Team Kelly - The Journey so far...

Update 5/6/2024 - Can we believe it has been 7 months since Diagnosis?? Kelly has finished the Red Devil chemo right before her Birthday!

She finally had scans done on April 18th and the results were good showing tumors have decreased in size. Next steps will be surgery to remove the breast tumor and affected lymph nodes. She will continue with the immunotherapy every 6 weeks to fight the lung nodules.

Surgery will be this Thursday May 9th and recovery will take 2-3 weeks. Surgery complications include recovery time, time off work, not able to drive for a time and having to find temporary care for Gizmo (the fur baby) while she recovers.

In two months more scans will be done to see if immunotherapy is working. If so, Kelly will remain on this course of treatment. If not, she might need more chemo. Radiation might also be included, just depends on what the scan shows.

Please continue with your prayers and support. She can feel the love and is very appreciative of all the support, prayers and positive thoughts. Kelly remains positive and is ready to tackle surgery and get those tumors removed.

She sends her love to all! ❤️

Update 2/14/24 - Prayers and positive thoughts are working!

Kelly found out from the scans that all tumors are shrinking. Praise God! Keep them coming, she still has a long journey ahead.

Kelly started the Red Devil chemo on Feb 1st. She had a rough last week. The chemo has caused her white blood count to dramatically lower to a dangerous level. This caused her to become sick with a GI infection, causing some nasty symptoms. On top of the chemo side effects, she needed to go back to the clinic several times for fluids, antibiotics and other IV treatment. In addition, her hemoglobin decreased severely which led to a blood transfusion on Sunday. With all the added assistance, she is feeling better.

Once again, insurance is interfering with the process which her medical team is fighting. There is an injection that would promote your bone marrow to produce new white blood cells quickly but it is very expensive and insurance has denied it. Since her blood levels are dangerously low right now and can't fight infections or bacteria, they are hoping the insurance will cover to avoid a future hospital stay.

Kelly's next round of chemo is Feb 22nd if her blood counts rebound. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers and support.

Update 1/22/2024 - YAY!!! Phase 1 Compete!

Kelly wants to thank everyone for the calls, texts, messages with your thoughts and prayers, check-ins, gifts and prepared dinners. All the love and support has been appreciated and touching.

Kelly has successfully completed all 12 weeks of Phase one chemo. She is experiencing some lingering side effects, neuropathy in her hands and feet and GI issues. She still has a positive outlook and is still trying to enjoy events and lunches with friends.

New scans will be done this Friday including a CT of chest/abdominal and breast ultrasound. This will show the results of the chemo and prayers that the tumors are smaller and best case scenario gone.

Once the Insurance coverage is approved and they outline the costs out of pocket, Kelly will then start phase 2 of chemo on Feb 1st. Fingers crossed we have no additional coverage Drama.

Phase 2 will involve a more aggressive chemo which has different side effects and the treatments will be on Thursdays every three weeks to allow for recovery in between. This will last 12 weeks so a total of 5 treatments. This Chemo, commonly called the “red devil chemo” both because of its distinctive color and because it can cause serious side effects, is currently considered one of the strongest chemotherapy drugs for breast cancer ever invented.

We are in it to WIN IT!

Update 12/28/2023 - Last Update of 2023!

Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. Even though Kelly didn't feel the best, she pushed herself and saw good friends and family over the holiday. Kelly just completed round 9 today and everything went well. This was the last treatment in 2023! ❤️

As we approach another trip around the sun and close out 2023, Kelly wants to take this time to express her gratitude to everyone who gave to her GoFundMe account or donated offline this year and for your continued support into 2024. Many thanks as well to everyone who has checked in and sent prayers throughout this journey. Your support and kind words have provided much strength and positivity to her. We wish you all the best in the upcoming new year. May 2024 bring good health, love and much success to you and your family.

UPDATE 12/18/23: Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season. Kelly made the call and had her hair stylist buzz cut her hair. She is now fully rocking hats, scarves and wigs. This has been a hard transition but she is staying positive and still enjoying activities when she feels up to it. Thursday will be her 8th round of treatment. Seems hard to believe it has been 8 weeks since she started treatment. Please continue with the prayers as we think they are working. Kelly has not had any pain from the tumor sites in weeks, which is a good sign. Kelly is sending all prayers and love for a safe and peaceful Christmas spent with family and friends.

