Sherry's Breast Cancer Fund

Hi all! This is Mia, Sherry's daughter, writing my mother's story and explaining how your contribution can make a difference. As many of you know, Sherry was diagnosed with stage three, borderline triple negative, breast cancer earlier this year. Throughout my mom’s journey her care team has referred to her cancer as a unique case. Her story is unusual and challenging, but she has stayed resilient. 

In February of this year, Sherry went to her annual wellness exam. Unfortunately, her cancer went undetected. Late at night in June, she had trouble sleeping and randomly decided to do a self-exam on her breast. In this moment, mom then discovered what felt like an egg in her left armpit. Immediately she messaged her doctor that she was concerned and wanted to schedule an appointment for the following day. A week later, her doctor called with the unfortunate results that the egg she found was invasive ductal carcinoma stage three breast cancer. Due to invasive cancer, her care team knew they needed to devise an immediate action plan.

Their plan of action involved sixteen chemo appointments: the first four were every two weeks of the red devil, the most potent form of chemotherapy, followed by twelve weekly taxol chemotherapy appointments. Over the next several months to a year, she would also have surgery to remove the tumor, a double mastectomy, radiation for four to six weeks, and a final reconstruction surgery.

Once the treatments of the red devil were complete and two of the taxol, my mom scheduled an ultrasound to see if the cancerous tumor had shrunk. Unfortunately, the cancer barely budged in size. With hope, her care team decided to finish out her chemo appointments, thinking it would shrink over time. My mom did not believe her tumor would budge - if the red devil couldn't change its size, how would a less potent chemotherapy make a difference? After much research, because oh boy does my mom do her research, she discovered she could combine another chemo with taxol, called carbo, to her current regime to have better luck shrinking the tumor. Doubling the chemotherapies made her weaker and more tired than before, but she assumed it was working. After five more weeks of tortuous infusions, my mom had another ultrasound. Sadly, the results were not what we hoped for. Not only did her tumor not shrink, but it also grew in size.

Suddenly her care team had to devise an entirely new action plan: stop chemotherapy, plan for surgery for the following week that targets only the tumor in her armpit, and radiation beginning a month after recovery from the surgery. Because of my mom's unique location, her care team said she did not need the double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery. However, she was recommended to have it eventually, which she intends to do in a few years.

Today, as I am writing her story, she is recovering from surgery. Her surgeon informed us that the surgery was textbook, they removed thirty-six lymph nodes with four cancerous, and her margins came back clear. Finally, good news. Mom has a while to go with her recovery, the first few days were painful, but it becomes easier to manage with each new day. In December, she will begin her radiation therapy and whatever else comes after. There's still much we do not know about her future.

Through it all, my mom has been an absolute tank of a woman. Despite her circumstance, she remained positive and in good spirits. Of course, she had her down days of feeling discouraged and hopeless, as to be expected. But overall, she has been a remarkable patient to her care team and stayed strong throughout her pain and worries. I admire her resilience.

Thank you all for reading her story. Now, as for how your contribution can make a difference:

At first, my parents felt hesitant to create a gofundme account, as they did not want to ask for help. However, with medical bills and deductibles being met, it is apparent that asking for help is essential to move forward.

We are so grateful to all who have actively kept in touch, mailed care packages, and sent their love to our family. Any contribution, even if only five dollars, can help ease my parent's financial stress.

Thank you to all who can give to us.