Help Amy Triumph Over Rare Cancers

My name is Amy, a 40+ single Mom blessed with a wonderful 8 year-old daughter.  After several challenging years of a difficult divorce, a mold-infested house, significant injuries in a car accident, emergency appendicitis surgery last summer and working two jobs for the past years to support myself and my child, this April, I was alarmed to discover a growing lump in my right armpit.

As I sat through my initial ultrasound, I learned with shock from the sad and kind technicians and radiologists that I definitely had cancer. It was just a matter of what kind. Since then I have been through ultrasounds, mammograms, breast MRI, biopsies of breast and lymph nodes, CT scan, PET scan, and radioactive heart and bone scans and all the painful poking and prodding that these entail.

My diagnosis is stage 3C metastatic breast cancer with the extremely rare diagnosis of two different kinds of invasive, aggressive breast cancers together. I have “triple negative” cancer in my breast and “HER2 positive” cancer in a group of cancerous lymph nodes under my arm as well as a cancerous lymph node on my collar bone.  My oncologist informed me she has only seen this phenomenon once before in her 20+ years of practice; and the Department Head at Stanford University Hospital consulted in a second opinion said that there are no studies, data or protocols specific to this dual diagnosis because it is so incredibly rare.

I am currently undergoing chemotherapy targeting the triple negative cancer for 8 weeks and will start chemotherapy that targets the HER2 positive cancer for 12 weeks thereafter. Then I will have breast and lymph node surgery to remove the cancer. This will be followed by radiation. The collar bone lymph node is inoperable due to its location near major veins and arteries, so it is targeted exclusively through chemotherapy and radiation.

Painfully, I have also had a port placed into my chest and neck to receive infusions directly as the Adriamysin chemotherapy (according to my Oncologist, the most difficult chemotherapy available) can cause damage to tissues and is easier to tolerate this way. I continue to feel the catheters in my neck whenever I move or turn and the pressure on my chest of the port.  Due to the pain, my daughter had to wait several weeks before she could put her head on my chest while I read her bedtime stories.

I remain absolutely committed to a complete recovery to full and vibrant health both for myself and for my 8 year-old child.

I am being treated by doctors at University of New Mexico Cancer Center but, due to the rarity of my case, I have also consulted with a Breast Oncology Department Head at Stanford Hospital in California as well as with an Integrative MD. None of these consults are covered by my medical insurance, nor are the recommended additional tests and therapies demonstrated to help fight cancer but which cost hundreds of dollars per month.

I am trying to do all I can to be well and thus to take the best care I can of my daughter. Thus far my out-of-pocket expenses for treatment are exceeding several thousand dollars already, while my income as a stand-alone single parent is significantly reduced due to the necessity of a medical leave of absence which my doctors estimate will likely last over a year.

While I am not normally the type of person to ask for help, for my daughter and myself, I am reaching out to make sure we can pay our cancer treatment bills and meet our expenses in the months ahead to help restore me to my former vibrant health.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated, and your prayers and support mean the world. I feel so blessed by the outpouring of care and support in recent weeks. Thank you very much for sharing this, as well!!