Mikella’s Adrenal Cancer Battle
Donation protected
August 14. 2015 was a normal morning for Mikella. She is the most outgoing, happy, energetic, helpful, loving, sweet and generous person one can meet and know.
Shortly after she got to work she started feeling ill. She called her mother to come get her. As they were walking out to the car, Mikella passed out. 911 emergency was called. She went to the ER and testing was started. The blood work led to a cat-scan that showed life threatening blood clots in her lungs and heart. She admitted to ICU where the doctors gave her a blood clot buster where she had to lay perfectly still for two hours after and very limited movement for 3 days.
In looking for a reason for the clots the doctors found a football size tumor thought to be attached to her liver. She was transported to Dallas where all the cancer experts are. After a biopsy it was determined that the tumor was in her adrenal gland.
Mikella underwent surgery September 1st to remove the tumor. Her family was prepared for the worse – she could lose a kidney, part of her liver, adrenal gland as well as a vein graft in the main artery right next to her heart, (part of the tumor had grown into her main vein), .or may not have survived the surgery at all. The best possible case happened when all the surgeons had to remove with the tumor was her one adrenal gland as well as the vein graft! After 25 days in the hospital Mikella got to come home!
Mikella’s oncologist wanted to give her some time to heal from the surgery before starting her on chemo and now is the time to start. The chemo she is taking is Mitotane, and is in a pill form. Mikella will have to take these pills for 5 YEARS. Her oncologist is also starting her chemo treatment at a very low dose. Mikella and her parents have to go to Dallas, TX to have labs done every 2-3 weeks, and depending on how well Mikella handles the chemo, her doctors will double her dose every time to try to get her to as high of dose as she can handle. She will also have to have a cat-scan every 3 months to watch for anything growing back. It is going to be an extremely long road to recovery for Mikella.
Mikella is still having chest pain due to the remaining blood clots, even though she takes the clot busters. The medicine just breaks them up. She is on injectable blood thinners to keep more blood clots from forming and the remaining ones from growing, but it will take up to 9 months for her body to absorb the existing clots. So she is still in a lot pain and gets out of breath very easy.
Because of her blood clots, her oncologist has asked Mikella’s cardiologist to do other echo-cardiograms to see how Mikella’s heart is doing, and is also referring her to an Endocrinologist. Her doctor is very concerned and he will be the driving force behind the other doctors caring for her as well.
She is not able to work full time and is going stir crazy. She was a healthy, active, energetic and highly independent 23 year old one day and the next she is fighting for her life. We are very fortunate she survived the clots and she is a fighter and will beat this cancer.
Mikella has two brothers, Taylor (who, in February became a Marine), and Patrick (who, in July became a Marine, as well). Now Mikella, (being the spitfire everyone knows), is fighting cancer!
Mikella is a pet groomer and her boss has been fantastic through this. On the few days Mikella is up to it she will go to work. She will answer phones, work the front desk, and groom a little dog here and there if she has the stamina to do so and only do what she can. Her mom stays and helps out where she can and keeps an eye on Mikella. Every time Mikella does a few hours at work, she is then down for two days after to rest.
The Red Cross has been awesome in helping get her both brothers home when Mikella was first admitted. Her life expectancy was unknown at that time, so thank you Red Cross!
As most people know, health insurance have enormous deductibles, exceptions and limitations, thereby making most catastrophic incidents such as this cost prohibitive, and forces many people into bankruptcy. Further, health insurance companies could very well raise the monthly premiums to the point they cannot be paid. Neither Mikella nor her family qualify for state aid, very little monies are coming in, but more and more bills keep arriving in the mail!
We are not telling you all this so you can feel sorry for them – we are trying to raise funds as quickly as possible to help cover and offset what will turn out to be a very long, costly battle with both cancer and blood clots, and help ease the stress and enable both Mikella and her family concentrate on getting better. The costs so far are astronomical, so any amount that you could contribute is incredibly appreciated and warmly welcomed. Any funds not used will be donated for cancer research.
(A bit about us: My husband and I are dear friends of Mikella’s parents, since the 80's. Both of her parents are our “secondary kids”, and they all mean the world to us. All funds raised will go directly to Mikella and her family.)
