Lori Silver's Cancer Battle

Lori Silver is a very familiar face in the New Jersey cover band scene. Along with her husband Scott, they have worked helping promote many of the top club bands for over 20 years. For the past 5 years, Lori has been fighting the battle of her life against advanced ovarian and stage 4 breast cancer, plus a myriad of debilitating complications. The financial burden (even after insurance) has driven the Silvers to bankruptcy.

In January 2017 Lori spent over 8 hours in surgery to remove a 19-pound malignant tumor from her left ovary. During this surgery, due to the size and characteristics of the tumor, portions of her bowel, colon and bladder were also removed. Lori needed to have a colostomy as a result of this surgery.

Lori's first complication occurred 10 days after the initial surgery, a day after she was released from the hospital, when she was rushed back to the hospital only to find that there was previously undetected damage to her left ureter which was caused by the cutting away of the tumor (which was wrapped around the ureter, just below the kidney). She was taken back into surgery and the doctors performed a nephrostomy to install stents and tubes to drain her left kidney.

The next focus for the oncologists was to get Lori started on chemotherapy. The goal was to get her through at least 8-10 sessions, as a follow-up protocol for the ovarian surgery, and as a preparatory treatment for the breast tumor, which was almost the size of a baseball. The goal was to shrink this tumor to the point where it would be considered "operable." The oncologist was very clear that these rounds of chemo would not be easy - that, in fact, he was going to be walking a fine line between saving her and killing her. Chemo was hell. Lori got so sick she needed to be hospitalized after each session, and she was getting weaker and weaker. After the fifth round, the doctors pulled the plug on the chemo. It was just too dangerous to continue.

While all of this was going on, Lori's immune system was taking a huge hit, and in May 2017 she ended up contracting a very serious infection in her colon called C-Diff, which required hospitalization. The specialists that treated her administered extremely strong antibiotics, which unfortunately affected the cilia in her ears causing acute tinitus, which is permanent. So now, on top of everything else, Lori has to deal with constant screeching in her inner ear.

In August of 2017, Lori was once again back the hospital for her mastectomy to remove the breast tumor. Complications arose once again during this procedure, as a second ductal tumor was found and removed. This tumor had been hidden by the much larger mass, but because it was connected to her nipple duct needed to come out as well, thus drastically skewing the "clean" margins the doctors usually rely on to feel confident they've gotten all the cancer. In addition during this procedure the doctors removed 7 affected lymph nodes.

The next step for Lori was to begin hormone therapy as a follow-up protocol to the mastectomy. Unfortunately, she was not able to tolerate any of the medications they were giving her, and she just got sicker and sicker. During all this, in October, Lori was back in the hospital, fighting a second bout of C-Diff. In November, the oncologists decided against any further attempts at hormone therapy. This means they need to be much more vigilant in testing, since Lori has an 80% chance of recurrence.

From December 2017 to February of 2018 Lori completed a full course of radiation therapy. Also at this time, Scott and Lori completed a bankruptcy filing. The expenses related to all of Lori's procedures were way beyond anything they could pay, and the various hospital bills and doctor bills had all been sent to collections,

Lori's medical expenses did not come to a halt at the time of the filing - they still continue to mount. In June of 2018 Lori had surgery to reverse the nephrostomy she had been living with for 14 months. Once again, complications set in almost immediately, as she was rushed back to the hospital just hours after she had gotten home because the ureter once again failed, causing permanent damage to her left kidney.

Looking ahead, Lori has at least two more surgeries ahead of her. First, she will need additional surgery in an attempt to save her left kidney. Once these issues are resolved, she is supposed to have major surgery to either reverse or relocate her colostomy, which has been problematic almost since the very first surgery. The stoma (hole) has become eschemic, and as a result of this lack of blood flow she needs to be periodically dilated to keep the stoma open. 

Not lost in any of this is Lori's quality of life (or lack thereof). Lori is regularly seen by a paliative care team to deal with staggering pain issues related to her cancer and many procedures; in addition she sees social workers and psychologists that are helping her deal with all of the mental and emotional traumas she has encountered. 

Lori is (obviously) unable to work, and although Scott works a "day job" at a car dealership, his ability to supplement their income with his "second job" promoting bands and clubs has been drastically limited due to the amount of time necessary to look after Lori, and deal with his own ongoing medical issue. The amount we're looking for in this campaign will offset the out-of-pocket expenses needed to cover Lori's medications, tests and doctors' appointments.