Cancer has picked the wrong woman!!
** To avoid fees associated with the use of this site, you can also donate directly to Elissa via Venmo @Elissa-SaputoRobinson **
Cancer has messed with the wrong girl!!! If you’re reading this and you know Elissa, then you know what she and her family have been through so far this year. If you don’t know Elissa, a brief snapshot of her diagnosis is below. But no matter your reasoning for ending up on this GoFundMe page…. Let’s help Elissa show cancer who's actually in charge, because it ain't cancer!!
I have known Elissa her entire life, and I can tell you she is a fighter, an advocate, a caring and funny woman, a loving wife, a beautiful mother, an amazing daughter, an exceptional sister, and just overall one of the best people you will ever meet in your lifetime. But most of all, I want her to be a SURVIVOR. And I know she can get there. I know she can be a testament to this ugly disease and an inspiration to those who will also forge along in their own journeys of colon cancer. Beating cancer will not be the only reward of this, she will inspire hope in others to do the same.
In April 2021, Elissa heard the words she never expected to hear: “You have cancer.” Stage IV colon cancer, to be exact. At just 37 years old.
“But I have a 7-year-old daughter,” she told her doctor that day. “And my brother died. I can’t leave my parents alone.”
She learned she had masses in her colon, ovary and liver. Following the recommendation of her medical team at University of Michigan she began aggressive chemotherapy. From the beginning the oncologists and surgeons indicated that if she responded well to chemotherapy and the tumors shrunk that the goal could be surgical removal and/or resection of all of the tumors. Now, following nearly 8 rounds of chemotherapy, a 10-day hospital stay in June due to effects of the chemotherapy and several modifications to her treatment regimen, the medical team feels she is a candidate for surgery.
Next came the tough decision on where to have surgery. With the support of her U of M medical team, Elissa and Rusty made a brief visit to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City in July for a second opinion. MSK is the No. 2 cancer center in the U.S., often trading places with M.D. Anderson in Houston, Texas for the No. 1 spot. After plenty of lost sleep, lots of praying, and wrangling over whether to have the surgery at U of M or MSK, the family feels going to one of the premiere cancer facilities in the country is the right choice and has made the decision to move forward with surgery at MSK in early to mid-October.
But first, Elissa will need to fly back to MSK in a few weeks for a pre-op CT scan, meeting with the liver surgeon and potentially, depending on what the scans say, staying even longer for what’s called a Portal Vein Embolization. Basically, it’s an interventional radiology procedure that requires an injection into the right lobe of the liver, where the large tumor is, that essentially cuts off the blood flow to that lobe. According to the surgeon, this process, if needed, has been shown to increase the post-operative success of a rather complex surgery. This is all expected to happen in the next couple of weeks, around Sept. 14 and it could mean a 6-day stay in NYC.
Once surgery comes in October, Elissa’s oncologist at MSK expects that she will be in the hospital for about a week. After that, and barring any complications, the medical team has indicated they want her to “stay in town” for an additional week or two during her post-op recovery period.
Overall, this means potentially three to four weeks of hotel stays in NYC and airfare, not a cheap venture, no matter how you choose to do it.
Your donations will help pay for hotels and flights for Elissa and her family. For food, transportation around New York, maybe extra childcare while she is in the hospital. This will help cover extra expenses they aren’t even aware of yet following the surgery and her follow-up care, and continued chemotherapy after surgery.
Elissa is so thankful for all the help that has already been given thus far. Every dollar counts.
In addition to donations, or if you can’t donate at this time, we are always asking for prayers. Prayers for her health, recovery and spirit. Prayers for her family that fight along with her every day. Prayers for the doctors, surgeons, nurses and patient advocates who are the ones helping to save her life. Prayers for everyone fighting this awful disease around the world. Your prayers thus far have been heard and they will continue to help Elissa in this battle. We have seen so much success so far with chemotherapy! Your prayers work and they continue to work. “Lord, heal Elissa.”
And at the end of all of this; when we can say she is cancer free; whatever money that was donated, will be given back to help others in Elissa’s shoes. She would like the money to be donated to a very worthy cause, Michigan Faith in the Fight ( michiganfaithinthefight.com ), which has been so helpful to her in this journey.
I (for those of you wondering who “I” am writing this, I am her cousin Laura from California) thank you all in advance for your wonderful generosity and your prayers. Elissa is not just my cousin, but one of my best friends. I truly am astounded thus far in all the donations and assistance they have received. Harper is still opening gifts from strangers who just want to put her at ease during those rough times. The family can order food when they just don’t have the time to cook due to all the doctor appointments. Your help so far has been amazing to them. But your prayers have been even more remarkable.
I know Elissa, Rusty, Harper, and her parents Sam and Betty are incredibly grateful for everything so far. I also know how much they will appreciate these donations to help get Elissa to that moment of being able to say, “I am cancer free. I am a survivor!”
Check your colon
-Laura
PS – I will attempt to update her progress as much as possible and with their permission as they continue this journey. And feel free to leave encouraging messages here too!!