Support Tami Fulk’s Fight Against Breast Cancer

I am asking for help in supporting Tami Fulk, my mom, as she continues to receive treatments to fight her diagnosis of Invasive Ductal Carcinoma and Metastatic Adenocarcinoma.

She is the wife of Jason Fulk, recently celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary. She is a mother to 4 children Teira Drish, Nathan Koehler, Stephanie Koehler, and Hannah Fulk. She’s a grandmother to 3 grandsons, Kelton, Laikyn, and Braven Drish.

I’m wanting to ease my families concerns on how they are going to move forward with medical bills/copay’s, groceries, and staying on top of monthly bills.

Currently my dad, Jason is the only one who is able to work and is now back to work after recovering for 7 weeks from his surgery in January, I ask for additional help in trying to keep them afloat as he tries to support his wife, Tami, and their youngest daughter, Hannah, who’s 14.

My mom was just getting her real estate business going and working at the school as a means to keep a consistent money flow coming in, her medical team decided with her compromised immune system it was in her best interest to avoid being around those who may be ill and large indoor crowds. Since she worked at the school dealing with food, they couldn’t allow her to continue to work due to her toxicity levels from treatments and her suppressed immune system from chemotherapy and was forced to take a medical leave with no benefits. She enjoyed both of her jobs, her passion is being around people, she loves helping and lifting others up. If you know her you see she wears a permanent smile and is consistently looking for the positives in life. She’s truly such a big inspiration to anyone who meets her, and you leave feeling like your cup is always overflowing. She has so much heart to give, always.

Back in December after feeling a burning sensation in her chest made her question where she’s had a lump for about a year, but was told back then when she had it looked over that it was most likely an infected lymph node and to take some ibuprofen and it should go away…she decided to make a call to have it checked out, wanting to wait until the holidays were over so went in on December 27th for her mammogram where she wasn’t prepared to find out that day they found an enlarged mass they believed had metastasized into her lymph node and thought to be malignant, they expressed their concern for her, she had 6 biopsies taken a week later (found a 2nd infected lymph node) to test the mass and take samples from the bigger of the now 2 infected lymph nodes, from there would need to meet with an oncologist to read her results and what type of cancer she was dealing with and what stage. After meeting with the oncologist late January she found out what type of breast cancers she was dealing with and next steps in fighting this so she can continue life with family.

They scheduled an MRI and found that she has a large mass and 6 infected lymph nodes, shortly after received a PET scan and found that it had not spread to any other organs, they believe they caught it in time. She was scheduled that same week to get her port placed so she could start Chemotherapy and after 2 separate surgeries they were able to get the port placed. She will receive 16 chemo treatments, 4 of them being Doxorubicin (Adriamycin) (also known as “The Red Devil”) which is one of the most powerful chemotherapy drugs. It’s supposed to kill cancer cells at every point in their life cycle. It’s rich red in color hence why they give it that awful name. She is also being treated with Cyclophosphamide also known as Cytoxan which is also chemotherapy used to treat lymphomas. She just received her 3rd treatment so has 1 more of both of those before she finishes the next 12 with Taxol Chemotherapy which works by stopping the cancer cells from being able to separate into 2 new cells. Overall blocking the growth of the cancer.

Once she has finished chemo she will go in for surgery to receive a double mastectomy to remove the mass and lymph nodes including both the remaining breasts reducing the likelihood of it and preventing it from returning. Once she’s finished with that surgery she will go in for radiation ensuring they have removed and have killed all of the cancer, knowing it won’t stand a chance of coming back.

These last 3 months have been a roller coaster of emotions and endless prayers, we are so grateful for any amount you are able to give and are so thankful for the outpouring love and support from family and friends. I ask for continued prayers for her to stay strong throughout this process. She is a loving and faith driven daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother who has not allowed a single bit of worry to havoc her strength. This battle is testing her strength physically and emotionally daily but you wouldn’t know it, she still greets each day with her hands stretched high giving God the Glory.