Laura's Breast Cancer Recovery

Our mom, Laura Albers, was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma on March 17, 2023. They caught it from a routine mammogram, then a second with an ultrasound, then a biopsy.

The good news is that the cancer masses are small! We are confident that she will be cancer-free after treatment. She has chosen to have a double mastectomy - without typical reconstruction - feeling that is the best way to have treatment completed as quickly as possible and comes with a very low risk of cancer reoccurrence. The surgery should occur in April - fingers crossed it goes well and there is little left to attend to when it is done!

Unfortunately, we are not so confident about her ability to cover the financial costs associated with her diagnosis. She was out of work for about half the year last year, thereby accruing a good amount of debt. She did eventually apply for Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid program) in the fall and has experienced great access and care under that program - including the preventative screenings that led to her early cancer diagnosis. However, now that she is earning income again she will no longer qualify for Medi-Cal, which will make paying for further treatment difficult to cover and we don't yet know what the total costs will be. She has already lost wages due to the appointments and treatment preparation that she has been through so far, and that will not stop anytime soon.

All of her doctors are aware of this dilemma, and they are pushing through appointments and treatments as quickly as they can. She will be covered through April, but we're just not sure about anything past that.

We hope that by starting this fundraiser we can help to cover some of the unexpected financial strain that our mom will face as she gets treatment and goes through recovery from this cancer.

Thank you for your time and any amount you can give.

-Summer and Riley (Laura's kids)