Shortly after she got to work she started feeling ill. She called her mother to come get her. As they were walking out to the car, Mikella passed out. 911 emergency was called. She went to the ER and testing was started. The blood work led to a cat-scan that showed life threatening blood clots in her lungs and heart. She admitted to ICU where the doctors gave her a blood clot buster where she had to lay perfectly still for two hours after and very limited movement for 3 days.
In looking for a reason for the clots the doctors found a football size tumor thought to be attached to her liver. She was transported to Dallas where all the cancer experts are. After a biopsy it was determined that the tumor was in her adrenal gland.
Mikella underwent surgery September 1st to remove the tumor. Her family was prepared for the worse – she could lose a kidney, part of her liver, adrenal gland as well as a vein graft in the main artery right next to her heart, (part of the tumor had grown into her main vein), .or may not have survived the surgery at all. The best possible case happened when all the surgeons had to remove with the tumor was her one adrenal gland as well as the vein graft! After 25 days in the hospital Mikella got to come home!
Mikella’s oncologist wanted to give her some time to heal from the surgery before starting her on chemo and now is the time to start. The chemo she is taking is Mitotane, and is in a pill form. Mikella will have to take these pills for 5 YEARS. Her oncologist is also starting her chemo treatment at a very low dose. Mikella and her parents have to go to Dallas, TX to have labs done every 2-3 weeks, and depending on how well Mikella handles the chemo, her doctors will double her dose every time to try to get her to as high of dose as she can handle. She will also have to have a cat-scan every 3 months to watch for anything growing back. It is going to be an extremely long road to recovery for Mikella.
Mikella is still having chest pain due to the remaining blood clots, even though she takes the clot busters. The medicine just breaks them up. She is on injectable blood thinners to keep more blood clots from forming and the remaining ones from growing, but it will take up to 9 months for her body to absorb the existing clots. So she is still in a lot pain and gets out of breath very easy.
Because of her blood clots, her oncologist has asked Mikella’s cardiologist to do other echo-cardiograms to see how Mikella’s heart is doing, and is also referring her to an Endocrinologist. Her doctor is very concerned and he will be the driving force behind the other doctors caring for her as well.
She is not able to work full time and is going stir crazy. She was a healthy, active, energetic and highly independent 23 year old one day and the next she is fighting for her life. We are very fortunate she survived the clots and she is a fighter and will beat this cancer.
Mikella has two brothers, Taylor (who, in February became a Marine), and Patrick (who, in July became a Marine, as well). Now Mikella, (being the spitfire everyone knows), is fighting cancer!
Mikella is a pet groomer and her boss has been fantastic through this. On the few days Mikella is up to it she will go to work. She will answer phones, work the front desk, and groom a little dog here and there if she has the stamina to do so and only do what she can. Her mom stays and helps out where she can and keeps an eye on Mikella. Every time Mikella does a few hours at work, she is then down for two days after to rest.
The Red Cross has been awesome in helping get her both brothers home when Mikella was first admitted. Her life expectancy was unknown at that time, so thank you Red Cross!
As most people know, health insurance have enormous deductibles, exceptions and limitations, thereby making most catastrophic incidents such as this cost prohibitive, and forces many people into bankruptcy. Further, health insurance companies could very well raise the monthly premiums to the point they cannot be paid. Neither Mikella nor her family qualify for state aid, very little monies are coming in, but more and more bills keep arriving in the mail!
We are not telling you all this so you can feel sorry for them – we are trying to raise funds as quickly as possible to help cover and offset what will turn out to be a very long, costly battle with both cancer and blood clots, and help ease the stress and enable both Mikella and her family concentrate on getting better. The costs so far are astronomical, so any amount that you could contribute is incredibly appreciated and warmly welcomed. Any funds not used will be donated for cancer research.
(A bit about us: My husband and I are dear friends of Mikella’s parents, since the 80's. Both of her parents are our “secondary kids”, and they all mean the world to us. All funds raised will go directly to Mikella and her family.)
Organizer and beneficiary
Dee Nelson
Organizer
McKinney, TX
Michelle Bowie
Beneficiary
