Help Melissa focus on health

Hey everyone, I can not believe I find myself here. As many of you are aware my baby sister Melissa was diagnosed with thyroid cancer earlier this year.

Towards the beginning of the year we started to noticed her neck seemed swollen, and that she was developing a large lump. After meeting with her doctor, having an ultrasound and a biopsy it was determined that Melissa had Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma. Thyroid cancer. In June Melissa underwent a total Thyroidectomy, where the surgeon removed her complete thyroid as well as a 5.5 cm tumor and removal of 14 total lymph nodes, 11 of which also came back positive for cancer. Further testing also brought to light that Melissa’s particular cancer is the “Tall Cell Variant” (TCV). Which means this variant is much more aggressive than the classic thyroid cancer, and makes Melissa much higher risk. In September Melissa received her first treatment of Radioactive Iodine. Given her high risk status, she had to be hospitalized and quarantined for 3 days due to the high levels of radiation.

The next big step in her journey is to follow up on the positive lymph nodes that were found. Melissa is doing her best to keep a positive attitude throughout this entire process. She works 2 jobs and her employers have been wonderful and understanding with needing time off. There has been countless appointments. Melissa has had, and will continue to have appointments with her endocrinologist, surgeon, radiologist, and general doctor that are all a 3-4 hour round trip drive.

I used to walk her into kindergarten class, now I am walking her into cancer treatments. Please help my sister, She has family support but bills are mounting. Any donations made will go towards therapies, medical needs, living expenses, and getting Melissa whatever she needs that will help her to focus on healing and staying healthy.