Donate to help an amazing human, Tiffany Edwards

My name is Kate, and I've known Tiffany since 2015 when we both were completing our internship to become the mental health therapists we both are now. It was because of her humor, her empathy, her compassion, and her strength, that made it possible for me to get through a very stressful time in my life.

She has remained a close friend whom I know I can call on for anything, and she'd be there for me. Now is my chance to thank her for being the incredible person she is.

Due to not being able to work while in recovery, Tiffany is in need of help, after receiving a second diagnosis of another type of cancer, this time breast cancer. All funds will go towards paying bills while she regains her strength to return to her career as a mental health therapist.

Here is her story:

It started on January 13th when I went in for an ultrasound on my liver. When the sonographer asked if I had ever had trauma to my kidney, I knew it wasn’t good. This is when they found the mass on my kidney that turned out to be a type of renal cell carcinoma. Fast forward after multiple scans and doctor appointments, to February 1st when I had surgery to remove the mass and ultimately 30% of my kidney. What should've been a somewhat easy surgery, per my surgeon, turned out to be so much worse.

During surgery my lung collapsed which I would then be on oxygen for a month, my lymphatic system was affected and this led to having a drainage tube and a strict diet for 4-5 weeks, I got a staph infection, my bladder was messed up (which I am on medication for), and I developed an umbilical hernia (that will need yet another surgery).

All of this turned into going from supposed to be out of work one week, to not being able to go back to the office for much longer than anticipated. I work as an individual therapist at a private practice of sort, that continues to grow, however I do not have PTO or short/long term disability. I went back to work doing telehealth 3 days after getting out of the hospital following my kidney surgery as I needed to pay my bills. I continue to see Urology for my bladder and I recently had my 9 month scans and labs for my kidney, which thankfully came up great.

The high anxiety with those scans was in the middle of my now current diagnosis of breast

cancer. I will be having a bilateral mastectomy as well as the preparation for reconstructive

surgery on November 8th . Once I’m healed, I will then have my second surgery to finish up the reconstructive surgery. They say for this first one I am not supposed to return to work for 6 weeks, and I am unsure at this point the recovery time for the second surgery.

This time around, I promised my daughter that I will take the first week to two weeks off as I will have drainage tubes and I'll have limited movement of my upper body to not raise my arms. I am going to try to get back to telehealth as soon as possible, as I explained to Baylee, the job I do is not just some job I can skip and not care about. I work with people who have trusted me to walk their journey with them and be their support when they may not feel they have it anywhere else.