Supporting Susy & Brady - Breast Cancer

Hello friends.

My fiance Susy was diagnosed with breast cancer on June 1st at 29 years old. We will be heading to New York on 7/26 to start treatment - she's getting a double mastectomy & reconstructive surgery. I will go into further detail below, but all donations will be used towards the various expenses this entails. Hotels, rent, food, hospital bills...anything and everything helps. This is the hardest thing we've ever been through, and your support means the world to us. Thank you for your kindness.

Should you want to support outside of gofundme, below are additional contribution methods.

cashapp: $BradySzuhaj

venmo: @BradySzuhaj

paypal: bszuhaj(at)gmail(dot)com

zelle: susy(at)heatdeath(dot)co (note .co not .com)

*** I will update this page over the next few weeks with Susy's progress ***

Susy was informed at 19 that she was BRCA 1 positive, a genetic mutation that all but guarantees breast cancer at some point in your life - in her case leaning more towards aggressive forms. Her mother, also BRCA positive, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer at the early age of 37 and miraculously survived her odds through a unilateral mastectomy. With a genetic history like this, doctors have calculated Susy’s lifetime risk of cancer to be around 73.89%. What this means for her is that breast cancer has always been expected to appear, but we never imagined it would show up in her 20s.

After feeling random twinges of pain in her breast throughout 2022, Susy started the process of getting screened in 2023. Something that proved difficult for her to undergo as she was not eligible for more in-depth screenings like mammograms due to her being under 30 and at an age “unlikely” to have cancer. Luckily, a preemptive MRI caught a mass which immediately led to a biopsy - and before we knew it, there was a positive diagnosis.

Susy’s cancer is known as Ductal Carcinoma In-Situ (DCIS), it has high nuclear-grade cells and comedo necrosis. The cancer is contained within her duct making it non-invasive for the time being. However, the high nuclear grade of her cells means it is rapidly expanding and can burst through at any moment. If it does it will be very aggressive to treat. Right now she is at Stage 0, but if it bursts, she could be at Stage 3 overnight. She is also negative for estrogen and progesterone levels in her cancer cells, which leads her doctors to believe that if the cancer breaks through it will become Triple Negative Breast Cancer, the most aggressive and hardest breast cancer to treat. We had to move fast, and have found some incredible & empathetic doctors.

While opting for a lumpectomy would completely remove the cancer and give her a clean bill of health, Susy has decided to go with getting a double mastectomy (removal of both breasts). Since she's BRCA positive, she essentially has a 100% chance of cancer coming back - a lumpectomy would ultimately be "kicking the can down the road" and the cancer that returns could potentially be an uncontained variant. Being so young, her body will be able to recover from the mastectomy much better - along with choosing doctors that specialize in nerve-sparing microsurgery, we have high hopes that she'll regain some form of sensation post-surgery in her chest over time. (This nerve-sparing microsurgery should be the standard of women's care when it comes to mastectomies. Learning that total numbness of the chest is the accepted norm was mind-blowing to us)

Positive outlooks aside, this is so very devasting, especially for a young woman with her entire life ahead of her. As her partner, it is equally terrifying and frustrating to feel so powerless in my ability to help her. Thank you, all of you, for your support in easing that feeling. Susy is the most incredible person I have ever met, and I want to give her everything I possibly can to get her through this.

Get checked. Take your health seriously. Keep your head up, it always gets better.

<3

Susy&Brady