Anna Posthumus - Medical & Travel Expenses

You may know Anna as a (former) bartender from the Shamrock, or as 4 year old Vivienne's momma.

Anna has been fighting papillary thyroid carcinoma (thyroid cancer) since 2019. When she went to the doctor for swallowing problems back then, she never expected to hear that cancer was causing these issues. Originally, the plan was to remove the affected half of the thyroid, and hope that would be enough. Sadly, about 2 years later, 2 weeks after she moved to beaver island, she was back in surgery to remove the other half of the thyroid, and 18 lymph nodes, a couple of which the cancer had spread to. Removing the other half of the thyroid meant that she will be on thyroid hormones for the rest of her life, but she was hopeful that removing the rest of the thyroid would do the trick and the cancer would stay away.

Now, only a short year since she had that second surgery, she's facing a third possible surgery to remove an enlarged lymph node. We don't know all the details yet, but Anna has to go for a biopsy at University of Michigan on Dec. 7th, and the results of that will be more telling as to what the future holds.

Anna's doctor also found abnormal cells during a routine Pap smear, indicative of being pre-cancerous CIN2. Anna has to have a colposcopy(biopsy) on January 3rd to determine if it is pre-cancerous or cancerous, which will give us an idea of how to proceed.

Anna is currently working with doctors in Ann Arbor for her thyroid, and Kalamazoo for her cervix(although she will be switching doctors to UofM if it is cancerous), and we want to help her alleviate some of her stress during this trying time by helping her with costs related to all these unexpected medical issues. We will be holding a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for her on Dec. 18th at Dalwhinnie, from 5-7. If you can't make it, but would still like to help, you can donate through GoFundMe, or by contacting Rose Cole Or Mary Palmer.