Treatment costs for breast cancer

Hi, my name's Ariana. I'm 32 years old and recently diagnosed with an aggressive metastatic cancer that began sometime during the beginning of my youngest son's pregnancy two years ago. Having cancer during pregnancy & postpartum had a major impact on my mental health and family life. As a mother an immense amount of responsibility rests on me to be able to meet the emotional and physical needs of my two young children, 6 and 1, which has distressingly been more of a strain as my disease progressed unknowingly to me throughout my son's birth and infancy into toddlerhood. My husband stopped working to stay home full time to care for myself & our two sons as my condition worsened & I became weaker over this last year. Unfortunately since my doctor and myself mistook the symptoms I was experiencing from cancer for more common expectations for the postpartum period I didn't get tested right away allowing my cancer to spread, threatening to end my life if I don't now take every step available in treatment. The first step my health team has advised is chemo to address the cancer cells that have spread in my blood and to shrink my tumors enough to safely attempt a full mastectomy before taking on radiation and a ten year hormone blocker as monitoring cancer will be a lifelong endeavor moving forward. There will be full body scans periodically that prevent me from safely being home with my children for a 24 hour period as radiation needs to shed. My oncologist has informed me that the chemo I'll be receiving every two weeks for the next 4 months is anticipated to cause more intense side effects than others. In an effort to manage my mental health in being a caregiver to my children and address the side effects chemo and radiation will have on me while enhancing the benefits of the chemo process I've looked into a mental health therapist alongside medical therapy in my area.

The medical therapy I'm seeking can be used alongside conventional treatments to offset the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation such as nausea, vomiting, and lack of appetite; and to stimulate bone marrow activity/ decrease bone pain.

The costs for additional medical treatment and travel time have been added in the $10,000 I'm asking for in raising funds for treatment, living wage support for our family for the course of this year that we face and mental health therapy. All proceeds will be applied towards managing the effects chemo will cause on my body and mind, keeping the bills paid while we manage childcare during treatment and greatly appreciated as I and my family navigate the trials of my cancer treatment into survival.