Support For Katie Lane As She Battles Stage 3 Ovarian Cancer

Hi everyone! My name is Karissa McElligott, one of Katie’s best friends. As some may know, Katie was officially diagnosed with Stage 3 Ovarian Cancer the week before Christmas. I’ll go into some details now regarding what I’ve learned she is going through via long late night phone dates we’ve had over the past couple months in hopes that her story can reach the right people to hopefully give her some temporary financial relief while she fights this unimaginable battle. She is not excited about me doing this but we both have come to terms with the fact that it is now necessary so that she can keep current on important bills, not lose her apartment, and focus on her health.

Two years ago she did have a partial hysterectomy in which they removed her uterus due to several fibroid tumors inside the entire organ making life quite uncomfortable. Once in surgery they discovered one of her ovaries was covered in cysts and the cells were determined to be precancerous so at that time they also took that one ovary. The remaining ovary seemed free and clear and healthy so they wanted to leave in an attempt to thwart off early menopause and hopefully to prevent possible cervical cancer. Unfortunately even with one lonely ovary left, it still found her.

The cancer was suspected when Katie went to her annual OBGYN checkup back in October where she had alerted her doctor to a suspicion that she may have started menopause early anyway. The entire past year (especially the 2nd half) she started dealing with bouts of overwhelming pain and fatigue, bloating, some weight gain early on and then sudden and drastic weight loss. It was when her doctor realized she was down nearly 50 since her last appt in March that he feared this was more than menopause. Bloodwork, a CAT Scan, sonograms, and a biopsy were ordered. However bloodwork comes back quick and when she saw that her CA125 levels were highly elevated, we did fear the worst. 6 weeks later the biopsy and other tests confirmed stage three. She was linked with an oncology team right away and her initial rounds of chemo began immediately, her first round ending on Christmas Eve.

The main goal of treatment currently is to aggressively attack the cancerous cells that have spread to her pelvis and bones in the hopes of killing these dangerous cells before they travel to major organs (at the same time attempting to shrink the tumor itself which is encasing the remaining ovary and roughly 4-4.5 inches, nearing the size of a medium grapefruit) This is what is keeping her in the 3B status and not 3C thankfully. Once scans come back to where Katie’s doctors believe this plan of action to be a success, surgery will be performed to remove the solo ovary and accompanying tumor. 2-3 more post surgery rounds of chemo are advised…if everything goes flawlessly in this current plan of action.

But Katie has a long road ahead of her and needs our help so that she can focus purely on her health. She is a small business owner of a local cleaning company and relies on this solely for her income and livelihood. She is doing everything in her power to ensure that she still has a business to go back to once she has a clear bill of health but is unable to work at all in the meantime. This means scaling back on clients and jobs only scheduling what her few part time employees can handle while she attempts to run the business end from the sidelines. That being said, the only money coming in is basically going right back out into payroll, insurance, supplies, and equipment. Once she’s back on her feet, HOPEFULLY by the time summer arrives, she can rejoin her team and bulk the business back up to full speed.

What I’m here asking for help with are donations to alleviate the financial pressure for daily living, shelter, and bills that she is already falling behind on and feeling the burden of as this diagnosis was unexpectedly and suddenly dropped into her lap. Thankfully she has health insurance covering mostly all procedures but being self employed and wanting to keep her business alive, it doesn’t leave her with many choices in terms of assistance.

Her monthly personal expenses (not including any business expenses which she is still able to maintain with her scaled back business approach) are approx $2800-3000 per month with one full month of falling behind already in the rear view. She is optimistic and staying as positive as possible and hopes to have this ugly chapter completely closed by end of spring/early summer if everything goes according to plan. She is utterly exhausted and I want to try to do what I can in order to make this ordeal even a little bit easier for her. Katie is one of my favorite people and has always been one of the first people to jump in to help others, myself included, because she’s just that type of person. Any donation would immensely help get her through this next rough patch and we truly, truly appreciate it. If you’d rather donate directly you can also do so via Venmo @katie-lane83 or cashapp @klane8983.

I realize times are tight for many of us and even if you can’t afford to donate that is totally understandable but I’d ask if you could at least please share the campaign far and wide.

Thank you for listening to this detailed account of Katie’s current situation and know that I’m truly thankful to everyone and I know for a fact she is as well!