UPDATE 12/4/23: Hard to believe it's December already. Who caught that Packer game? Celebrities in Green Bay! Just letting everyone know that Kelly is approaching week 6 of treatment, which is the half way point of Phase 1. Her main side effects are hair loss, body aches, headaches, GI issues and fatigue. Sundays and Mondays are her worse feeling days. She continues to stay positive and push through the side effects, which have increased in intensity. We hope everyone is doing well and getting into the holiday spirit and please keep Kelly in your thoughts and prayers!

UPDATE 11/20/23: Kelly wants to take time to sincerely THANK everyone for all the monetary gifts, prayers, check-ins, and positive thoughts. She can feel all the love and support and is very appreciative. She sends her love to everyone. We hope you and your families have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! Eat, sleep and watch football!

UPDATE 11/13/23: Last Thursday, Kelly met with a charity called Tricia's Troops. They offer free wellness services to cancer patients. They fitted and gave her two professional wigs and taught her how to use and care for them. Kelly just completed week 2 of chemo. The second chemo went better than the first where she had an allergic reaction to one of the chemo drugs. They adjusted some of the steroid and benadryl injections and she started taking Singular and Claritin and that seemed to do the trick. Fatigue, nausea and body aches have been the side effects so far but have been very manageable. She was told that around week 6 the side effects become more present. Time will tell. Kelly wants to express her extreme gratitude and appreciation for all the support, prayers and monetary gifts. She feels very blessed to have such wonderful people in her life.

ORIGINAL POST:

On September 29th it was confirmed that Kelly has invasive breast cancer that has spread to the lymph node. The plan of attack is 24 weeks of chemo, surgery and radiation. An 8 month plan to survive! She didn’t think the lump she found in August was anything to worry about as she had a clean mammogram in February 2023 but had a gut feeling that she needed to get it checked out. Check those lumps ladies!

Kelly experienced a setback when she went in for a CT body scan on Oct 18th and it was confirmed that the breast cancer has spread to her lungs. Three very small nodules were found and a biopsy was scheduled. Only one nodule was large enough to biopsy and that one was barely large enough. On Oct 24th, she had the biopsy and two days later, her cancer went from stage 2 to stage 4 when it was confirmed to be cancer.

After the medi port was put in on Oct 19th and the team of oncologists, radiologists and oncologists decided with aggressive chemo, surgery and aggressive radiation, a cure can still be in the future. The team decided to go with the original chemo plan consisting of two phases. Phase one is one day a week for 12 weeks. Phase two will be one day a week, every three weeks for 12 weeks. Immunotherapy will also be included every three weeks for a full year.

Kelly started chemo/immunotherapy on Thursday, Nov 2nd and will continue every Thursday to reach the 12 weeks. The first two chemo cycles have gone well with minor fatigue and some muscle and bone pain. They told her the side effects will increase as the chemo goes along and the second phase is worse than the first phase.

We are coming together as Kelly's friends, family, co-workers and community to help her and her family during her battle with breast cancer. This will be a difficult time for Kelly and her family, and we are asking for your help and support. Kelly is staying positive and we know with the support of us all she can focus on Beating Cancer and not worry about the bills.

All gifted donations are appreciated and will help with her medical expenses and more! Not getting treatment is NOT AN OPTION as we can see it is an aggressive little monster. So we are looking to raise funds to cover the out of pocket medical cost that they've accrued this year and that they'll accrue next year as well as covering time off work and household expenses as she continues treatment into 2024. Kelly may need to take time off from work to recover from the debilitating side effects.

Kelly is a Daughter, Niece, Wife, Sister-in-law, Auntie, (Fur)Mama and Friend! She believes in helping others, helping animals in need, a higher power and the greatness of every single Wisconsin sports team we have! She has had the shock of her life with this diagnosis! Anything you can gift including prayers and encouragement right now are greatly appreciated!!

If you would like to donate offline, please email KAdyniec at G Mail and we can supply an address if needed. If you are not able to donate, please consider sharing this link.

We will offer weekly updates and thanks here so please check back!