Supporting Chelsea through Breast Cancer
Donation protected
Hi friends and family, Chelsea needs our help! She has had two big milestones in her life since Covid hit, she graduated nursing school and got married! Unfortunately soon after her accomplishments, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer and needs all of the love, support and donations we can send her. As you know, Chelsea is an amazing human being. She is sweet, fun and caring and she is remaining upbeat and positive... let's help her stay that way by flooding her with positive mail, texts, phone calls and more:) I am including her mailing address and Venmo in case you want to send her something, or prefer to donate through Venmo instead. As you can imagine, she will be missing work for many months due to multiple surgeries and treatments that will be needed. She is also having to undergo IVF, which is not be covered by her insurance. Chelsea hopes that this will help bring awareness to her condition, everyone check your breasts and be an advocate for yourself if you feel something abnormal!
Her address is 1432 Alder Ave Lewiston, ID 83501 and her Venmo is @Chelsea-Smith-86
Here are the details of her journey so far:
- January of 2021 she felt a lump in her right breast. She had a mammogram and ultrasound and was told it was a fibroadenoma and to come back in 6 months for another follow up ultrasound.
- 6 months later she noticed a slight pain in that location, an ultrasound and biopsy were ordered.
- A few days later she was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma.
- She saw a breast surgeon who recommended a double mastectomy with reconstruction due to her age and how aggressive the tumor appeared to be.
- She had a double mastectomy on 9/8/21.
- Soon after she received good news and bad news. The best news is that her lymph nodes are clear and there are no signs of metastasis! The bad news is that the margins of the tumor were too close to the surface of her skin. Because of this, she will need and additional, more aggressive surgery. This surgery is called latissimus dorsi flap reconstruction and it uses the skin and muscle from her back for a skin graft to close the defect left once the skin on her chest is removed. This is scheduled for 10/6/21, but because of COVID could be delayed.
- Because cancer is estrogen and progesterone positive, she will need hormone therapy for the next 8-10 years.
- Because the cancer appears to be more aggressive chemotherapy will likely be needed, however she is still waiting for test results to confirm this.
- Because of the need for hormone therapy and possible chemotherapy, IVF was recommended in order to have a future family. Her first round started a few weeks ago.
Please donate and share, let's show Chelsea just how much we love her!
Organizer and beneficiary
Hannah Duranleau
Organizer
New Smyrna Beach, FL
Chelsea Smith
Beneficiary