Emily's Ovarian Cancer

This year started off with shocking news, at age 21 my daughter, Emily, was diagnosed with Stage 3C Ovarian Cancer, Low-Grade Serous Carcinoma, a very rare type of Ovarian Cancer. Emily went through 2 major surgeries in January. The first surgery on January 2nd was thought to be a removal of a large Dermoid Cyst and when the doctor opened her he found the invasive ovarian cancer. A 2nd surgery was then scheduled for January 24th for a full staging cancer operation. This surgery was 8 hours long and she had a full debulking hysterectomy, removal of omentum, ten inches of colon and half of her rectum which required a colon resectioning. She spent 7 days in the hospital and had two blood transfusions. Cancer remained under her diaphragm, in lymph nodes and microscopic amounts of cancer were left in the colon, so chemo would follow for Emily. She started chemo treatments one month later on February 25th and must undergo 6 rounds of chemo. We hope the chemo works as Low-Grade Serous Carcinoma doesn’t respond to chemo very well, only a 3.7% chance that this will work for her. If it does not work Emily will be looking at another surgery to try to remove the remaining cancer or she will need to find a Clinical Trial in hope of curing her.

Ovarian Cancer is misdiagnosed 80% of the time, making most women find out at a late stage and if you are young like, Emily, it’s even worse. Over the past year and a half Emily went to the doctor several times and the emergency room twice with severe lower back pain and was given shots in her lower back and prescribed physical therapy. The doctors told her she needed to work on her core. So many times she was misdiagnosed. It took her 1st surgery for the doctors to find the cancer. All that time was wasted and her cancer grew and spread.

Emily still has so much life to live with looking forward to completing nursing school with hopes to become a nurse in oncology so she can help others going through cancer like herself. Emily deserves to start a life for herself; she has already expressed much interest in fostering and adopting children in need of a loving home. Emily is the type of person that would love a child unconditionally even if it wasn’t her own and that gives me peace and understanding through all of this. Anyone that knows Emily knows how kind hearted of a person she is and deserves every chance at having a life to live. There is a child out there that will eventually have Emily as a loving mother. This is our hope for Emily.

As you can imagine this entire process has been incredibly difficult mentally, physically and financially. Even with health insurance the cost of everything involved has mounted. We want to see Emily have a chance at life and are asking for your help so we can continue to care for her and see her through this.

You can help Emily by donating. The donations will go towards current medical bills and future medical expenses. Your support and prayers mean so much to our family.

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