Ava, Kyle and little man's journey

Hello everyone my name is Shannon (Ava's Auntie) and here is Ava's story. If you wish to donate any amount would be appreciated. The amount raised will help with rent, utilities, gas, hotels for Doctor's appointments, food, graduate school expenses and other life expenses. The Caring Bridge site is https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/avagrimmsjourney/journal

Back in February, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. They found grade 2 invasive ductal carcinoma in my left breast with a tumor measuring 2.9 cm, as well as a positive lymph node under my armpit. The other scans showed no further spread to the rest of my body, however, they were not sure how many other lymph nodes the cancer had reached. It scared me to learn about a diagnosis that I had never imagined having to deal with at age 22 while trying to finish up my senior year of college and track. I live about 6 hours away from home and family in Bismarck, ND which did not make it any easier. Fortunately, I lived with my boyfriend, Kyle, (who is now my fiancé) and a couple of other roommates who are very supportive.

Originally, the oncologist in Bismarck wanted me to start chemo with hopes of shrinking the tumor and then proceeding with surgery, radiation, and hormone therapy. The chemo agents they wanted to prescribe me had a high chance of causing infertility so they gave me options of fertility preservation. They provided a few different options, and were very pushy, as they made it clear that they wanted to begin chemo as soon as possible. They gave me less than 2 days to decide whether I wanted to go to Fargo and pursue egg freezing or start chemo and inject me with ovary-suppressing hormones that they claimed: “theoretically could work”. I prayed to God to give me a sign because I could not make this decision for myself. After all, only He truly knows what is best for me. Kyle and I ended up heading to Fargo to start the process of egg freezing only to find out that I was pregnant. The pregnancy was so early that nothing was visible via ultrasound and my blood test only showed very early signs of elevated HCG. Hearing the news initially struck us with terror, shock, and confusion especially because I had only just been bombarded with my cancer diagnosis. However, I later realized that the pregnancy was not just a rare coincidence to make life harder, but a sign and blessing from God. We later found out that this little blessing was going to be a boy.

With the new news, my treatment plan had to be changed to doing surgery first and waiting to do chemo during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters. I ended up getting a second opinion at the Mayo Clinic because I did not feel entirely comfortable with the plan they had for me in Bismarck. God seemed to lay everything out with ease after that. Everything miraculously worked into my busy school, track and doctor schedule so that I was able to travel to Rochester without too much hassle. Mayo offered a plan that I felt was right so I proceeded to do surgery there. I had to wait until I was in my 2nd trimester before beginning surgery. I had a left-sided mastectomy and lymph node dissection on May 23rd. The surgery was successful and I have healed well. I am lucky that I went to Mayo because they found additional cancer in my breast that was not near the tumor and were able to remove it successfully. They would have not found that area of cancer in Bismarck because they do not test the surrounding tissue during surgery like they do at Mayo. This means I would have needed a second surgery, or the cancer would have spread unknowingly.

The pathology results of my surgery showed that I had 16 lymph nodes removed and that 11 of those 16 were positive for cancer. This meant that the next step would be 6 months of chemotherapy. I just had my first chemo treatment on July 11th. I have 3 more treatments to do for my first chemo cycle. After that, we will begin the second cycle which will be given weekly for 12 weeks. They will put my chemo on pause about 3 weeks before my delivery date, which is November 21st, and will finish it after I recover from giving birth. We are still living in Bismarck, and Kyle is in graduate school throughout the summer here so we thought the best decision would be to do the 6 months of chemo treatment in Bismarck. Once chemo is finished, I will have to go through radiation treatment, hormone therapy and reconstruction surgery.

I still managed to graduate with my Bachelor's Degree in Exercise Science at the end of April, however, I will have to take a gap year before completing the rest of my schooling to become a Cardiac Sonographer. Kyle is just starting year 2 of the 3-year Occupational Therapy Doctorate Program. He does not have time to get a job between schooling and his graduate assistant position as a coach on the track team. I have a job at a Boutique but the pay is not enough to live off of. I am currently looking for a second job that can be flexible with treatment and my pregnancy, however, I am not sure how many hours I will be able to work depending on how I feel. Kyle’s graduate assistant position is important because it pays for a large chunk of his schooling, however, the situation we are in makes it difficult to have money for rent, food, utility bills, and gas for travel between hospitals in Minnesota and Bismarck. Additionally, with my family in Minnesota and his in Wyoming, it is hard for either of our parents to come up and support us because of travel and hotel costs, as well as the time off of work. Kyle and I will be moving out of our apartment to get our place at the beginning of September. Without roommates, rent will be more than what we were paying before even though we are moving to a place with a much cheaper rate. Once our baby is born, I’m afraid we will struggle to support him and ourselves especially because I will not have a maternity leave, and treatment may hinder my ability to work. Neither Kyle nor I are usually ones to ask others for help and support, however, I think we need to let our guard down and allow others to help with our situation. Any support, even if you simply add us to your prayers, will be greatly appreciated.

We are also very grateful to those who have already been praying for us and supporting us.

Thank you all and God bless,

Ava and Kyle