Help Nancy Sains Beat Lung Cancer

My name is Mike Sains and I am asking for your help. My mom has stage 3B lung cancer. Adenocarconoma in both lungs, to be exact. We have started this page because with just a few days before she starts her first radiation and chemo therapy sessions, we are finally starting to see the mountain of bills pile up.

But before we just ask you for your money, let me tell you who she is and how she got here in the first place.

Nancy Sains is a mother of two children. Michael, 29 and Amanda, 25. She is also the matriarch of 4 cats - Radford, Benny, Simone, and Oliver - and 2 dogs - a boxer, Morgan (pictured above) and a Boston terrier, Jackson. She is also the operations manager for Destiny's Tree Service, based in Fairfax, Virginia. 

In early 2014 my mom, Nancy, had started to complain of a growing pain in her shoulder. For years she had worked in DC as a Chief Secretary for a law firm, has worked for an inside sales firm for the last 4 years, and continues to manage a local tree removal company from her home in Northern Virginia. She has been top salesperson in her office for the last 3 years running. But all of those jobs are just enough to keep us going. 

For obvious reasons, our family thought that in her years of carrying around large purses and business tote bags, she had developed a pinched nerve or some kind of posture-related malady. 

We went to her general physician in February and he diagnosed her with a pinched nerve and inflammation in the shoulder area. She was given a neck brace and an at-home traction device, along with steroids and pain medicine to cure her. Well, after the sharp pains in her shoulder went away, the discomfort shifted to her back, near her lung.

This distressed both our family and her doctors. She was sent to a series of specialists who were able to determine that a tumor in her lung was the root cause of this pain, not a pinched nerve. After even more tests and doctors visits, they determined that she is currently stage 3B. She needs radiation treatment and chemo therapy immediately. 

Did you know that before you can undergo chemo therapy that you have to have all of your dental work taken care of? It's true. If you have an open infection of any kind in your mouth, you need to fix those before you can receive treatment. My mom needed to have SEVEN teeth extracted and replaced, a temporary bridge in the top of her mouth, and several amalgum / mercury fillings removed. All in less than a week.

So, before even one treatment, we are already more than $6,000 dollars in debt due to the dental costs and have endured more pain than previously anticipated. Now that she's finishing those requirements, she is about to receive the treament she needs: 30 radiation sessions for 30 straight days and chemo therapy one a week until otherwise notified. The possibility of a second round of this treament has been anticipated by her doctors.

So, given the severity of her stage and the immediacy of the required treaments, we are asking for your donations. We simply can not afford to pay for these treatments under her current insurance. We also do not know exactly how much this will all cost, but we know it will exceed $50,000 by the end of this year, and could potentially continue deep into 2015. So we have set the bar high. 

We are also asking for this amount because the cost of living for her in-home caregiver and son, me, must be taken into consideration. I can not work while this is going on and once my mom starts to feel the effects of the treatments, neither will she. Cost of transportation, gas, car maintenance, and quality of living must be taken into account. But there are also other avenues we are considering to accomodate those needs, as well. Not just crowd-sourcing. 

Just so you know, we have every intention of BEATING THIS CANCER with EXTREME PREDJUDICE. But to do that, we will need help. Any an all money that you can donate to us will be a drop of water in a very large bucket. But it is a drop that we shall cherish with every ounce of our being. Thank you in advance. We are forever in your debt and you shall remain in our good graces until our last moments on this planet. 

**To be very clear, we would like to clarify that Nancy has a tumor in her right lung and the lobes in her chest wall. When we say that the cancer is in both lungs, the left side has shown that there are small, but still significant, areas of infection. This spread has made her current stage ineligible for surgery. 

HOWEVER, the idea here is to stop the spread into the other lung and lessen the swelling in the tumor. This could potentially put her in contention for a surgical procedure. Then, more than likely, more rounds of chemo therapy and radiation treatments. 

We wanted to clarify the diagnosis for us and our donors, alike. Thank you again for your time and your donation.**