BATON ROUGE — Being a single mom is tough enough but for close to a month, one single mom has also had to live with the one word no one ever wants to hear — cancer.
Lacey Stewart was diagnosed with stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer. Between 10-20 percent of breast cancers are triple negative.
Triple-negative breast cancer is a kind of breast cancer that does not have any of the receptors that are commonly found in breast cancer.
The receptors are:
- Estrogen
- Progesterone
- Protein called human epidermal growth factor (HER2).
If the specific cancer has any of those receptors, doctors have a few keys (like hormone therapy or other drugs) they can use to help destroy the cancer cells, according to the CDC.
With triple-negative breast cancer, it means those three receptors aren’t there. As a result, doctors have fewer keys for treatment.
“Everything happened all at once, and I wasn’t prepared,” Stewart said. “I had to jump on top of everything quickly.”
Since her diagnosis, Stewart said she started radiation treatments and attends chemotherapy twice a week
As a result of the diagnosis and treatments, Stewart said it’s been hard to maintain her job delivering packages for Amazon. The medicine she is on makes her either very tired or sick.
“I can’t really deliver packages and jump off the truck a lot because it’s strenuous,” she said.
Stewart is a mother of two kids ages 12 and 1. She said because she hasn’t been able to work, she was on the verge of being evicted from her home. She said she has until May 28th to pay rent.
She doesn’t have a vehicle after her car went out a few months ago. One positive that Stewart looks to is that the medical bills haven’t piled up because of her insurance.
“I’m grateful I was able to get covered by insurance and don’t have to pay any medical bills,” she said. “It’s just having to pay my other bills and stuff and not being able to work.”
She said she applied for disability but she hasn’t been approved yet and having to solely work from home limits her options for other employment.
There is a gofundme account set up for anyone who can help Stewart and her family.
“I appreciate anyone who helps me in any way during this transition,” she said.
Download the Unfiltered with Kiran app from the Apple App Store and Google Play to stay updated on any new developments.
Leave a Reply