Tanya Thielke's Cancer Fund

Hi, my name is Tanya Thielke. I was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer in September of 2023.

I had already been diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in August of 2018, and because my lymph nodes were clear, I had a double mastectomy to eliminate the tumor on one side and all but eliminate the risk of tumors on the other. It wasn’t a walk in the park, but I had hope and survival on my side.

In 2023 I had begun to experience moderate rib pain on and off that has begun to impact my ability to do things I had always done like mow the lawn or garden. My symptoms in every matched costochondritis, and once the pain made it had to get in and out of bed I sought an internist and rheumatologist, both of whom could find nothing wrong in the exam, and the rheumatologists one was pretty thorough. She took an x-ray to rule out things and told me my x-ray was clear and showed no problems. The internist ordered an abdominal ultrasound and there were liver problems but again I was told it was not cancer. However, bloodwork did return abnormalities that indicated bone problems, and just in general indicated something was quite wrong.

I never doubted cancer was a possibility, but I was being told the opposite.

Finally, a day came when I was incapacitated by pain in my neck and had to go to the ER. The pain was like the mother of all Charlie horses, with spasms radiating from my neck to my shoulders. I couldn’t move my head in any direction without severe pain. I found that if I didn’t move my head at all, I was ok. So that is how I sat in the waiting room with my husband and daughter. Once I was seen, the on-call physician ordered a cervical spine CT. The moment this happened, I knew it was going to be cancer. When he returned having reviewed the results, I could read his face the instant I saw it when he pulled back the curtain to my room and came in. And sure enough, he got straight to the point, which was that there was a cluster of tumors at the base of my neck that had been causing me this pain. I was referred to an oncologist. Later that same oncologist came in and said that because this was disseminated breast cancer there were treatment options, which I knew to mean the “hold it back” variety. I was in the hospital for a week just to get a stable pain management in place. My first treatment was radiation of the tumors to help eliminate my pain. Only after that did the medication treatment begin.

My mother died of breast cancer in 1994, after multiple returns of that cancer following various interventions. It took me some time to adjust to what began to feel essentially like walking in my mother’s footsteps. Navigating all of this and attempting to settle into that “new normal” we hear about has been a difficult adjustment because in this particular case what that means is I can only be sure about the future one day at a time.

My goals were pretty simple I want to be able to write music again I want to be able to share what I have to share and whatever time I have to whatever extent I can. Spending time with my family is the most important thing to me. I am lucky to have people who love me so much . I’m determined to give all of this my best shot.

I've gone from needing a walker to get around to only occasionally needing it for extra stability. My biggest physical challenge day to day currently is dealing with my weight loss and muscle mass loss which has rendered me still unable to do many of the things I used to do. Some of this may be permanent. I just don't know. However, I am working on reversing that with exercise and physical therapy. I can still write and think and talk and I'm hoping that these things will be enough to fill my days meaningfully while I continue to live day to day and share with my family and the world what I have time to share.

My biggest worry is our financial situation, one made worse by my having to quit my part-time job because of my disabilities.

It is not in my nature to ask for help but I feel I don’t see any other way. To have these medical bills paid for would be a game changer for me financially and emotionally as well. It would allow me to make the most of the time I have left, free from the terrible and real prospect of leaving my family not only in pain but in debt. So I humbly ask for you to give what you can and I thank you in advance with all my heart.

Funds will go directly to medical bills, prescriptions, OTC medical supplies, debt incurred to make modifications to our home to keep me safe, and the ongoing costs of care to support my condition.

PS: I will be updating the page as there is news to share. More about me and my music can be found on my site at www.tantroniq.com.