Tami Strantz
Donation protected
The most wonderful lady Tami Strantz needs our help. This is the story on CaringBridge. Story was written by her daughter.
Saturday June 9th my mom text me asking if I could come over to talk I was
out of town but instantly I had a bad feeling and knew something was wrong.
I called her around noon, that's when she told me she had cancer. She told
me it was in her brain, lungs, ribs and the lymph nodes around her heart
aorta and that's all she knew at that point. This was so unexpected. She's
so young still, 51 years old, how could she have cancer in so many spots?
Leading up to this day she had some signs there was something going on. For
the last few months she had blurry vision, little bit of chest tightness and
back soreness but the last thing I would think was she had cancer. The
biggest issue was with her eye she was having problems with her right eye
bothering her she would see flashing lights and blurry spots also losing
some of her peripheral vision. She was diagnosed with something in her
retina of her eye and was told she needed to lower her stress levels and get
rechecked after a couple weeks. When she was rechecked, it looked fine and
the eye doctor said he was surprised by how she managed to lower her stress
and make it appear better. So, thinking it was nothing major to worry about
she continued to keep her stress levels low, but her eye slowly started
getting worse. So, a couple weeks ago she went back in and had it looked at
because the sight and flashing lights in the eye were becoming worse. The
doctor noticed something in the eye that was not normal, and he ordered a
MRI of the head when the results came in they were devastating. She had
cancer not only in her eye but also in her brain (7 spots they could see),
lungs, bones and lymph nodes around the heart aorta. Instantly we thought it
must be breast cancer, but we were told it could also me Melanoma. For those
of you who don't know my mom as well she is a 10-year survivor of stage 2
breast cancer. She had a mastectomy on her right breast and went through all
the chemotherapy, surgeries and reconstructive surgery to get rid of all the
cancer. It was a process I never would have understood until I seen it
firsthand. She fought it and she won! So, I found this out Saturday June 9th
and her first Oncology appointment was Monday June 11th. We met with a
wonderful oncology doctor at the Cambridge Clinic and started the plan of
what kind of action we would take. He said we had to start radiation on the
brain right away (10 sessions so Monday through Friday and weekends off),
get a PET scan of the body and a biopsy from the lung to diagnose the kind
of cancer it was. So, her first radiation appointment was the next day where
she was fitted for the mask and they explained everything to her. Wednesday
June 13th was her first session of radiation and they also took the biopsy
from her lung to see what sort of cancer we would be dealing with (we were
praying it was breast cancer). So, it was hopeful that it was a reoccurring
breast cancer. So, she continued her radiation Thursday and Friday. Friday
June 15th, she had her PET scan done and then it was time to wait for more
results to see if it had spread to any more parts of her body. Saturday
night she got a call from one of her doctors telling her it was breast
cancer and it was NOT melanoma. That was a sense of relief but dealing with
cancer even the news you hope for doesn't give you the relief you want. So,
she had the weekend off of radiation and continued radiation on Monday,
Tuesday and Wednesday June 20th after her radiation appointment Wednesday we
met again with the Oncologist doctor for the first time since finding out
the cancer was breast cancer. There he set a plan in place with the next
steps of treatment. We are still waiting on one test result and that's
whether her breast cancer is HER2 positive or HER2 negative. Her cancer
previous was HER2 negative and we are praying that it is again HER2
negative. The oncologist said that cancers can mutate and become HER2
positive, so we have to wait for the test results to know. If its HER2
negative she will start a chemo pill form as soon as her radiation is done
so Tuesday June 26th will be her last session of radiation that will be 10
total sessions on her brain. If she is HER2 negative she will start taking
the chemo pill immediately after radiation and it will have less side
effects than the IV form and she wont need a chest port for chemo put in her
chest. The most important part about the pill form is it has better chances
of crossing over the brain layers into the cancer spots in her brain the IV
form can not do that as well. She will have cycles of 2 weeks on the chemo
pill and 1 week off the chemo pill this will continue for 4-6 months. So, we are
waiting on the HER2 test and should hopefully know by this weekend. The
oncologist also said there will not be any more body scans or MRI's until
after 4-6 months of treatment because sometimes the treatment makes the
cancer swell and appear to be getting worse, so he said they wait the 4-6
months to get an accurate idea of how well treatment is working. So Please
everyone keep my mom, family and friends in your prayers! We will keep this
site updated and feel free to message with any questions!
A few things I would like to share about my mom.
-She has raised money and walked the Susan G. Komen 3Day 60mile walk for
breast cancer FOUR times ( raising $2,300 EACH time) and volunteered in
2009 on the medical crew with her friend DeeAnna who is also a survivor of
breast cancer.
-My mom has hosted many bake sales to raise money for friends, family and
others in our community in situations similar to hers. She has spent so much
of her life helping others and raising money for others. Any time she hears
of someone in need she is always organizing a way to help whether its a bake
sale, garage sale, event at a local restaurant, having shirts made or baking
multiple meals for families she always finds a way to help anyone and
everyone.
-My mom is going to continue to try and keep her work schedule and keep
working as a nurse at our local clinic while going through all this
treatment. She is seriously the strongest person i know and i just love her
so much. Please keep my mom in your prayers. Thanks so much!
