Help Courtney Joerns Battle Stage 4 Cancer

Courtney is a 33-year-old mom to a 3-year-old little boy and a 23-month-old baby girl. Courtney is battling Stage 3 breast cancer, type HER2+. We found out yesterday that she ALSO has a large tumor on her ovary.

If you’re lucky enough to know Courtney, you know a few things for sure:

- She is tough as nails. The determination and passion that made her an accomplished Grant Community High School athlete and GCBS player, amazing sister, daughter, aunt, fiancé, employee, granddaughter, loyal friend, and absolutely incredible mom will be advantageous along this tough ride.

- She will walk through fire to protect her children, friends, and family, and those she cares about, or climb into their beds when a friend’s depression leaves them unable to get out of it.

- She is honest and stands firmly by morals instilled in her by her amazing parents. She will stand up for a stranger to protect what is right.

- She’s a Joerns so she is a workhorse. Nothing she does is done at less than 100%. Through pain she will ignore, nothing will stop her from fulfilling duties, goals, or commitments she makes.

- She undeniably and intensely hates asking for help. That’s where her “village” and I come in.

Your gracious donation will go towards her ongoing care, medical equipment/supplies, meals, loss of wages, mortgage payments, car payments, her monthly health insurance premium payments, and supporting her babies. Perhaps you’ll also consider sharing her fundraiser.

My name is Lauren - If you’re interested in the details, please keep reading for Courtney’s story below.

For those that donate, I will be coming back and doing updates here and I believe GoFundMe will send you a notification email. 

Updates below.

August 21st, 2024 - Courtney went to the doctor for a lump she’d noticed in the prior weeks. Due to being only 33, she wasn’t able to “walk-in” for a mammogram. The doctor ordered diagnostic imaging.

September 5th, 2024 - 15 days later, the earliest appointment available, we headed to Northwestern Grayslake, where an intended 90-minute imaging appointment turned into a whirlwind of imaging, ultrasounds, and guided biopsies. We left about 7 hours later, with the knowledge that Courtney undoubtedly and certainly had a type of invasive ductal carcinoma in her right breast - there was at least 1 moderately large tumor and several affected locational lymph nodes on top of the primary tumor.

September 12th-15th, 2024 - We learned that pathology results were type HER+ invasive ductal carcinoma, Stage 3. In this case, the type of cancer Courtney has cannot be suppressed with hormones, which is a setback. The oncologist sat with us for over an hour, answering every question patiently and in detail. She ordered a full body bone scan and CAT scan to check for distant spread, genetic testing, fertility preservation consultation, and an echocardiogram to make sure Courtney’s heart is healthy enough for the treatments and procedures ahead. We went over the treatment plan expected.

September 17-18th, 2024 - The hits just keep coming. We met with the surgeon and the oncologist to go over Courtney’s catscan and bone scan results. The results revealed a 6 x 4 cm mass on her ovary, wrapping to the back of her uterus, with some adjacent affected lymph nodes and fluid (ascites) surrounding the ovary. Without a biopsy, nothing can be confirmed or assumed, and as of right now, Courtney’s oncologist wants the breast and ovarian tumors to be different and separate cancers - she is hoping that the breast cancer is not Stage 4 and is unrelated to the ovary.

Update: October 17th-

Bad news. The biopsy done on Courtney’s pelvis has shown that she is actually battling Stage 4 cancer instead of stage 3. We hope to get out to MD Anderson by the end of the year for a second opinion.

Court does have pretty good medical insurance, but we are already feeling the stress from bills rolling in - she’ll need much more than what insurance covers. There will be additional financial burdens that will far exceed her individual maximum out-of-pocket insurance threshold of $6,350 annually for in-network providers. She will owe her deductible and max out of pocket by the end of this month, and on January 1st, 2025, a new deductible of $6,350 will be set, and then again, likely owed within the first month of 2025.

At this time, costs for the following that are not covered by insurance are unknown: prescription costs (unknown), co-pays (number of $60 visits unknown), gas to and from Lake Forest Hospital and to and from chemo treatments, missed time from work/lost wages (no paid time off for either Victor or Courtney, though we are looking into FMLA support), fertility preservation costs if that’s an option and chosen, unpredictable child care costs (Court is currently a full-time, work-from-home and simultaneous stay-at-home mom), unknown comfort/care expenses like cold capping to help with hair loss, supplements, radiation burn creams, things like B6/B12, Claritin, mouthwashes, items and products that are proven to aid in symptoms caused by chemo, etc., and also alternative supplemental treatments or second opinions which are not covered by insurance.

If you can contribute to this page, anything will be deeply appreciated. If you’d like to avoid fees, reach out - we’ll set up a private donation.

We are determined to help her fight this battle and are grateful you are all with us.