Help Ana to fight Ovarian Cancer
Donation protected
Hello, I am Ana and I have ovarian cancer.
My husband Raul and I moved to Florida more than 20 years ago. We worked hard and established our service businesses.
We have two really wonderful children - Raul jr. and Michelle. Our life was pretty good until 2014 when I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer (OC). All of us have gone through a very rough journey since then:
I was in surgery in 2014, thinking they would remove only my ovaries but soon learned, that they had to remove a lot more.
There was not too much hope for me though, as Doctors told me that there was a 70% chance of recurrence after I had my surgery. I was not surprised when I had a reccurence really soon after the surgery.
After that I went on several rounds of chemotherapy in 2014 with Taxol and Carboplatin. We all know about the side effects of chemo, but hey - you never know what it is like until you have gone through this: Hair loss, fatigue, appetite loss, underweight.
Sometimes I felt like I was not myself anymore. I used to be joyful, energetic, a caring mom and now I was really weak. You don't die with this treatment but you are certainly not really alive.
As if the side effects of chemo were not bad enough, I had another recurrence in 2015 which made me go through another 6 cycles of Avastin, Carboplatin and Gemzar.
I learned a rule of thumb that may not apply for everybody but for me it was blunt reality: Every time you go through chemo the side effects become worse and every time you respond less.
My body was getting more sensitive and every time the side effects worsened: Nausea, no appetite, dramatic weight loss, I was mentally affected with confusion and memory loss. Everyone seemed to understand that I was nothing more than a shadow of the strong woman I used to be.
I was happy to be cancer free for a while, sadly a couple of months later the cancer came back in 2016. I had a pelvic surgery with 3 tumors being removed. The doctor suggested follow-up chemotherapy with a blend of substances, but they could not guarantee that my cancer would not come back and come back and come back…
I know I was treated by fantastic doctors and I really appreciate their conventional treatment. But I could not go through any more chemo treatment.
Chemo certainly has saved my life up to this point, but it was also a torture: Several years of Christmas went by and I was hardly present. On the other hand, I was not yet prepared to give up so easily.
Like a miracle, a friend told me about Immuno-treatment available in Germany, that showed great results on other patients. However, I could not find the Lentz Clinic, because the hardly advertise. My son was a great help in finding them
(LentzLoc Immunotreatment).
I have had only 15 treatment sessions so far and I can feel and see the immune reaction: I have fevers, I feel sensation at the tumor site and my tumor markers also show the right response. And: For the first time since 2014, I have no side effects at all. I am happy, I eat properly and I am finally gaining weight. I feel truly alive again and the other patients here have become really good friends. I have had a wonderful christmas eve here in Germany, my family came to visit me, we spend New Years eve together. I feel so much alive.
The cancer is still not fully gone - expecting that after 15 treatments would be unfair - so I want and need to keep going with my treatment further, maybe another 15 treatments, maybe another 30. The treatment costs approx € 50.000 for a month, which is comparable to chemo treatment, but my financial resources have been drained ever since 2014. As I suffered from the side effects of chemo I could not run my business as strongly as before.
We have worked really hard all our life and always saved something for the rainy days, but nobody prepares for such a stormy event. Our family and friends help as much as they can. Even the Lentz Clinic made a donation so I can continue.
I want to see my children grow up, want to attend their weddings, want to travel with them and collect photos and memories. I want to live, and you can help me. How?
So this is where I will need your support: If we can find enough people who are willing to donate the cost of what they’d spend on a beer or a coffee, we’d have enough to pay for a full course of treatment – the only hope I have of staying alive.
Any and every donation here can make a real difference, helping me get the treatment I need so I can beat this horrible cancer.
Even if you can’t afford to spare anything, you can make a big difference just by sharing this page.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story, and offering any help that you can.
Ana, Raul, Michelle and Raul jr.
My husband Raul and I moved to Florida more than 20 years ago. We worked hard and established our service businesses.
We have two really wonderful children - Raul jr. and Michelle. Our life was pretty good until 2014 when I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer (OC). All of us have gone through a very rough journey since then:
I was in surgery in 2014, thinking they would remove only my ovaries but soon learned, that they had to remove a lot more.
There was not too much hope for me though, as Doctors told me that there was a 70% chance of recurrence after I had my surgery. I was not surprised when I had a reccurence really soon after the surgery.
After that I went on several rounds of chemotherapy in 2014 with Taxol and Carboplatin. We all know about the side effects of chemo, but hey - you never know what it is like until you have gone through this: Hair loss, fatigue, appetite loss, underweight.
Sometimes I felt like I was not myself anymore. I used to be joyful, energetic, a caring mom and now I was really weak. You don't die with this treatment but you are certainly not really alive.
As if the side effects of chemo were not bad enough, I had another recurrence in 2015 which made me go through another 6 cycles of Avastin, Carboplatin and Gemzar.
I learned a rule of thumb that may not apply for everybody but for me it was blunt reality: Every time you go through chemo the side effects become worse and every time you respond less.
My body was getting more sensitive and every time the side effects worsened: Nausea, no appetite, dramatic weight loss, I was mentally affected with confusion and memory loss. Everyone seemed to understand that I was nothing more than a shadow of the strong woman I used to be.
I was happy to be cancer free for a while, sadly a couple of months later the cancer came back in 2016. I had a pelvic surgery with 3 tumors being removed. The doctor suggested follow-up chemotherapy with a blend of substances, but they could not guarantee that my cancer would not come back and come back and come back…
I know I was treated by fantastic doctors and I really appreciate their conventional treatment. But I could not go through any more chemo treatment.
Chemo certainly has saved my life up to this point, but it was also a torture: Several years of Christmas went by and I was hardly present. On the other hand, I was not yet prepared to give up so easily.
Like a miracle, a friend told me about Immuno-treatment available in Germany, that showed great results on other patients. However, I could not find the Lentz Clinic, because the hardly advertise. My son was a great help in finding them
(LentzLoc Immunotreatment).
I have had only 15 treatment sessions so far and I can feel and see the immune reaction: I have fevers, I feel sensation at the tumor site and my tumor markers also show the right response. And: For the first time since 2014, I have no side effects at all. I am happy, I eat properly and I am finally gaining weight. I feel truly alive again and the other patients here have become really good friends. I have had a wonderful christmas eve here in Germany, my family came to visit me, we spend New Years eve together. I feel so much alive.
The cancer is still not fully gone - expecting that after 15 treatments would be unfair - so I want and need to keep going with my treatment further, maybe another 15 treatments, maybe another 30. The treatment costs approx € 50.000 for a month, which is comparable to chemo treatment, but my financial resources have been drained ever since 2014. As I suffered from the side effects of chemo I could not run my business as strongly as before.
We have worked really hard all our life and always saved something for the rainy days, but nobody prepares for such a stormy event. Our family and friends help as much as they can. Even the Lentz Clinic made a donation so I can continue.
I want to see my children grow up, want to attend their weddings, want to travel with them and collect photos and memories. I want to live, and you can help me. How?
So this is where I will need your support: If we can find enough people who are willing to donate the cost of what they’d spend on a beer or a coffee, we’d have enough to pay for a full course of treatment – the only hope I have of staying alive.
Any and every donation here can make a real difference, helping me get the treatment I need so I can beat this horrible cancer.
Even if you can’t afford to spare anything, you can make a big difference just by sharing this page.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story, and offering any help that you can.
Ana, Raul, Michelle and Raul jr.
Organizer
Ana Salazar
Organizer
Bradenton, FL