Leah and Drew Hoffman are friends of mine. They are in their early thirties and have three young children at home. I hope you can help with whatever you can spare as money is getting tight. Her treatments are extremely expensive and insurance doesn't cover everything. They will be so grateful for whatever help anyone can give.

Here's their story:



In November of 2013 Leah was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a double mastectomy in January 2014 and with the removal of some lymph nodes we found out that the cancer may have spread into her lymphatic system. This essentially meant it could spread to anywhere in the body at any moment. For the remainder of 2014 an aggressive treatment plan was followed; many rounds of chemotherapy and radiation.



2015 was a relatively quiet year, tests and booster shots here and there, but nothing major. Then, in January of 2016, Leah felt some pain in her back, nothing more than the feeling of strained muscles. As the month moved on, the pain began to worsen. Again though, it just felt like pulled muscles. Moving into February though, the pain began to be too much. Some nights were spent in pure agony before we finally had enough and went to a doc-in-a-box.



That trip to MedExpress was not very productive. Some pain medication but, no scans and no one said anything unusual about any blood work. The pain continued and we ended up going to Leah's primary care physician and ER (both Sentara) four times with no results. Delayed scans and blood work always coming up fine began to frustrate us beyond belief. Finally, a trip to Riverside ER netted us our first results. The ER doctor and nurse gave us the unofficial bad news - the cancer is back.



A full body scan and some x-rays later from Leah's oncologist and it was officially confined. Only this time it isn't just a simply tumor to remove - it is in Leah's bones. The cancer (still referred and treated as breast cancer) is in almost every bone stretching from the base of her skull to the top of the thigh bones. This was the reason for the back pain; it had literally broken her back.



Since that time Leah has endured another round of radiation and is starting on her chemo and shots. This time, as said before though, is different. This time, the chemo doesn't stop and neither do the shots. The radiation will have to continue on any spot where the chemo/shots can't handle the aggression of the cancer.



Besides the obviousness of having cancer, what exactly does this mean for our family? Leah cannot work. She had a successful online jewelry business that never fully recovered from the initial diagnose and since the cancer has come back, we have had to fully shut the stores down. The strike of her hammer on her anvil could break bones. Standing at her workbenches is almost impossible for more than a few minutes at a time.

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