for this particular type of deadly cancer in other countries, which we have also been looking into. All of this would be out of pocket costs, as everything outside of Kaiser is considered out of network. The second opinion at Stanford alone is $700. And the cost of medical tourism is of course in the thousands. We both went from working two jobs each to being placed on disability/FMLA. Our insurance premiums and co-insurance costs are almost more than we can afford in addition to regular expenses. This diagnosis has placed a great amount of stress and financial strain on our little family. Please rally around myself and Sara and our three sweet children, Vance, Jace and Ava to help lift some of this burden. If you are unable to donate, please share. The family also could use help w groceries, gas, go getters, clothes and blankets and assistance with additional fundraising efforts. As well as any experience others may have had with MMMT carcinosarcoma tumors and alternative treatments. Thank you all for your support. It means more to us than you know ❤️ #fuckcancer #strength4sara