02-19-2020, 03:16 AM
Hello. I'm Aria and here is my story; its a little long and I do hope you stick through it and maybe learn a little something as well.
In 2017 I was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer: mucinous cystadenocarcinoma, that make up approximately takes up 5% of all mucinous ovarian cancers, which itself is only 36% of ovarian cancers. Ovarian cancer has been noted to take 3% of all female cancers and affects roughly 1 in 78 women, most of whom are in their late 60s-70s. I was twenty seven when I was diagnosed. Most tumors are measured in centimeters. Mine was nearly eleven inches and about sixteen pounds. I was a case study, which in a way is pretty cool I guess.
Many have asked me, "Aria, how could you not know?!" I'll be honest and tell you that most of it was denial, and part of it was my personal health care providers dismissing my discomforts as irritation in my bowels/stomach and advising I have a more strict diet and lose ten pounds to feel better, mind you, I wasn't severely overweight, but I guess that's just what doctors say when you're suddenly looking pregnant, but not be pregnant. I also have family history of hypothyroidism and I had figured it was my turn now to go through it. Nope! Just a case of rare cancer, though luckily it isn't hereditary in my personal case. My BRCA results were negative, so it was all a mutation within myself. (Don't even get me started with the self-loathing I had gone though lol it's still a journey)
If you take anything from this, please get yourselves and loved ones educated on the signs of ovarian cancer. It is a silent killer and those who get diagnosed are diagnosed much higher in grades and stages because it wasn't caught early. The signs were THERE for me, but I simply didn't know about it. LADIES! please get your goodies checked regularly.
GENTLEMEN! Support the women in your lives and also educate yourselves in this. Moving on.....
Two surgeries that consisted of removing an ovary, a fallopian tube, small part of my uterus, my appendix, and my omentum, followed by therapy, and I was deemed no evidence of disease in 2018! I had amassed some large debt which depleted my savings, because I only worked the shifts I could at the time, but for the most part life reassumed. I was happy, healthier, and I just had to check in routinely with my health care team. Six months later, another bomb dropped. I was pregnant. Despite being on birth control. My daughter was my miracle baby, fighting through all the craziness from that year+ I had gone through.
I worked until May 10, 2019 and I gave birth on May 24th to a healthy fighter. I discussed with my work that I would be cutting back from full time to part time and only working on my husband's days off, rather than spending over half my paycheck to a sitter; I was (and am) going to enjoy every bit of my daughter growing up. I filed for maternity leave (six weeks) and also family bonding (another six weeks). I didn't get anything until late October. I was advised by EDD (the branch that funds disabilities) to wait until I get paid out before returning to work. Unfortunately, I still haven't gone back to work due to slow days/not enough hours.
I work for a small Optometrist office that has two full time doctors and two part time, including seven staff. When I left in May, it was just about to be the busy Summer season and they had to hire two more staff to make it work. Fall is slow, and despite using every cent I earned from my SSI/maternity/bonding pay to pay off my credit card that I had been living off of, I let my senior staff know I was fine waiting until it got busy during the holidays. Well, the holidays were fast approaching and then one main doctor dropped a big bomb: he was taking all of December and the first week of January off to go on a religious mission. All the power to him, but what about his staff?? I didn't work the holiday season, despite being the second highest in gross sales for eyewear two years in a row. They couldn't accommodate my reduced hours.
Fast forward to 2020. Still no work, and all I can think of is putting my daughter's needs first. All the debt I paid off back in October is creeping higher. My husband's paycheck goes to the rent and other bills. We make it work, we pinch pennies, but living in the Bay Area of California really takes a toll on a single income family. We don't qualify for WIC because the cut off for a family of 3 is 37k annually, which he makes just slightly over. My daughter, while she was born smaller than average and has been luckily using clothes we were gifted from my baby shower, is growing out of her clothes. She's nearly nine months and is eating more and more solids, which I'm struggling to keep nutritious and not just baby cereal. I don't have as well of a balanced diet as I would like and as such, my breast milk supply has been depleted for the past couple of months. Her formula is $40 a tin and we buy 3-4 a month. Diapers are anywhere from two to three boxes as well. Every week I look at the debt rising and wondering how can I make these few dollars I save up stretch. And now.... there's levels elevated in my thyroid that has the potential to be something. I can't go through another cancer scare...
So, here I am, asking for kindness from strangers. Not for me, but for my little girl. My little fighter. The one who's giggles and crooked smiles worth it all. The one who I still fight for. Every dollar helps pay for her belly to be full, a roof over her head, and her mom fighting another day to give a future for her. They say it takes a village. Are you part of my tribe?
