Help Suzy Battle Breast Cancer

Hello dearest friends and family,

There's really no easy way to announce this. Suzy, Suz, Susanna, Suzy Q, the beautiful young woman who lights up any conversation with her wit and demeanor, is about to fight the biggest battle of her life.  As you know, she is a mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend and so much more to those who know her. With two precious children at home-Ethan (4 soon to be 5) and Wyatt (2), Suzy has so much to fight for.  

Knowing that something just wasn't right, Suzy went in for an exam with her general practitioner on a seemingly normal Thursday morning before work. She thought perhaps she had an infection in her milk duct that didn't seem to want to go away. Her simple visit turned into a rush consultation with a breast cancer specialist, hours of tests and several painful biopsies. One painstakingly long weekend later (Monday, November 5th, 2018), Suzy was diagnosed with Stage 3 Her2 positive invasive breast cancer (grade II). The results from the MRI the following day showed three tumors measuring 2cm each as well as one affected lymph node under her arm. The remainder of this week and all of next week was/is crammed with oncology visits, various scans, and labs. Because this type of cancer is aggressive, she will have a chest port placed early next week and begin chemotherapy the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

While it was caught fairly early, the type of cancer is persistent and her treatment will be extensive.  She will begin by receiving 18 weeks of chemotherapy combined with Anti-Her2 antibodies. After a short recovery break, she will then face a mastectomy with possible lymph node dissection to remove any remaining cancer cells.  If that weren't enough, she will also have radiation treatments 5 days a week for 6 weeks after surgery. In addition, she will receive Anti-Her2 antibodies for the remainder of the following year.

We are all devastated by this sudden news and are asking for your support to assist with impending medical and living expenses as Suzy and Chad will likely miss a lot of work during treatment and her various recoveries. Unfortunately, Suzy has not been at her current job long enough to receive disability benefits. Most of her time away from work will be unpaid. She is the toughest individual I've met and I have no doubt that she will make a full recovery.  Her care so far has been nothing short of phenomenal. However, the journey will be difficult and she will need our continued love and support.  She is a wonderful person inside and out who does so much for so many and now it is our turn to lend a helping hand. 

Please take a moment to consider donating to this amazing person as no contribution is too small to make an impact. 

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts!