Team Tressa- A fight against breast cancer

Thanks for Visiting our go fund me page. We're here to raise funds to help Tressa with the expenses that she will incur during her treatment.

Dear Friends and Family,

As many of you may know, Tressa has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. This news has come as a shock, and we want to do everything we can to support her during this challenging time.

Tressa is facing a very long, difficult road ahead, both emotionally and financially with the extensive medical expenses that come with her treatment. She absolutely does not want to ask for help, but she needs it, and we know that any support we can offer will make a tremendous difference in alleviating the stress.

With this in mind, we've set up a GoFundMe campaign to help her with her medical costs. Any contribution, no matter how small, will go a long way in easing the burden on her shoulders. We understand that not everyone may be able to contribute financially, and your thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes are equally valuable during this time and they have helped her greatly.

Thank you for your kindness, generosity, and unwavering support.

With gratitude, Tressa's Support Team

A post from Tressa's Facebook page, when she made her diagnosis public.

'You can't beat a river into submission. You have to surrender to its current and use its power as your own.' A friend sent this to me.♡

The thing many of us fear and all that comes with it is finally here. Before today, it's just been appointments, imaging, and pokes. Feeling heartbroken and incredibly sad about this thing I cannot feel but that lives inside me. This thing that will take my life if I don't fight.

I recently went in for a routine mammogram after skipping two years due to COVID, moving, and getting new insurance, then waiting six months for an available appointment, only to have my world flipped upside down and inside out. I knew something was gravely wrong when, during a second visit ultrasound, the technician left the room repeatedly, not responding to me when I told her I was scared. The radiologist finally came in the room to tell me she was 'very, very concerned' while looking at me over her glasses. I asked, 'do I have cancer?' 'Yes.' Just in time for breast cancer awareness month. I felt like I was the size of an ant being looked at through a large magnifying glass. These strangers observing me, with my life in their hands before getting crushed by the other dropped shoe. Diagnosed with cancer before any biopsies? She knew. And now here I am weeks later, about to get a port in my chest for an aggressive chemotherapy journey today, and many more goings-on after. I'm terrified, and have affected so many lives around me, but am no stranger to struggle. It has given me depth, passion, boundaries, and empathy.

I implore with all that is in me to have your mammograms done. Even if you feel nothing. I felt absolutely nothing and it had spread.

The fear, the questions, the beating myself up for not having gone sooner, the unknowns, the knowns ... has just about done me in, and stress loves to feed cancer. Was it me? My traumas? My lifelong challenges and repeated heartbreak? My lack of being a mother and unable to nurse my babies, the only thing I've ever truly wanted? My deodorant? Getting my nails done, my hair? My wine country escapades? My unspoken truths? I could go on and on, but it's time. I will now get out of this bed and touch the floor with my feet, facing the day. What if I just don't move? No, because it's coming. I must be ahead of it in this race. But, I'm so tired. GET UP! You can do this. We must still live while facing what comes. And then do it again. And again. With grace, despite the breakdowns, because tears are not weakness, they are release. They are the river, no, the ocean I will now sail on, but not drown. I submit now. I surrender to what is and be strong like the current. With all this incredible unconditional love around me that has not left my side, even stronger. ⛵️#22