Help Michelle Beat Cancer!

The short story…

Michelle’s situation has worsened.

The cancer has spread and she now has one tumor in her brain. She and her medical team are fighting it aggressively, but the effort will be very costly and Michelle will be taking a leave of absence from work to focus 100% on beating this. We’re hoping her friends and loved ones can help by donating to cover her out-of-pocket insurance costs.

The whole story…

In December 2021, Michelle went to the doctor to have a scabby mole checked out. The mole was removed and biopsied and came back positive for melanoma.

In early January, Michelle saw a specialist and they made a plan to have skin removed from the arm with the cancerous mole. She had CT scans and an MRI to make sure that the cancer hadn’t spread elsewhere.

During the surgery, a large chunk of tissue was removed from her arm. The nearest lymph node to the spot of origin was also removed, leaving Michelle with 13 staples in her arm and an uncomfortable incision under her armpit.

A week later, in February of 2022, her doctor informed her that they had found cancer in the satellite cells on the margin of the removed tissue, and that the lymph node showed cancer as well. This put Michelle at Stage 3 melanoma, and illustrated the need for more aggressive treatment.

At the end of February, she met with another doctor to begin immunotherapy treatment, which is a monthly IV treatment administered over the course of a year. He told her it wouldn’t be as bad as chemotherapy.

He also informed her about a clinical trial that would help cover the costs of the drug, and Michelle agreed to participate. However, to get accepted into the trial, she not only had to have additional CT scans, an MRI, and an echocardiogram, she also had to have a second surgery on her arm in order to remove the remaining satellite cancer cells. She had this surgery in March, 2022 and began immunotherapy treatment soon after. Sadly, the clinical study that would have paid for it was cancelled.

In July, Michelle felt a lump under her armpit where the cancerous lymph node was removed. The lump was biopsied and found to be cancerous. They performed an MRI of her brain to make sure it hadn’t spread since her last MRI, and it was clear.

Her doctors decided that the immunotherapy treatment wasn’t working.

In late August, they removed all of the lymph nodes from her right armpit, hoping to halt the cancer in its tracks. Five of the lymph nodes came back positive for cancer.

The plan was to begin radiation treatment, which they did, and to continue regular CT scans in order to stay on top of any additional occurrences.

Michelle began to experience headaches starting in mid-November. At first, they were assumed to be sinus headaches due to the radiation treatments.

In December, Michelle had her regular scheduled CT scan. Because of the headaches, he doctor also scheduled an MRI of the brain. She had the CT scan first, and it showed a suspicious spot in her right arm where the melanoma first started, so her doctor decided to begin double drug immunotherapy treatments.

On December 28, 2022, Michelle had the scheduled MRI, and was told that she had a 2.5cm tumor in the front part of the cerebellum.

She immediately met with a neurosurgeon. Because the tumor was small enough and because she wasn’t yet showing symptoms common with this tumor placement, he recommended that they start with stereotactic radio surgery, a process which focuses intense radiation to the tumor, but does not involve actual surgery. The hope is that this treatment, combined with the immunotherapy every 3 weeks, will hopefully shrink and kill the tumor. If it doesn’t, then brain surgery will be necessary.

Michelle has had one immunotherapy treatment at the time of this writing. She will be getting a port this Friday, due to a struggle to find my good veins for the IV. The radiation treatment should begin either this Friday or early next week.

However, a recent MRI shows that the tumor is growing, and she has started to experience symptoms of impaired cognition, both of which could alter all of these plans.

A new year means a new insurance deductible and out of pocket expenses. And due to the impaired cognition beginning to affect her coordination, she is taking a leave of absence from her work starting this week. At this point, we are not entirely sure how much this will all cost, but we know her out-of-pockets insurance expenses will be at least $14k for the year, so we are starting the fundraising goal there.

Michelle is scared and could really use the help and support of her friends, both emotionally and financially.

Thank you, all.