To know Elma is to love her!

We decided after Elma has spent over 8 months undergoing treatment, contained in her small apartment in Brooklyn, it’s time to leave the house in the biggest way.

We’re going to Italy!

Myself (Christine), Elma and Lizzy will be visiting the region of Puglia. We booked the trip a couple of weeks ago, once we knew we were in the clear to travel post-operation. Don’t worry, that’s all paid for! It’s a “fuck cancer” trip in more ways than one. We’ve seen Elma watch and support everyone’s milestones and we want to celebrate hers:

This is going to be Elma’s resurgence back into normalcy, a renaissance (shout out to Beyoncé and I guess Leonardo Da Vinci?). A way for her to take back her life after this year of hell. It is emotional healing. After we get back, she’ll continue her immunotherapy and pair that with radiation treatments for a year to get all the cancer crumbs.

So why am I asking you for money:

The outpouring of support has been incredible and so many of you have asked how you can help Elma, so here is how you can help.

The donations we are asking for are to upgrade her economy ticket to business class so she can immediately start the trip rested and comfortable after surgery. She’d be able to fly back and forth in a spacious seat, able to lay flat to rest and have someone waiting on her to make her feel like a real Queen [of swords™️]!

We want Elma to enjoy her trip in Italy, we want her to lay on a beach or in front of the pool and relax, we want her to eat all the pasta and see the sites. But ultimately, we want her to be comfortable while she’s there. While all of her doctors cleared her for the trip, Lizzy and myself will be there to help with her luggage. We made sure all of our air bnbs are on the ground floor and are easy enough to get in and out of and we will follow her lead on when we can explore vs. when she’ll want to decompress.

Throughout this entire year, Elma has shown her amazing ability to remain positive. She’s shown nothing but gratitude to all who have helped her and has not asked for a dime from anyone. She deserves to feel love and care from those around her. Whatever you can donate would be so helpful for her to experience an easier transit to and from a trip that will ultimately help Elma get back to Elma 2.0 Thank you!

TLDR; the cancer journey thus far:

Elma felt the lump in her breast in late 2021 and went to her doctor where it was dismissed as a calcium deposit and no tests were performed. A year later, November 2022, Elma still felt the lump, trusted her gut, and went to a different doctor to get it checked out. It was then she was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) stage 2 breast cancer in her left breast where the lump was. After more scans, they also found inter lobular carcinoma with Her2+ receptors in her right breast. That’s right, two different breast cancers at the same damn time!

As you can imagine, this news turned Elma’s world upside down.

The good news is, both cancers are treatable and she is healthy and strong to be able to fight. The bad news is, since she is healthy and strong, they hit her with the most aggressive treatments… and life for Elma has totally changed.

She found care at Memorial Sloan Kettering and received her first dose of chemo on January 24th, 2023. She went through 6 rounds of chemo called doxorubicin otherwise known as “Red Devil”. She lost her hair, had terrible symptoms in her head and stomach, bone pain, digestive issues… you name it, Elma felt it. Luckily all of the stylists at Queen of Swords stepped up and held down the fort so she was able to take a medical leave. Her family and friends banned together to make sure Elma was taken care of 24/7. Even with all that help, she was so negatively affected both physically and emotionally.

Around April, Elma’s treatment shifted to another chemo called Taxol which was supposed to be a piece of cake compared to Red Devil. NOPE. That one hit her hard too. Her doctors told her that sometimes people have a really bad reaction to this kind and she was one of them.

Elma ended up in the hospital because she was neutropenic, which is a life-threatening low count of infection-fighting white blood cells. She also had colitis and norovirus all at the same time. Elma had to pause chemo to let her body heal and then got right back to it after a few weeks of rest and healing.

On June 28th, Elma finished her last round of chemo and on July 13th her scans came back that while the tumors have shrunk significantly, there is residual cancer in both breasts.

After a lot of back and forth with her doctors, family, friends and inner self, Elma has decided to go through with a lumpectomy over a double mastectomy to salvage her breasts. Both operations have their pros and cons, but the same percentage of the cancer potentially coming back. Tomorrow, on August 8th, Elma will be undergoing a 3 hour procedure to remove the residual cancer and reshape her breasts, followed by recovery upstate with her family.

Then Italy, because a trip with her girlfriends to Italy exactly what Elma deserves!

I know it may seem silly to ask for a plane ticket upgrade, but that’s the need and that’s the ask. Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for supporting Elma on her journey!