Brittany's Breast Cancer Benefit

Hi, my name is Monica Riecke and I'm Brittany Kolkman's mom. She needs your help! Brittany's journey began in November when she felt a lump in her breast. She scheduled to see the OB doctor immediately and was referred to the PKV Breast Diagnostic Center where they performed a biopsy. We thought there was no way she could have breast cancer....she's only 32, has a beautiful family, a mother of 3 children, ages 9, 7, and 17 months. How could it be cancer? After what seemed like forever, the test results came back as invasive ductal carcinoma. We were all devastated and just couldn't comprehend how this could be true.

On February 28th Brittany had a double mastectomy with reconstructive surgery, a 6 hour long surgery. The surgeons removed the cancerous mass, both of her breasts and biopsied and removed some lymph nodes that looked questionable. The recovery from the surgery was incredibly difficult for her and her family. Besides the pain, sleeplessness, unimaginable sadness and depression over the diagnosis and the realization that she has cancer, she was not able to lift more then 10 pounds, which meant she couldn't hold her baby for 4 weeks. This completely broke her heart and made recovery that much more complicated.

A week after surgery the surgeon called to tell Brittany something none of use ever expected....Brittany's cancer had spread into her lymph nodes. This all seemed like a nightmare and we needed to wake up from this awful dream. Chemo and radiation were recommended and the first of 4 chemo treatments was done on March 29th. This was rough for her, and she found herself admitted to the hospital 4 days after the first treatment with severe dehydration, extreme body aches, complete exhaustion, and a scare that if her blast blood score did not turn around it could mean blood leukemia. They are still monitoring for this.

The second treatment has been filled with some of the same concerns and she needs to go back to the hospital regularly for fluids due to dehydration from the chemo medications. The strain on her family has been intense; who's going to watch the baby, who's going to help get the kids to school and off the bus, who's going to prepare meals and help get the kids to their activities to keep some kind of normalcy, how are all of the bills going to get paid? Someone in the household has to work to keep money coming in. Her husband is doing his best to work, help maintain the home, and be by Brittany's side.

Brittany can't work since most of the time she's not feeling well and is exhausted. It's imperative for her recovery to rest. There are also more surgeries to come. Due to the fact that the cancer was found in her lymph nodes and she has to have chemo and radiation, her permanent breast implant surgery has to be put off for 9 months after chemo and radiation. She'll also need to get a complete hysterectomy as her type of cancer is hormonal. This will require her to take more time off work.

Brittany has been through so much in the last few years. She had just adopted the two older children last April and has had a difficult time with challenges with their bio-mom. The day the children moved in Brittany gave birth to her daughter at only 26 weeks. Their precious miracle baby spent 96 days in the NICU, flying to Riley for heart surgery and has had many other obstacles to deal with since. Trying to navigate her family, a full time job, and a baby in the NICU was extremely emotional and physically challenging. A month after the baby came home from the hospital Brittany found out she was pregnant with an ectopic pregnancy where she had to have her a fallopian tube removed and sadly had to come to the acceptance that she wouldn't be able to have any more children.

The family had just moved into their new house 5 days before she got the cancer diagnosis and have been struggling to keep up financially while Brittany is off work for treatments. The insurance deductibles need paid, she has a lot of supplies that she needs to manage this disease, and her pharmacy bills are ridiculous.

Brittany and her family really need your prayers, and if you can donate monetarily, please donate here, or contact me for her private Paypal or Venmo account details.

We're also planning a live auction and will have dates soon. Please pray for Brittany!