The Journey of Healing Em

Hi,

 

My name is Dave and I want to thank you for taking a moment to find out more about our journey.

 

I am the grateful husband of one of the most amazing women on this planet, Emma, my beautiful and courageous wife.

 

Em was diagnosed with Breast Cancer back in May of 2011 at the age of 25, 3 years after our first kiss, and a few months after I asked her to marry me. We were in the middle of creating our dream wedding when the unexpected news turned our lives upside down.

 

After getting through the initial shock of it all, we knew we had a task ahead of us, so we got stepping to rid her body of this disgusting disease.

 

After many hours, days, weeks in doctors surgery’s, specialist appointments, hospitals & scans, we had a plan – Lumpectomy, IVF, Chemotherapy, Radiation.

 

Em was rushed in for Lumpectomy Surgery to remove the tumour from her left breast, which seemed to go well, although they also found that most of the lymph nodes under her left arm were affected, so these needed removing too. This was a little worrying at the time as we were told it could spread throughout the body should it reach the lymph nodes, none-the-less we had to stay strong.

 

Then, whilst recovering from surgery, we started IVF consultations. This was due to Em’s age and the possibility of the treatments sending her into early menopause. Fortunately, we successfully came out of this with 6 embryos that we could put on ice should the worst happen.

 

We’re a couple of months in now and it’s been a rollercoaster ride of emotions to say the least.

 

We’re now ready for chemotherapy, and this is a memory that I don’t like recalling. Em sitting in a room at the hospital, hooked up to an IV, with 10 – 15 other people going through the same thing. Then carrying her home to lay her in bed and look after her for the next week as she couldn’t stomach food or get out of bed. Em lost all of her hair, many kilo’s and was in a rough way. Every so often she would feel good for a few days before her next chemotherapy session put her back into bed. This went on for a few months.

 

Once the chemotherapy treatment was complete, we then had to start radiation therapy. This wasn’t as bad as the chemotherapy but by this stage we were both very tired and worn down. This was something Em was able to manage on her own most of the time as she was enjoying the regrowth of her hair and not feeling sick in bed all the time.

 

9 months into this journey and treatments are finished, or at least that is what we thought.

 

The advice was now for Em to be on multiple oral treatments which blocked her oestrogen and put her into a menopausal state for the next 3 years… and although she had the lumpectomy, they now believed she should have a double mastectomy to be safe. We trust Em’s oncologist’s advice, so we began another path of treatments and surgeries to help prolong her life & needless to say, this didn’t all go to plan, with multiple complications & additional treatments needed.

 

After an incredibly hard 4 year period at a cost of over $150,000, Em was now off all medications and had recovered from all surgeries. We can now get on with what we had planned for ourselves, and that we did!

 

Come 2016 we had a beautiful little girl, Mya. Come 2018 we had an awesome little boy, Ryan. Life was grand.

 

January 8, 2020. 11am. One of those days in life you’ll never forget.

 

I get a call from Em, the results are in from her annual check. Its back… and not in a little way.

 

The results showed up multiple lesions throughout her bones and a couple in her liver, one the size of a tennis ball. What now?... Devastation, scared, sad… would slightly resemble what we were actually feeling.

 

Here we go again! Let’s tighten up the reigns, grab this ***** by the horns and take it down for a second time! ….Easier said than done, but the attitude is there.

 

This time around we have tried many treatments. We started off with SIR-Sphere Radiation Theropy, which had a good outcome in drastically shrinking the "Tennis Ball" in her liver, then an oral treatment of chemotherapy and unfortunately things got worse, Em’s bone & liver lesions increased, this is when we learnt that there is a new gene in the make up of her metastasis that makes Em resistant to forms of chemotherapy. We then tried a couple of different medications but none of it was working, not surprisingly to the doctors either.

 

Things were starting to go downhill with Em in a lot of pain. Multiple ambulance calls and trips to the hospital, hospital stays, palliative teams... It was getting very scary.

 

Fast forward 2 years, with 18 months of natural therapies, and Em is still with us! much to the surprise of her doctors, and Em would say “happier than ever”. However, far from out of the woods, she’s managed to decrease her bone lesions from 30 odd to NONE, and now trying to tackle a couple of stubborn liver lesions and the occasional “spot fire” that appears somewhere in her body.

 

It has been both the hardest 2 years of our lives, and the most rewarding. The amount of invaluable information we’ve come across and learnt, along with the perspective on life it has given us is something we wouldn’t have found would it not have been for this journey.

 

For that we are eternally grateful.

 

I’m telling you about Em’s journey because I need help, and this is to say, more help. Believe me, it is hard for me to ask for financial assistance from anyone.

 

Throughout both of these journey’s with Em I have never stopped working full time to keep a roof over our heads and pay the bills, all whilst managing Em and her illnesses, but to cover all of her treatment and wellness expenses as well is very hard.

 

For the last 2 years these expenses have totalled over $250,000… Half of which has been funded by loving family and friends, which we are forever grateful and will never know how to thank or repay them.

 

Em's appointments take up 5 days out of 7, otherwise, in her words - "she'd love to be working".

 

Some of Em's doctor's don't believe she will be with us for much longer... we won't believe that, and I can't bare the thought of it... we are so close to clearing Em for a second time, but our funds have run out along with things we can sell. I am not the type of person that likes asking for anything but when it’s the life of the one you love, you will resort to whatever it takes. I already work 50-60 hours per week to try and cover what I can and any time I’ve got that I’m not working I spend with Em and the kids to keep a smile on my wife’s face.

 

Em’s expenses cost us around $1500 per week, so if you’ve got a spare dollar I will be forever in your debt. Every little bit counts & please feel free to share this with anyone you know.

 

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all of those who have already helped us throughout this journey, Em wouldn’t be here without you.