Amy Cota - Medical Expenses

Hi, my name is Desiree' and I writing on behalf of my sister and best friend, Amy Cota. In early October 2021, Amy received the news that every woman lives in fear of hearing..."you have breast cancer...." Since that time Amy has undergone multiple scans and tests, a double mastectomy, and completed her first phase of chemotherapy.

Amy's technical diagnosis is: Grade 3 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma of the right breast, stage 2B. In addition to the mass found in her right breast, she has has a clinically positive mammary lymph node located behind her breastbone which makes it unable to be surgically removed. Due to the finding of the positive lymph node and the stage and grade of mass, the treatment plan will be longer and more aggressive than we had hoped for with the original diagnosis. The treatment plan is as follows:

Bi-lateral mastectomy (completed in late October 2021) with reconstruction to follow (an expander was placed at the time of the mastectomy) completion of her treatment cycle. 4-bi-weekly treatments of "hard chemo" - Adriamycin and - Cytoxan (which she completed yesterday, YEAH!!!), 12 - weekly treatments of a less invasive, but still strong chemo - Taxol. The Taxol treatments will start on 1/28/2022. After she completes the chemotherapy treatments she will start a cycle of radiation which will target the entire upper chest, breast bone, and breast region. These treatments will be 5 days a week for 6 weeks. If things go as planned and she is tolerating the treatments well, the hope is that she will complete her treatment cycle in June 2022. After the initial treatment cycle is complete, she will be on a hormone based chemo type pill for the following 10 years in the hopes of preventing a recurrence.

Let me just say, Amy has been handling the fast pace of this process from diagnosis, to surgery and recovery, and the first phase of chemo like a champion. She is stronger than anyone I know. She has been so brave and conquered each part of this journey with a strength, grace, and quiet confidence that I truly admire. Besides the physical healing part of this process, the hardest part of it for her has been the need to isolate and rest. For those of you that know Amy, you know she is a "doer" and not one to sit still for any length of time. If Amy is at home, she is cooking, or cleaning, or running an errand, and rarely ever sitting on the sofa and relaxing. When Amy is not at home, she spends the majority of her time as a pediatric home heath care nurse where she used that wonderful energy, strength, caring, and love that are innate part of her being to care for kids and families struggling with critical health conditions. She puts her all in into making the lives of these kids an families a little easier and more comfortable and she does it with her full heart, mind, and soul.

As stated above, one of the most difficult parts of this cancer journey for Amy is the need to isolate and rest. Due to the need to isolate and rest being a critical part of her treatment plan, it has put Amy into a place that she has not been in since she was about 15 years old...unable to work. Amy has been working as a nurse in one compacity or another since she was able to drive. She has either worked with the elderly or with kids and given her all to provide the best care to them that she could offer.

Amy never expected to be in a place where she would be unable to work for any length of time...it is an odd and strange place for her to be as she is one of the hardest working people I know. Unfortunately, though, because of the depth of this aggressive treatment plan, Amy has been unable to work at the job she loves since mid-October 2021 and due to the length of her recovery period, it is unlikely that she will be able to go back to work until the fall of 2022, possibly the winter depending on how the treatments continue to proceed and the length of recovery needed after they are done.

Unfortunately, because Amy has had to be out of work for several months already and the likelihood that she will not be able to return to work for the next 6 months or so, it has and will continue to create a financial strain on the the household. The medical bills are and will continue to add up while the treatment and recovery process continues, and without Amy's income to help cover these costs it will continue to create difficulties to cover these costs until she is able to return to work.

I along with Jeff's brother Jason, Jeff's good friend Spencer, and Amy's good friend Shannon, have started this page to inform family and friends of Amy's treatment process and the financial strain the on going medical costs are placing on the family at this time. I along with the wonderful people listed above have had many people ask us how they can help as Amy and her family as they travel through this journey and until now, we weren't sure what advice we could offer. Unfortunately none of us can take the cancer away or lessen the treatment or recovery process, but we can help with this...help in covering the medical expenses the family is dealing with to lighten the financial stress and over all stress the family is going through on Amy's cancer journey.

I writing this to ask on behalf of the Cota family and the wonderful family and friends list above that if you have the ability to contribute to this Go Fund Me campaign that you please do so, and if you don't, that is ok. The ongoing outpouring of love and support for Amy and her family have and continue be amazing and more valuable to the family as you will ever know.

I love my sister more than I can put into words and I hate the fact that she has to go through this process, but again she is handling it with the strength of a champion and I am so proud of her for that. If you are able and choose to contribute to this campaign, thank you from the bottom of my heart, your gift will make a life a little easier and less stressful so that the family can concentrate on Amy's treatment and recovery and have less worry about the medical bills as a result of her diagnosis and treatment.

Thank you all again for reading Amy's story and for contributing, if you are able, to Amy's medical bills/cancer treatment fund.

Love, Desiree', Jason, Spencer, and Shannon.