Help Rochelle Beat Cancer!
On September 4th, 2018 we received some terrible news. My wife, my love Rochelle Brooks was diagnosed with Triple Negative breast cancer.
Triple negative cancer is a rarer aggressive form of breast cancer that developed into a tumor in her left breast and metastasized to the nearbylymph nodes. We’re in testing (pet scan) to see if its spread anywhere beyond that and praying that it hasn’t.
To say we were shocked has been a understatement. Rochelle is probably the healthiest person I know. Eats very clean (vegetarian), doesn’t smoke, drinks wine and the occasional beer moderately, not to mention is very young (just turned 40 two weeks earlier).
We were both a mess for the first few days. Tons of crying, thoughts of mortality combined with “why did this all happen”... and more than anything, we’re scared, actually terrified.
Our biggest worry before this was which of our two pugs (Jax or Jake) had gotten jealous of each other, peed somewhere they shouldn’t have, or someone wasn’t getting enough attention.
All weekends involved them, going for walks, an occasional lunch/beer at our local haunts or planning when we might be able to get a small vacation. We were being a family, enjoying our life with normal worries, stresses and dreams.
Rochelle and I have a decent health insurance plan, but since we rarely get sick our plan is catered to that. When Rochelle got sick with cancer, she couldn’t have gotten anything worse.
Since day one Rochelle has refined her diet to cater to a no acidic, high alkaline diet. Cancer cells have a difficult time living in a high alkaline environment. She has eliminated sugar, coffee, all alcohol, grains, wheat and replaced with all organic fruit, vegetable, raw, and supplemental diet.
She’s a warrior and is determined...but doesn’t take much to feel massively overwhelmed over this new fight we have had dropped in our lap.
Since the diagnosis, the past month has been spent meeting with oncologists, researching holistic methods (Rochelle’s Mom has spent the last couple of years dealing with cancer on a holistic level), blood tests, mri’s and ultrasounds. Trying to get a plan in action to get the best plan to conquer this disease and get Rochelle cancer free.
Sufficed to say the costs and bills have started to mount...and we aren’t in treatment yet. We want our life back and it’s going to be a big fight, and we need your help.
If the pet scan comes back that the cancer hasn't spread beyond what we know, we will be starting very soon 8 rounds of chemo over 4 months, surgery (most likely double masectomy), then post surgery chemo/radiation. Following that most likely reconstructive surgery after the double masectomy.
In short a long road. Please consider donating to help us with the expected, and unexpected, expenses associated with the tough fight ahead.
Your donations will be placed into a account to help cover insurance copays and deductibles related to treatments, potential clinical trials and treatments not covered by insurance, medication, a wig for the duration of the chemotherapy just to name a few.
Any help you can contribute is massively appreciated and will show we're not alone in this fight. Thank you so much!