Melissa Allison’s life saving cancer treatment
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Hi my name is Alexis Armitage and I am organizing this fundraiser to help pay for my moms aggressive metastatic cancer treatment. She has been battling an aggressive stage 4 colorectal and soft tissue pelvic cancer since January 2022 that is not operable and has had little to no success from numerous treatments so far. She is constantly in pain in multiple areas of her body and pain management barely helps her. She’s started off doing a chemo pill, chemo IV and radiation combo with success in the colon area but zero success in the pelvic mass. She’s had 3 surgeries placing stents and drains for areas that are effected by the large pelvic mass. She has been in and out of the hospital multiple times due to treatment complications. In July she started an IV chemo regimen that put her into anaphylactic shock and she coded and ended up in the hospital for a while. A week later she was switched to another chemo regimen that was not going to be as effective as the one she was allergic to. After 3 treatments into this new chemo, a pet scan was done to check for any progress and showed the pelvic mass has now grown even larger and has spread to the liver and lungs. Her body is resistant and not responding to the chemo in a positive way so they have stopped chemo and now want to begin immunotherapy which only works on 2 out of 10 people and takes weeks to month to even know if it’s working. With an aggressive cancer a week is too long to wait. Her cancer is now life threatening. After doing some research my dad found a place called Envita medical center, they provide stage 4 cancer treatment that is beyond the standard cancer treatments and they have very high success rates. My mom’s first appointment with them will be 11/15. Being that they go beyond standard care insurance does not cover these treatments and may only cover a small fee for labs. Since the standard cancer treatment is not working for my mom I feel this is our only hope going forward.
Thank you all in advance for helping us in any way that you possibly can. It means more to my mom and family then you will ever know. We will never stop fighting or trying to find her the best treatment possible to help save her life. In addition to this fundraiser, we are going to try to hold multiple fundraisers. If anyone has any ideas or is willing to help me with fundraisers please contact me.
I have added below what Envita does, the cost and a link to the videos that explains the treatments .
Melissa,
It was a pleasure to speak with you today. I am glad you reached out to get more information about Envita and about cancer in general. I wanted to provide you the basic Envita logistics for you to consider.
We are an outpatient medical center in Scottsdale, Arizona. Patients travel to us from across the country and internationally to receive the unique style of care we offer. Envita is an advanced integrative facility, meaning we use both conventional and cancer adjunctive naturopathic treatments in combination. We specialize in creating individualized protocols based on the genetics of each patient’s unique cancer presentation. To provide this form of care, we are unable to contract directly with insurance companies. Insurance companies typically only cover standardized treatment protocols which have failed to yield results for our patients. Because of these shortcomings we must operate outside the realm of what insurance deems "standard" to provide the level of care our patients need.
We are typically about 2 to 3 weeks out for booking New Patient Appointments. It is important for us to gather all your medical records prior to your in person visit to properly prepare our doctors. The sooner we have this information, the better. We can obtain your medical records directly from you or I can send you a medical release form to gather your records on your behalf. The New Patient Appointment is a one-time fee of $550 and is an in-person consultation where the doctor will discuss potential treatment options, tests we would like to run, and answer any questions you have. Many of our patients will also have a consultation with our Interventional Radiology specialist at Envita Interventional Radiology. The consultation with our Interventional Radiology specialist is $350.
The following day most patients come in for a lab draw. Lab costs tend to range from $8,000-$12,000 with insurance, or from $12,000-$16,000 without insurance. There are some cases that insurance can cover most of a patient's labs depending on what labs are recommended by the doctor. Before the draw, I would go over an itemized quote so you can see which labs are being run, what they look at, and their individual costs if applicable.
Many of our patients benefit from starting protocol right away, while others wait for their lab results to come back before they begin treatment. We recognize that everyday matters, which is why Envita has developed advanced interventional radiology procedures, along with customized IV treatment that many of our patients benefit from starting right away. This is something we can discuss together and in more detail with the doctor as we plan for your first appointment.
Once we get the testing back, there is a lab review where the doctor will discuss all the information we received and how we are going to proceed to achieve the next milestone in care. After the lab review, estimated length of treatment and costs become far clearer.
In general, I like to prepare patients for treatment plans that start at 4 weeks and can be up to 12 weeks of treatment. Most patients come in Monday-Friday for a few hours each day. We are an outpatient facility; patients do not stay with us overnight. However, we do have local extended care facilities and realtors that we recommend for our patients that I can share with you.
For about 4 to 12 weeks of treatment we typically see protocols range from about $40,000 to $120,000. These are ballpark figures to take into consideration, keep in mind the price could be lower or higher. It depends on which treatments the physician feels are necessary for you along with the different milestones and goals within your care. It is important to understand Envita specializes in precision, personalized medicine. We do the best we can to prepare our patients prior to coming out for the first visit, however each treatment plan is customized to each patient. We can assure you that through the process you will be informed and educated on your treatment plan. Before you begin care I would create a quote for you with each treatment and the cost broken down. When changes occur, you are always updated and provided an updated quote. Please note, the estimated ranges may not include outside referral costs or specialized procedures.
If you have any additional questions, please let me know. May God bless you in your journey to healing.
Organizer
Alexis Armitage
Organizer
Superior, AZ