Sheila Dodd Defenders

Sheila Dodd’s journey fighting cancer started in April of 2010 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She thought she won the battle against cancer, but unfortunately her battle was not over. 

In 2015 she found out her breast cancer metastasized to her right hip.  She went through radiation and that seemed to help, but in 2016 cancer was found in her liver and pelvic bone.  She then went through chemo and radiation to fight cancer in those areas, only to find out in November of 2016 that there was more cancer in her left hip.  She had radiation treatments on her hip and her next bone scan showed cancer was now in her spine and ribs.  She went through 3 rounds of chemo, but she found out about a month ago that the chemo was not working. The tumors in her liver were larger and she had more tumors in her hip, spine and ribs. Her next step is to start the chemo pill xeloda. She will take it 2 weeks on and 1 week off. Unfortunately her insurance didn't approve it right away and she is still waiting for a mail order pharmacy to contact her to set up delivery as it is too expensive for her regular pharmacy to carry. Then came the broken hip... The doctor considers it a pathological fracture meaning that it was caused by the tumors in her hip.  She had a fall on March 3rd and it was enough stress to cause it to break. She had no idea that her hip was broken. She had pain in that hip from the tumors anyway. She just thought the pain was increased. She walked on it all weekend with the help of a cane and walker. When it still hurt on the 6th she thought she would just get a quick x-ray and be on her way back to work. Her hip was broke at the neck. Her oncologist had her husband Ted drive her out to Iowa City and she was admitted to the hospital through the ER. She was fortunate enough to have Dr. Miller, an orthopedic oncologist, perform her complete hip replacement. The bright side of breaking her hip and getting a replacement was that all of the tumors were removed from her left hip. She spent 3 days in the hospital and came home last Thursday, March 9th.   She will be off of work for at least 6 weeks for recovery.  Now with her broken hip she can't start chemo until her incision heals (at least 2 weeks) since chemo hinders the healing process.

With all of this going on, Sheila has continued to work as much as she can, which is much more than anyone could be expected to do.  She has been a true warrior through it all, keeping a positive attitude, but she has had to take some time off.  She is now out of sick days and will have no pay for these 6 weeks of recovery time.  Missing work while all of these bills come pouring in is making an already tight situation even tighter.  We would like to raise money to let Sheila take a break and not have to worry about paying her mounting bills.   We would love for her to be able to spend her energy planning her son Devin’s upcoming college graduation party, wedding and birth of his baby, son Brad’s high school graduation party, and son James high school sports.  We would appreciate any help you could give for this wonderful wife, mother, sister and friend to many.  It is time for her to take a break.