INDY PROUDLY PRESENTS:
WARRIOR: SARAH STELZNER
Sarah's Journey in her words...
A little about my journey –
Mike and I met in high school. We were high school sweethearts. We got married at the young age of 21 and have been together now over 25 years. After being married a few years and wanting to have a family we found that was more challenging that we realized. Fertility treatments, docs and still no family. We had both always had adoption in mind and felt that was the way to grow our family. We have been blessed by two wonderful women who have entrusted us to be forever parents to their babies. Our boys Bryan (11) and Eli (6) are our greatest gifts. We are so proud to be their parents and cant not imagine our family without them.
I turned the big 40 in May of 2017. I wasn’t feeling great off and on and new the annual doctor visit was coming where I would be told “its part of getting older!” I woke up one Saturday and got sick. We made a quick trip to the ER and did a CT scan. The doctor said “I hate to tell you this but its cancer.” It was a shock to us both. I had Stage IIIC Ovarian Cancer. I was referred to Mayo Clinic and three days later met with the OB Oncologist. It was determined that I had a 10-12 cm (baseball) sized tumor growing on her left ovary and small nodule on her abdomen. I underwent a 10 hour surgery on July 2, 2018. I had a complete hysterectomy and they removed any spots on organs that were cancer, and took out a few other non-essential organs. I had a week long hospital stay and then a month of recovery at home. I begin chemo in August and completed 9 weeks of chemo. After 9 weeks my CA125 (cancer marker) had skyrocketed and another CT scan was in order. It was determined the cancer had spread to my liver and was very aggressive. I was basically told that it was incurable and my prognosis was unknown. My parents had our kids that weekend so I got up Saturday morning after hearing that news and spent the day with a Kleenex box. I wrote letters to my boys for them to read at life’s big moments like their high school graduation, wedding day and more. I just didn’t know if I would be there to see it. We spent a week grieving and processing the news all while trying to keep things as normal for our kids as possible. Then a dear friend came and prayed with me. She reminded me that God was in control and He was healing me. It was time to move forward and fight! That is what I did. I began 6 more rounds of new chemo. We prayed each round that it would kill the cancer and I would be healed. As of Thanksgiving the third scan showed my liver was responding and the spots were shrinking. We continue to hold that faith and believe come the end of treatment that I will have another great scan.
Through our entire journey we have relied on our faith to get us through. We had no medical insurance and God provided through the gifts of many to have my surgery covered. I had to stop working and, being self employed, I do not have paid vacation or income to fall back on. God has continued to support our family with gifts, food, cleaning of our home, raking our yard and people just sitting and watching Hallmark movies with me when I was stuck in bed. It is amazing to see so many people from all over the country support my family. I will never be able to thank everyone or find a way to say how much the support means to us. We are truly blessed.
A little about my journey –
Mike and I met in high school. We were high school sweethearts. We got married at the young age of 21 and have been together now over 25 years. After being married a few years and wanting to have a family we found that was more challenging that we realized. Fertility treatments, docs and still no family. We had both always had adoption in mind and felt that was the way to grow our family. We have been blessed by two wonderful women who have entrusted us to be forever parents to their babies. Our boys Bryan (11) and Eli (6) are our greatest gifts. We are so proud to be their parents and cant not imagine our family without them.
I turned the big 40 in May of 2017. I wasn’t feeling great off and on and new the annual doctor visit was coming where I would be told “its part of getting older!” I woke up one Saturday and got sick. We made a quick trip to the ER and did a CT scan. The doctor said “I hate to tell you this but its cancer.” It was a shock to us both. I had Stage IIIC Ovarian Cancer. I was referred to Mayo Clinic and three days later met with the OB Oncologist. It was determined that I had a 10-12 cm (baseball) sized tumor growing on her left ovary and small nodule on her abdomen. I underwent a 10 hour surgery on July 2, 2018. I had a complete hysterectomy and they removed any spots on organs that were cancer, and took out a few other non-essential organs. I had a week long hospital stay and then a month of recovery at home. I begin chemo in August and completed 9 weeks of chemo. After 9 weeks my CA125 (cancer marker) had skyrocketed and another CT scan was in order. It was determined the cancer had spread to my liver and was very aggressive. I was basically told that it was incurable and my prognosis was unknown. My parents had our kids that weekend so I got up Saturday morning after hearing that news and spent the day with a Kleenex box. I wrote letters to my boys for them to read at life’s big moments like their high school graduation, wedding day and more. I just didn’t know if I would be there to see it. We spent a week grieving and processing the news all while trying to keep things as normal for our kids as possible. Then a dear friend came and prayed with me. She reminded me that God was in control and He was healing me. It was time to move forward and fight! That is what I did. I began 6 more rounds of new chemo. We prayed each round that it would kill the cancer and I would be healed. As of Thanksgiving the third scan showed my liver was responding and the spots were shrinking. We continue to hold that faith and believe come the end of treatment that I will have another great scan.
Through our entire journey we have relied on our faith to get us through. We had no medical insurance and God provided through the gifts of many to have my surgery covered. I had to stop working and, being self employed, I do not have paid vacation or income to fall back on. God has continued to support our family with gifts, food, cleaning of our home, raking our yard and people just sitting and watching Hallmark movies with me when I was stuck in bed. It is amazing to see so many people from all over the country support my family. I will never be able to thank everyone or find a way to say how much the support means to us. We are truly blessed.