New family- Veronica Tinkler

My name is Veronica Tinkler and I'm 25 years old. I don't have any children yet, but I do have 3 nieces and 3 nephews ranging between the ages 2 and 12. I love them very much, they mean the world to me, as if they were my own. Before I was diagnosed with Large Cell Lymphoma I worked as a teller at Members 1st FCU and also part-time at the YWCA in Gettysburg in the TLC room for daycare. I worked at M1st for 2 years, luckily I'm still employed there but I'm on disability through my treatments because the risk of infection is too high and my body is too weak to go back to work. I do love my job at M1st, but I have a soft spot for the kids. Before M1st, I worked at another daycare for a couple of years. I have always loved working with children, I was 12 when I started babysitting my baby nephew for my sister and I continued to do that for her until I had to go to work full-time when I was 16. Its hard to not spend time with them as much right now because of being sick but I think they understand.

For a couple of months before my diagnosis I was experiencing chest pains, a terrible cough, and heart palpitations. I didn't go to the doctor right away, I ignored the symptoms. It wasn't until I started getting a burning pain on my left shoulder anytime anything touched it that I knew something had to be wrong. I still ignored the pain for a few weeks and my family, friends, and co-workers started to get concerned. The Dr. thought it was muscle strain and told me to take Ibuprofen but he did an x-ray just to be sure. I remember being at work and getting the phone call that I needed to go have the x-ray taken again. They didn't say why but I knew something was wrong. The technician told me she thought the Dr. was looking for pneumonia because of my cough. The next day the same thing happened, I received a phone call at work that I needed to get to the Dr's office asap because they found a mass on my left lung. I went into my assistant manager's office and broke down. I couldn't believe that at 25 yrs old I was hearing this. There was just no way that cancer was a possibility, I couldn't believe it. I hung onto the techs words "just pneumonia". My mom went to the Dr's with me, as she still does every time to this day, and he showed us the pictures and explained the possibilities. Seeing the pictures was interesting as I've never seen them before but it was terrifying to see the left side of my chest blacked out. He wasn't too concerned of cancer because it was a smooth mass and cancer is more crab like and spread out. But what was happening was the mass was moving my organs out of its way and that was causing the pain. I went through different tests and Dr's appointments trying to figure out what this mass was. Hearing the possibilities was terrifying. In 2005 my father passed away after a long battle with cancer so automatically my spirits went down. I didn't have a good mind-set going into this. I met with a surgeon who planned to skip a biopsy and do immediate surgery because the mass was too large to stay there. It measured at 8cm x 16cm, taking up almost my whole lung. He wasn't sure what it could be, again because of the shape. But the fact that it was so large leaned him more towards cancer because, in his words, "benign tumors are just not that big". I also didn't have typical symptoms of cancer.

July 12th I went in for what I thought would be surgery but while I was waiting to be taken back he came out and said he wanted to do a biopsy instead. I was scared but I couldn't comprehend everything to get all worked up. My situation was very unexpected to me, I still thought I would be back at work in a couple of weeks. Everything from that day and week is still a blur because of the morphine which is probably a good thing because I'm told my reaction wasn't too good. I remember it being an emotional week but at least I'm protected from having those words "you have cancer" being a permanent memory. My treatments were rushed because the tumor was collapsing my lung. Luckily, I had relief after just 1 treatment and after 2 the tumor shrunk 50%. I'm scheduled for 6 treatments, I have 2 left, and then radiation after chemo.

After I came home from the hospital, a friend of mine that Mindy and Fight On had also helped talked to me about her and the foundation and how they could help me. I didn't like the idea of getting help because I know my situation is different and more fortunate than most in my shoes because I still live at home. I felt like I was getting a hand out I didn't deserve. I went back and forth about it for awhile and when Mindy contacted me I still had the same thoughts but I knew eventually I would need it. I knew financial help was something that I was going to have to accept regardless of how I felt because money was quickly running out. Mindy always talked to me in a way that just made me feel comfortable with it, even through emails she has a way about her words that you just know she understands. The donation came at the perfect time because my disability was changing and I was going to be without income for awhile. If it wasn't for Mindy and the Fight On Foundation I wouldn't have made it. I was able to not worry about bills and worry about getting myself better, which I know was their intention. I can't thank them enough for the relief that they gave me. I consider myself very lucky and count my blessings everyday because the Dr's are confident I will be cured with just chemo but the radiation is a precaution to lower the chances of a recurrence. I have seen cancer go completely different and tear families apart but I am lucky enough that even though I'm going through this I know it could be much worse. I have a wonderful support system behind me and that's all I can ask for. Thank you Mindy and Fight On!! You are wonderful and are definitely a blessing to me and my family!!

With Love Always,
Veronica




Thanks again for your continued support, so we can continue to help families like Veronica's. Stay posted for information about two more families we have helped recently! - Mindy