Gina's Journey #sistarasta

December 6, 2016, Good afternoon! 

Gina and Zach send a huge thank you and lots of love to all of you for everything that you have done to help their family.  Many of you have made financial contributions, delivered groceries, prepared meals, given gift certificates, cleaned their house and most importantly have continued to support them with your friendship and encouragement.  They are both forever humble and grateful for all that you have done and continue to do.  Please continue to reach out to Gina!!  She LOVES hearing from everyone, and it really helps her to stay positive!

Gina is almost to the halfway point of her chemo which will be on December 14, but she still has a long road ahead of her.  Her prognosis is still looking good, and everyone is hopeful that she will not need radiation.  Her next step after chemotherapy will be a double mastectomy surgery to occur in March, followed by a few other surgeries.  Gina hopes to be done with all treatment and surgeries by late June 2017.  She is receiving excellent care at the University of Tennessee by Dr. Becker, reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Tim Panella, oncologist and Dr. Marguliese, surgical oncologist.

Gina and her family still need your help!  I know that this is a busy and joyful time of year as we all start to plan for the holidays.  Unfortunately, Gina and Zach are left to also worry with paying medical bills during this time as the bills continue to pile.  If you haven’t already, please make a donation to Gina’s Go Fund Me.  If you have already donated, please consider digging deeper if you can.   https://www.gofundme.com/sistarasta
KEEP SHARING AND KEEP GIVING!!!!

Also, please continue to help the family by preparing food and signing up for a meal on the Meal Train.  https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/6n0wvq 

There are special instructions for food prep, likes and dislikes, and allergies.  So please click the tab “Review All Instructions” before signing up for a meal on a Wednesday or a Sunday.  If you are out of town and would like to help with food or just don’t feel like cooking, please check out http://simplebitesgourmet.com/.    This is a local food delivery service and they deliver meals on Wednesdays.   Sign up for a Wednesday on the meal train (so that we know food is covered for that day) and indicate that Simple Bites will be delivering the family a meal.  Your food order must be placed with Simple Bites on the Thursday before your desired delivery date.  Call or email me with any questions about this.  Gina is loving their healthy salads while she is on a strict diet. 

We still need help with grocery purchases and pickups, particularly during the weeks of chemotherapy.  Also, it has been recommended to Gina the she have massages while she is undergoing chemo.  Gina gets terrible muscle aches and headaches after her chemo, and she has been getting massages at UT Hospital Integrative Health.  Please call  865-305-4710 if you would like to purchase a gift card for her.

Although it is cold and rainy here in East Tennessee, Gina’s eyes are on the future and a warm beach trip with her sweet family in July with all of this mess behind her. 

And an extra thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you are doing for my sweet friend!!! 

Love, Allison Easterday  


November 2, 2016,

Gina and Zach have been overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support received from each and every one of you!

 Today, Gina starts her first day of chemotherapy so please hold her and the family in your thoughts and prayers and send them lots of LOVE.  She will have chemotherapy every three weeks until mid February.   The genetic test results that she had been waiting on came back negative for any gene mutations.  So that is great news!  All other tests and biopsies have confirmed her original diagnosis- aggressive grade 3 stage 2b invasive ductal cancer.

 There are still many ways to help!  Thank you so much to all who have already contributed to the GoFundMe, together we have raised over $15,000!!!  Gina’s out of pocket medical expenses alone will be at least $30,000, plus all of the additional challenges and expenses related to the care of the family while Gina is recovering from chemo and surgeries this next year.  The goal is to raise at least the $30,000 to cover her out of pocket medical expenses.  I will continue to increase the goal until we hit 30K.  We can do it! 

 Love,

Allison

October 19, 2016
 
Good morning!

I hope you don’t mind, but I'm going to go ahead and refer to you as Team #sistarasta!  I know many of you but there are several of you that I don't.  For those of you that I do not know, my name is Allison Easterday, and I have been so fortunate to have Gina in my life for over 20 years.  Each and every one of you are on this list and receiving this message because at some point in time you have touched Gina's or Zach's life.  They have asked me to reach out to you and to be the contact person to relay information to you about Gina's treatment, her progress and the family's needs.  Please feel free to respond to me individually with any questions that you may have.  Gina has repeatedly stated to me that she wants and needs to hear from all of you!  She needs your words of encouragement, prayers, positive energy and support.  So please do not interpret my being the deliverer of information as a message that she doesn't want to be bothered by you.   PLEASE continue to flower her with texts, calls, cards and emails!!  She needs you now more than ever!  My role is simple, to keep you updated as we start this journey with Gina and Zach so that they do not have to worry about keeping everyone informed.  With that being said, please let me know if you know of anyone that wants to be added to this list.  I will do my best to deliver information to you as soon as I get it.  

