Cancer fight – Simona, Bucharest, Romania

March of this year my wife Simona (45 yrs. old) had some small pain under her arm. She was supposed to visit the doctor for the annual check-up also in March, but because of the COVID19 situation, all appointment were postponed until further notice (or 'till pandemic ends).

After the lockdown ended in Romania, by the end of May 2020 she had the appointment. Her doctor compared the images of the echography with the older ones and discovered breast and under arm formations that were not looking healthy. Doctor said tumor formations must be operated as soon as possible since don't look well by size and shape (2.7 cm).

We wanted a second opinion, so the second doctor confirmed and wanted more types of tests to be performed before going to decide upon operation (surgery) or not. She had numerous tests (CT, tissue biopsy samples...etc.) and cancer was confirmed. Quadruple negative tumor tissue, meaning that the cancer does not respond well to any treatment except chemotherapy followed by mastectomy surgery.

By the time we had more imagery, the tumor increased it's size (3.7 cm) and shape became more non-uniform.

We were advised to check with the surgery doctor ASAP and surgeon said surgery not the best option anymore, chemotherapy must begin ASAP since tumor was spreading. Chemotherapy was supposed to stop the spreading and start killing the cancerous cells.

Chemotherapy started with a private hospital, but after the first week complications occurred. She had the leukocytes in a very small number (400/cub_mm). The normal values for ladies is over 4.500 to 10.000/cubmm). The white cells in the blood are the ones responsible with fighting with infections. So she started to have fever. We went to the emergency unit of that hospital and she was immediately put on IV's and done some tests. The bad news was that she must be hospitalized for a few days in order to limit risk of infections. We were told about the fees and was shocked. Had to pay few hundred EUR for the emergency unit time and 2500 EUR more for the rest of the treatment over the next days. Was not our case, so we paid the bill refused the hospitalization. Then we went to a different public hospital and got admitted using much less money and having the treatment paid for by the regular social health insurance (that every employee has).

Until now Simona had 4 chemotherapy sessions and flighted every time leucopenia. After each she was hospitalized and sometimes had to have blood transfusion administered to her. Because of this weak state of her bone marrow and body, the oncologist doctor cannot continue with the rest of chemotherapy and is suggesting that the operation (surgery) must be performed now and continue with the rest of the 4 more chemotherapy session later when the bone marrow may be healthy enough to produce enough leukocytes.

Soon she will be hospitalized for the surgery. Bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction.

We have had support from many friends, helping with food, money and most important - prayers.

Thank you for your support.