Ali’s Army

Hello Friends, family, friends of other friends I don’t know!

Four years ago I had a lump in my breast my doctor told me was fibrous tissue. Two years ago she agreed it was still fibrous tissue and wasn’t concerned about it. It never really bothered me too much, and because breast cancer doesn’t run in our family and my doctor wasn’t concerned, neither was I.

In mid May I felt a swollen lymph node around my clavicle (collar bone). It wouldn’t go away and I wasn’t sick, so end of June I went in and got it biopsied. It came back as positive for breast cancer cells.

July 1 we were told it was stage 3, and July 8 we found out from the pet scan it was in my sternum as well, making it stage 4.

There are different types of breast cancer and mine is called Her2+. Meaning it’s aggressive, but there are drugs out there with chemo that can target that kind of cancer specifically.

(We will add a link when we have a blog to provide updates on my journey, and we will share on social media as well!)

My husband Tony has been amazing keeping our family bike shop running, and I have been continuing to work as a paramedic with occasionally taking time off for numerous appointments for cancer and our fertility journey to retrieve eggs before chemo for future babies!

We have been so supported through so many people in our life, and many many new friends due to this diagnosis. One common theme amongst cancer survivors is, stay positive, and accept help from others.

Being a paramedic I am normally the help. My husband and I love to be the ones to bring the calm to chaos in any situation, and so being on the receiving end is a whole new thing for us.

We realized we have so many incredible people in our life who want to help and our friends and mentors in life encouraged us to create a space for people to do that. If go fund me isn’t your thing, we will have other options like helping provide a meal I can eat in the ambulance, purchasing a T-shirt or sweatshirt that we will be selling, or attending a benefit our friends are throwing us in the fall.

We love everyone so much and feel so supported already, please continue to pray for healing, and what is to come next for us. We have so many dreams and desires to love on everyone in our lives for many more years to come and fully believe God will use this despite how challenging this is, and will be.

If you made it this far, thank you. :)

We love you all.

T & A