Where are we today? Gina was diagnosed with aggressive grade 3 stage 2b invasive ductal cancer last Monday, October 11.  It has been a whirlwind of a week with lots of doctor's appointments, tests and lots of tears.  It's amazing how life as you know it can change with one phone call, "you have breast cancer."   In all of this craziness and scare, Gina received some good news yesterday.  She is Her2 positive, and three doctors have confirmed that Her2 positive results indicate a treatable prognosis. :)  Gina is still waiting for results from multiple tests to determine if the cancer has spread and her genetic predisposition.  I'll let you know those results as soon as they are received.  This week she is working to get in with the doctors at UT who will be taking over from here.  Her treatment plan will include chemo, a double mastectomy and radiation.  Our girl and this sweet family have a long and difficult road ahead of them. 

So what can we do?? You can be there emotionally to lift their spirits throughout this difficult journey.   You can make a financial contribution on Gina's GoFundMe page.  https://www.gofundme.com/sistarasta The money goes directly to Gina and Zach to assist them with the extraordinary expenses and medical bills that they will encounter this year.  Every dollar is so helpful and with each donation, Gina and Zach have been overwhelmed with appreciation and filled with hope.  It's one way that we can lighten their load. 

We will be with Gina and Zach every step of the way!  We are team #sistarasta!!  I am in the process of organizing a meal train and a Google calendar for other ways that you can help such as taking Gina to treatment, preparing food, grocery shopping, etc.  My thought is to assign each willing team member an entire week.  During your week, you will be responsible for coordinating the family's needs such as making sure the groceries are stocked, food is prepped for the week and the house is cleaned.  You don't necessarily have to do all of those items yourself, and I will provide you with a list of resources to assist you.  For example, we have a local organic and healthy food delivery company that can deliver food for the family.   So just because you live in another state, you can still help!  Please let me know if you are willing to be assigned and in charge of a week, to prepare food, to take Gina to treatment and/or to grocery shop to help our dear friends!

In less than one week, we have a team of over 20 people walking for Gina at the Race for the Cure on Saturday, October 22, and have raised about $1,300 for breast cancer research.  In just 2 days, Team #sistarasta has raised over $8,300 for Gina and Zach on GoFundMe, and the numbers keep climbing!!!  We are trending with 298 shares!!  Now, who's ready to move some mountains!?!?  Let's keep up this momentum and stay the course so that Gina can focus all of her energy on getting better!  Our job is to take care of the rest. 

You will be hearing a lot from me this next year, and I am so grateful that Gina and Zach have such an amazing group of family and friends that care so much about them!
Love, Allison Easterday 

Original message:

Please consider donating money to Gina and Zach to help them with all of the extraordinary expenses that they will encounter this year.  Gina was diagnosed with grade 3 aggressive stage 2b invasive ductal carcinoma this past week. She is still waiting on blood tests, CT scan and bone scan results to see if the cancer has spread. Her plan is chemo, a double mastectomy and radiation, and she will get started immediately.  Gina has a long road ahead of her, and she and Zach and their sweet babies, Silas and Izzie, need our love and support!

We are creating team #sistarasta to lift up our friend, our sister and our heart, Gina!  If you are like me, you feel completely helpless in this situation. The only thing I can think of for us to do is to be together to love, laugh, cry and surround our girl with our support.  Gina is the strongest person I know, and today I find peace in knowing her strength. I hate the phrase "battle with cancer" because it denotes a win or a loss. I view it as a painful journey, and one that I know we will join Gina every step of the way. She will not win or lose. She will do what she's always done...STAND STRONG!  I hope you will help this family!

The only thing Gina needs to worry about it getting better.  Let us worry and take care of the rest!

Love, 
Allison Easterday