Help with Bri and Blakely's medical expenses

Hi, my name is Tonya and I am Brianna's Aunt and Blakely's great Aunt. It has been a rough few months for them and is going to be a hard road ahead, but with everyone's help and prayers we can hopefully ease some of the burden they are facing. Every little bit will help with either medical expenses or anything they may need during this time. If you can't donate, we understand but would still appreciate all of the prayes and support you can send their way. I know none of us like asking for help and everyone is snuggling in their own way, but sometimes we need the help of our friends and family and right now is that time for us. I am sharing Brianna's words she wrote explaining what is going on with both her and Blakely.

Starting with Blakely: After 6 realllly tough months of continuous vomiting, constipation, and weight loss, we finally got answers for our sweet girl. She's been diagnosed with celiac disease. There is no cure for it and she/we will have to live a strict gluten free lifestyle for the rest of her life. Sounds simple but there’s a lot to it. I had no idea that gluten & wheat is literally in almost everything… household products, detergents, diapers, medicine, the air, etc! And I’ve learned there is a difference between a gluten intolerance & CD. (If your interested in learning about it check out www.celiac.org)

This also means she is more prone to getting other autoimmune diseases like diabetes and thyroid disease when she gets older and will have to be continuously tested. The damage she had to her small intestines is some of the worst the doctors have seen in someone her age. It will take months for her to fully recover and she will continue to be sick while her little body is healing, but I am so thankful we have an answer and can FINALLY start moving in the right direction. ❤️‍

As for me, some of you already know this information but most of you don’t. I’ve dreaded having to share this but I’ve somewhat accepted it and feel okay talking about it now.

On September 16th, I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. While I’m so thankful we caught it early, it is still terrifying news to receive. The only thing I could think about when the doctor called me was my 3 babes. My family. My whole world. How was I going to explain this to Bray? How am I going to be able to care for Blake while she’s recovering? Barrett works his ass off already to provide us with the everything, he doesn’t need to deal with this too. Im going to miss out on a lot and that kills me. This was something I never imagined I’d have to personally deal with. It’s definitely an out of body experience and a roller coaster of emotions every day. No one wants to hear the “C word”. But it is real. And it sucks.

We still don’t have a lot of answers yet as far as treatments go. What we do know is I will be having a double mastectomy, reconstructive surgery and possible removal of my ovaries due to my family history of cancer. I’ll get to welcome the wonderful side effects of menopause at the age of 34. Yay. but… it’s better than possibly getting ovarian cancer later on in life.

It’s going to be a long and bumpy road but I’ve got the best support system behind me and I know I’ll come out of this stronger than I’ve ever been. they’ve already done so much for me & my family and I can’t thank them enough.

With all that being said, I have to add a PSA to the ladies. PLEASE make sure you do your self breast exams regularly. Listen to your body. If something feels off, act on it. Get checked. It’s scary, but the sooner the better. I found mine during a self exam. I was experiencing a pain that would only last a few seconds but I noticed the pain was returning in the same spot. I felt around and that’s when I found the tiny marble sized knot in my breast. I didnt do anything about it for a couple months bc honestly it freaked me out and I had a gut feeling it wasn’t going to be good news but now I’m so thankful I didnt ignore this and went to my OBGYN to get checked. He ordered a mammagram and ultrasound immediately and shortly after scheduled a biopsy. Its been a not so fun month but I cant and don’t want to imagine what would have happened if I hadnt found this when I did.