CASHAPP : https://cash.app/$raisinglucy
VENMO: https://venmo.com/a--ria
PAYPAL https://paypal.me/ariaaaamarie
In 2017 I was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer: mucinous cystadenocarcinoma, that make up approximately takes up 5% of all mucinous ovarian cancers, which itself is only 36% of ovarian cancers. Ovarian cancer has been noted to take 3% of all female cancers and affects roughly 1 in 78 women, most of whom are in their late 60s-70s. I was twenty seven when I was diagnosed. Most tumors are measured in centimeters. Mine was nearly eleven inches and about sixteen pounds. I was a case study, which in a way is pretty cool I guess.
Many have asked me, "Aria, how could you not know?!" I'll be honest and tell you that most of it was denial, and part of it was my personal health care providers dismissing my discomforts as irritation in my bowels/stomach and advising I have a more strict diet and lose ten pounds to feel better, mind you, I wasn't severely overweight, but I guess that's just what doctors say when you're suddenly looking pregnant, but not be pregnant. I also have family history of hypothyroidism and I had figured it was my turn now to go through it. Nope! Just a case of rare cancer, though luckily it isn't hereditary in my personal case. My BRCA results were negative, so it was all a mutation within myself. (Don't even get me started with the self-loathing I had gone though lol it's still a journey)
If you take anything from this, please get yourselves and loved ones educated on the signs of ovarian cancer. It is a silent killer and those who get diagnosed are diagnosed much higher in grades and stages because it wasn't caught early. The signs were THERE for me, but I simply didn't know about it. LADIES! please get your goodies checked regularly.
GENTLEMEN! Support the women in your lives and also educate yourselves in this. Moving on.....Two surgeries that consisted of removing an ovary, a fallopian tube, small part of my uterus, my appendix, and my omentum, followed by therapy, and I was deemed no evidence of disease in 2018! I had amassed some large debt which depleted my savings, because I only worked the shifts I could at the time, but for the most part life reassumed. I was happy, healthier, and I just had to check in routinely with my health care team. Six months later, another bomb dropped. I was pregnant. Despite being on birth control. My daughter was my miracle baby, fighting through all the craziness from that year+ I had gone through.
I worked until May 10, 2019 and I gave birth on May 24th to a healthy fighter. I discussed with my work that I would be cutting back from full time to part time and only working on my husband's days off, rather than spending over half my paycheck to a sitter; I was (and am) going to enjoy every bit of my daughter growing up. I filed for maternity leave (six weeks) and also family bonding (another six weeks). I didn't get anything until late October. I was advised by EDD (the branch that funds disabilities) to wait until I get paid out before returning to work. Unfortunately, I still haven't gone back to work due to slow days/not enough hours.
I work for a small Optometrist office that has two full time doctors and two part time, including seven staff. When I left in May, it was just about to be the busy Summer season and they had to hire two more staff to make it work. Fall is slow, and despite using every cent I earned from my SSI/maternity/bonding pay to pay off my credit card that I had been living off of, I let my senior staff know I was fine waiting until it got busy during the holidays. Well, the holidays were fast approaching and then one main doctor dropped a big bomb: he was taking all of December and the first week of January off to go on a religious mission. All the power to him, but what about his staff?? I didn't work the holiday season, despite being the second highest in gross sales for eyewear two years in a row. They couldn't accommodate my reduced hours.
Fast forward to 2020. Still no work, and all I can think of is putting my daughter's needs first. All the debt I paid off back in October is creeping higher. My husband's paycheck goes to the rent and other bills. We make it work, we pinch pennies, but living in the Bay Area of California really takes a toll on a single income family. We don't qualify for WIC because the cut off for a family of 3 is 37k annually, which he makes just slightly over. My daughter, while she was born smaller than average and has been luckily using clothes we were gifted from my baby shower, is growing out of her clothes. She's nearly nine months and is eating more and more solids, which I'm struggling to keep nutritious and not just baby cereal. I don't have as well of a balanced diet as I would like and as such, my breast milk supply has been depleted for the past couple of months. Her formula is $40 a tin and we buy 3-4 a month. Diapers are anywhere from two to three boxes as well. Every week I look at the debt rising and wondering how can I make these few dollars I save up stretch. And now.... there's levels elevated in my thyroid that has the potential to be something. I can't go through another cancer scare...
So, here I am, asking for kindness from strangers. Not for me, but for my little girl. My little fighter. The one who's giggles and crooked smiles worth it all. The one who I still fight for. Every dollar helps pay for her belly to be full, a roof over her head, and her mom fighting another day to give a future for her. They say it takes a village. Are you part of my tribe?
CASHAPP : https://cash.app/$raisinglucy
VENMO: https://venmo.com/a--ria
PAYPAL https://paypal.me/ariaaaamarie