Help Dana (Petersen) Smith Fight Breast Cancer
Donation protected
5/14/2019 UPDATE****
Dana is having surgery on Friday the 17th at Abbott. She is nervous and could use everyone's thoughts and prayers. We all love you Dana, you have nothing to worry about. Everything will go great and then you can say you had surgery before! ❤❤❤❤
***UPDATE!!****
We need your help even more than before! We just found out that Dana's insurance will not cover any Mayo bills! Can you believe that?! That is the place we want and need her to go. It is the place where all of her appointments are scheduled. I am so infuriated with this news and all I can do is ask for everyone's help.
A couple weeks ago we found out that my sister Dana (Petersen) Smith has Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC), sometimes called infiltrating ductal carcinoma, it is the most common type of breast cancer.
On May 16th she will being having surgery to remove her right breast. She is also leaning toward removing the left breast as well.
After her surgery she will be out of work for 6 weeks!
They are going to start her on a shot once a month for 5 years and a pill once a day for 5-10 years that will stop her ovaries from producing estrogen. The type of cancer she has thrives on estrogen.
They do not think she needs Chemo, so that is good news! She may need to do radiation though. If they do they will start that 6 weeks after surgery and it would be 5 days a week! Radiation has two main side affects, Tired and a Sunburn.
If she gets radiation they want to take fat from her stomach to reconstruct her breasts. That would be a 6 hour surgery!! Her recovery time is another 6 weeks from work!!
My sister is so loving and so caring. She is always there to lend a helping hand or lend a listening ear. She works hard and loves her work. She is a pre-school teacher at lil' Explorers in Buffalo, MN. She has a wonderful husband, family, and many grand kids that she adores!! It is just her and her husband Bernie Smith (two cats and a dog) in their home with her grand kids always visiting, but they still need her income to keep the bills current. With my sister going through this there is no way for her to work her normal hours. They will need help with all of the finances, and many hospital bills. I am asking for any kind of help. Heck I will even take a penny!! At least that is one cent closer to helping my sister.
I try to keep a smile on her beautiful face so I tell her " Hey look on the positive side here. You get to have fat removed from your stomach and inserted into your BREASTS!!!! Did you just hear that? Yup that is every woman's dream come true!! So you are not only losing weight with a tummy tuck, you are getting a frickin boob job too!! Also if you get radiation you get to sleep more AND you will have sunburn!! Hey its color! " It's my job to make sure everyone is ok and laughing even through the hard times, and that worked perfectly, she laughed. My sister is actually doing very well with all of this however she is scared and worried as anyone would be.
Please help relieve any further stress from my sister and her husband. Thank you in advance!
Please share and post EVERYWHERE!!
Dana is having surgery on Friday the 17th at Abbott. She is nervous and could use everyone's thoughts and prayers. We all love you Dana, you have nothing to worry about. Everything will go great and then you can say you had surgery before! ❤❤❤❤
***UPDATE!!****
We need your help even more than before! We just found out that Dana's insurance will not cover any Mayo bills! Can you believe that?! That is the place we want and need her to go. It is the place where all of her appointments are scheduled. I am so infuriated with this news and all I can do is ask for everyone's help.
A couple weeks ago we found out that my sister Dana (Petersen) Smith has Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC), sometimes called infiltrating ductal carcinoma, it is the most common type of breast cancer.
On May 16th she will being having surgery to remove her right breast. She is also leaning toward removing the left breast as well.
After her surgery she will be out of work for 6 weeks!
They are going to start her on a shot once a month for 5 years and a pill once a day for 5-10 years that will stop her ovaries from producing estrogen. The type of cancer she has thrives on estrogen.
They do not think she needs Chemo, so that is good news! She may need to do radiation though. If they do they will start that 6 weeks after surgery and it would be 5 days a week! Radiation has two main side affects, Tired and a Sunburn.
If she gets radiation they want to take fat from her stomach to reconstruct her breasts. That would be a 6 hour surgery!! Her recovery time is another 6 weeks from work!!
My sister is so loving and so caring. She is always there to lend a helping hand or lend a listening ear. She works hard and loves her work. She is a pre-school teacher at lil' Explorers in Buffalo, MN. She has a wonderful husband, family, and many grand kids that she adores!! It is just her and her husband Bernie Smith (two cats and a dog) in their home with her grand kids always visiting, but they still need her income to keep the bills current. With my sister going through this there is no way for her to work her normal hours. They will need help with all of the finances, and many hospital bills. I am asking for any kind of help. Heck I will even take a penny!! At least that is one cent closer to helping my sister.
I try to keep a smile on her beautiful face so I tell her " Hey look on the positive side here. You get to have fat removed from your stomach and inserted into your BREASTS!!!! Did you just hear that? Yup that is every woman's dream come true!! So you are not only losing weight with a tummy tuck, you are getting a frickin boob job too!! Also if you get radiation you get to sleep more AND you will have sunburn!! Hey its color! " It's my job to make sure everyone is ok and laughing even through the hard times, and that worked perfectly, she laughed. My sister is actually doing very well with all of this however she is scared and worried as anyone would be.
Please help relieve any further stress from my sister and her husband. Thank you in advance!
Please share and post EVERYWHERE!!
Organizer and beneficiary
Malissa Krause
Organizer
Cokato, MN
Dana Smith
Beneficiary