Team Teresa (Anacortes, WA)
Donation protected
On February 23, 2015, Teresa Delarosa woke to abdominal pain. Upon seeing her doctor, later in the day, and after hours of radiographic imaging tests, she was, at first, told she had ovarian cancer and would be scheduled for a complete hysterectomy the following week.
Her mind spinning, from the images of her two beautiful teenage daughters sitting in the waiting room, to her broken-hearted mother crying next to her, to all of the family & friends she would have to tell, she was blown away by the words, “ovarian cancer”.
She would not own those words, though. She would not let them limit her. She had already overcome so much in her life, why stop now. She had made it through a divorce, made it as a single parent for ten years, and made it through a highly successul sobriety program for the past eight years.
Even in the present, with a cantaloupe-sized tumor crowding out her abdomen amongst 4 liters of fluid which was painfully constricting her bowel, Teresa returned to work, day after day, for her girls. Rent, electricity, insurance, food, living expenses had to be earned. And only when her ovary burst, was she forced to call-in sick to her job at Safeway in Mount Vernon, Washington.
Why not make it through this, too? She could be strong for her daughters. These two girls* had been the strength behind all of Teresa’s successes up until this very moment. Why should she stop now?
Teresa is a warrior. Truly a strong woman.
Her diagnosis was changed one week later to Pseudomyxoma Perionei (PMP), the rare cancer that took the life of famed Audrey Hepburn. This cancer involves tumors which invade organs, secrete large amounts of mucin into the abdominal cavity, and eventually crowd out the bowels, causing life-threatening obstructions. It is so rare that it is estimated that only one in one million persons is diagnosed each year with this condition. Teresa’s tumor grew in her ovary, a non-standard location, it eventually burst her ovary, and was eventually found to be benign - an even greater rarity. Although Teresa's PMP has been diagnosed as a low-grade type, Dr. Goff explained to Teresa that she did not need chemotherapy and that she would be carefully monitored at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance during the six months following her March surgery. She will be checked monthly for new tumor growths and any sign of cancer.
Now, Teresa needs your help. First, she is facing a large amount of medical bills. Her five-hour surgery, under the skilled hands of Dr. Barbara Goff at the University of Washington Medical Center, included the removal of all of her pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes, her appendix, her ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, & cervix, and the fatty lining of her stomach, which were all donated to research due to the rare nature of the disease.
It was followed up with an extended overnight stay in the intensive care unit while doctors worked to control her low blood pressure, and then she stayed another two nights in a standard hospital room. The medications that she had to fill on her way home from the hospital drained Teresa’s primary checking of nearly every penny.
Teresa has health insurance through Safeway. Even with that in mind, though, it will not cover all of her costs. She will have four primary expenses to pay in the next six months:
Hospital/Lab Fees
Doctor Fees
Pharmacy costs
Travel Costs
She estimates those costs after insurance to run somewhere between $20,000-$30,000.
Even with this large figure looming, she says this, “I don’t know why this is happening, but I have to come out on the other side of this thing just like I have all the other things in my life. Never a victim. Always a victor.”
*Teresa has been in a successful sobriety program for 8 years and has dreams of someday earning a Washington State Chemical Dependency Counselor license. This single-mother has been an iron-clad source of strength and modeling for her two young children for years and has modeled a solid work ethic through her decades long dedication to her job at Safeway in Mount Vernon, Washington. A hands-on parent, Teresa has kept her girls involved in sports and extra-curricular activities as well as keeping them connected to healthy social circles at school. Her oldest daughter, now a freshman at Anacortes High School, plays basketball for both the school and AAU , and is active in Key Club, Kiwanis Club, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. She also has earned college credits through the AVID program. Nareida, her younger daughte, is a eigth grader at Anacortes Middle School. She participates in K-Kids, is involved in the Boys and Girls Club of America, and also participates in the AVID program. She, like her mothe, is a talented artist.
Art by Teresa Delarosa, Acrylic on Canvas
Her mind spinning, from the images of her two beautiful teenage daughters sitting in the waiting room, to her broken-hearted mother crying next to her, to all of the family & friends she would have to tell, she was blown away by the words, “ovarian cancer”.
She would not own those words, though. She would not let them limit her. She had already overcome so much in her life, why stop now. She had made it through a divorce, made it as a single parent for ten years, and made it through a highly successul sobriety program for the past eight years.
Even in the present, with a cantaloupe-sized tumor crowding out her abdomen amongst 4 liters of fluid which was painfully constricting her bowel, Teresa returned to work, day after day, for her girls. Rent, electricity, insurance, food, living expenses had to be earned. And only when her ovary burst, was she forced to call-in sick to her job at Safeway in Mount Vernon, Washington.
Why not make it through this, too? She could be strong for her daughters. These two girls* had been the strength behind all of Teresa’s successes up until this very moment. Why should she stop now?
Teresa is a warrior. Truly a strong woman.
Her diagnosis was changed one week later to Pseudomyxoma Perionei (PMP), the rare cancer that took the life of famed Audrey Hepburn. This cancer involves tumors which invade organs, secrete large amounts of mucin into the abdominal cavity, and eventually crowd out the bowels, causing life-threatening obstructions. It is so rare that it is estimated that only one in one million persons is diagnosed each year with this condition. Teresa’s tumor grew in her ovary, a non-standard location, it eventually burst her ovary, and was eventually found to be benign - an even greater rarity. Although Teresa's PMP has been diagnosed as a low-grade type, Dr. Goff explained to Teresa that she did not need chemotherapy and that she would be carefully monitored at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance during the six months following her March surgery. She will be checked monthly for new tumor growths and any sign of cancer.
Now, Teresa needs your help. First, she is facing a large amount of medical bills. Her five-hour surgery, under the skilled hands of Dr. Barbara Goff at the University of Washington Medical Center, included the removal of all of her pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes, her appendix, her ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, & cervix, and the fatty lining of her stomach, which were all donated to research due to the rare nature of the disease.
It was followed up with an extended overnight stay in the intensive care unit while doctors worked to control her low blood pressure, and then she stayed another two nights in a standard hospital room. The medications that she had to fill on her way home from the hospital drained Teresa’s primary checking of nearly every penny.
Teresa has health insurance through Safeway. Even with that in mind, though, it will not cover all of her costs. She will have four primary expenses to pay in the next six months:
Hospital/Lab Fees
Doctor Fees
Pharmacy costs
Travel Costs
She estimates those costs after insurance to run somewhere between $20,000-$30,000.
Even with this large figure looming, she says this, “I don’t know why this is happening, but I have to come out on the other side of this thing just like I have all the other things in my life. Never a victim. Always a victor.”
*Teresa has been in a successful sobriety program for 8 years and has dreams of someday earning a Washington State Chemical Dependency Counselor license. This single-mother has been an iron-clad source of strength and modeling for her two young children for years and has modeled a solid work ethic through her decades long dedication to her job at Safeway in Mount Vernon, Washington. A hands-on parent, Teresa has kept her girls involved in sports and extra-curricular activities as well as keeping them connected to healthy social circles at school. Her oldest daughter, now a freshman at Anacortes High School, plays basketball for both the school and AAU , and is active in Key Club, Kiwanis Club, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. She also has earned college credits through the AVID program. Nareida, her younger daughte, is a eigth grader at Anacortes Middle School. She participates in K-Kids, is involved in the Boys and Girls Club of America, and also participates in the AVID program. She, like her mothe, is a talented artist.
Art by Teresa Delarosa, Acrylic on CanvasOrganizer
Teresa McBeth
Organizer
Anacortes, WA
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