Help Laurie fight breast cancer

Welcome to Laurie’s GoFundMe website. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. You can also visit her journey and progress through Caringbridge.

Laurie would give you the shirt off her back, she is loving and caring. The only girl in a family of 4 boys, she grew up in St. Cloud, MN. She was married in 1977 and had 3 children, she later divorced and raised her 3 children on her own. When the kids grew up and had children of their own, she decided to open her own business – Granny Pines Daycare. Her daycare has been in business for 17 years and continues to run. She took her caring of young children a step further and became a foster parent for 6 years. She no longer does foster care, but still stays busy with a second job working evenings at Dubows in Sauk Rapids.

In July 2021 Laurie went for her annual mammogram checkup. They found abnormal cells and a biopsy was done. Test results came back as cancer, and that’s when she was diagnosed with DCIS - Ductal Carcinoma Breast Cancer. This type of cancer is the presence of abnormal cells inside the milk ducts of the breast. DCIS is considered the earliest form of breast cancer and is noninvasive, meaning it hasn't spread out of the milk duct to invade other parts of the breast yet. The doctors provided her with 2 options. Go through chemo and radiation, which there was no guarantee the cancer would not return or option 2 which was to have a bilateral mastectomy. Laurie has had a hard time with this, even though we all know the best option would be to remove all the cancer. It was bad enough having cancer, but then to have her breasts removed has made her sad and self-conscious. With the love and support of her family, friends and doctors, Laurie decided to move forward with the mastectomy surgery on January 4th, 2022. Due to the current state of the world, there is not enough hospital beds for her to stay in the hospital to recover, so she will be sent home after.

Next will come the recovery phase, which typically takes 4-6 weeks. She will not be able to work for a while as she needs to take care of herself and recover. The financial burden of all of this has become apparent and she is asking for our help. Please consider donating to Laurie to help cover the medical costs that lie ahead. We all know she would do the same for us! Donations can be sent through CaringBridge or sent directly to Laurie.

 

Please follow Laurie during her recovery journey via CaringBridge site (https://www.caringbridge.org/public/lauriekissner5). We will update the journal to keep everyone updated on her progress.

Thank you and God bless!