Saturday June 9th my mom text me asking if I could come over to talk I was
out of town but instantly I had a bad feeling and knew something was wrong.
I called her around noon, that's when she told me she had cancer. She told
me it was in her brain, lungs, ribs and the lymph nodes around her heart
aorta and that's all she knew at that point. This was so unexpected. She's
so young still, 51 years old, how could she have cancer in so many spots?
Leading up to this day she had some signs there was something going on. For
the last few months she had blurry vision, little bit of chest tightness and
back soreness but the last thing I would think was she had cancer. The
biggest issue was with her eye she was having problems with her right eye
bothering her she would see flashing lights and blurry spots also losing
some of her peripheral vision. She was diagnosed with something in her
retina of her eye and was told she needed to lower her stress levels and get
rechecked after a couple weeks. When she was rechecked, it looked fine and
the eye doctor said he was surprised by how she managed to lower her stress
and make it appear better. So, thinking it was nothing major to worry about
she continued to keep her stress levels low, but her eye slowly started
getting worse. So, a couple weeks ago she went back in and had it looked at
because the sight and flashing lights in the eye were becoming worse. The
doctor noticed something in the eye that was not normal, and he ordered a
MRI of the head when the results came in they were devastating. She had
cancer not only in her eye but also in her brain (7 spots they could see),
lungs, bones and lymph nodes around the heart aorta. Instantly we thought it
must be breast cancer, but we were told it could also me Melanoma. For those
of you who don't know my mom as well she is a 10-year survivor of stage 2
breast cancer. She had a mastectomy on her right breast and went through all
the chemotherapy, surgeries and reconstructive surgery to get rid of all the
cancer. It was a process I never would have understood until I seen it
firsthand. She fought it and she won! So, I found this out Saturday June 9th
and her first Oncology appointment was Monday June 11th. We met with a
wonderful oncology doctor at the Cambridge Clinic and started the plan of
what kind of action we would take. He said we had to start radiation on the
brain right away (10 sessions so Monday through Friday and weekends off),
get a PET scan of the body and a biopsy from the lung to diagnose the kind
of cancer it was. So, her first radiation appointment was the next day where
she was fitted for the mask and they explained everything to her. Wednesday
June 13th was her first session of radiation and they also took the biopsy
from her lung to see what sort of cancer we would be dealing with (we were
praying it was breast cancer). So, it was hopeful that it was a reoccurring
breast cancer. So, she continued her radiation Thursday and Friday. Friday
June 15th, she had her PET scan done and then it was time to wait for more
results to see if it had spread to any more parts of her body. Saturday
night she got a call from one of her doctors telling her it was breast
cancer and it was NOT melanoma. That was a sense of relief but dealing with
cancer even the news you hope for doesn't give you the relief you want. So,
she had the weekend off of radiation and continued radiation on Monday,
Tuesday and Wednesday June 20th after her radiation appointment Wednesday we
met again with the Oncologist doctor for the first time since finding out
the cancer was breast cancer. There he set a plan in place with the next
steps of treatment. We are still waiting on one test result and that's
whether her breast cancer is HER2 positive or HER2 negative. Her cancer
previous was HER2 negative and we are praying that it is again HER2
negative. The oncologist said that cancers can mutate and become HER2
positive, so we have to wait for the test results to know. If its HER2
negative she will start a chemo pill form as soon as her radiation is done
so Tuesday June 26th will be her last session of radiation that will be 10
total sessions on her brain. If she is HER2 negative she will start taking
the chemo pill immediately after radiation and it will have less side
effects than the IV form and she wont need a chest port for chemo put in her
chest. The most important part about the pill form is it has better chances
of crossing over the brain layers into the cancer spots in her brain the IV
form can not do that as well. She will have cycles of 2 weeks on the chemo
pill and 1 week off the chemo pill this will continue for 4-6 months. So, we are
waiting on the HER2 test and should hopefully know by this weekend. The
oncologist also said there will not be any more body scans or MRI's until
after 4-6 months of treatment because sometimes the treatment makes the
cancer swell and appear to be getting worse, so he said they wait the 4-6
months to get an accurate idea of how well treatment is working. So Please
everyone keep my mom, family and friends in your prayers! We will keep this
site updated and feel free to message with any questions!
A few things I would like to share about my mom.
-She has raised money and walked the Susan G. Komen 3Day 60mile walk for
breast cancer FOUR times ( raising $2,300 EACH time) and volunteered in
2009 on the medical crew with her friend DeeAnna who is also a survivor of
breast cancer.
-My mom has hosted many bake sales to raise money for friends, family and
others in our community in situations similar to hers. She has spent so much
of her life helping others and raising money for others. Any time she hears
of someone in need she is always organizing a way to help whether its a bake
sale, garage sale, event at a local restaurant, having shirts made or baking
multiple meals for families she always finds a way to help anyone and
everyone.
-My mom is going to continue to try and keep her work schedule and keep
working as a nurse at our local clinic while going through all this
treatment. She is seriously the strongest person i know and i just love her
so much. Please keep my mom in your prayers. Thanks so much!
Organizer and beneficiary
Jesica Leibel
Organizer
Pine City, MN
Tami Strantz
Beneficiary
