Lisa has fought her cancer for over two years now and refuses without hesitation to give up the fight no matter what she needs to endure along the way. Without including the countless hospital stays and out-patient procedures, below is a timeline of the major events and milestones Lisa has faced during her battle with breast cancer.

Aug 2009:
Diagnosed with a very aggressive case of triple negative breast cancer on her oldest son’s 11th birthday after having found a lump in her left breast.

Sept 2009
Underwent a mastectomy of her left breast to remove the cancerous mass and had a chest port inserted to facilitate her upcoming chemo treatments.

Oct 2009 – March of 2010
Six months of Chemotherapy.

April 2010
Started 5 weeks of radiation treatments. Post Radiation all initial tests seemed to indicate Lisa was “cancer free”.

July 2010
Underwent voluntary right mastectomy as a precaution since the type of cancer she has is considered so aggressive. Following the second mastectomy Lisa started reconstruction surgery. She completed two out of three scheduled surgeries before her reoccurrence started.

December 2010
Lisa started having difficulty breathing.

January 2011
Lisa was diagnosed with a malignant pleural effusion in her left lung. This was not lung cancer, but breast cancer that had spread from the chest area into the lining around the lung. Multiple inpatient hospital treatments for this took place over the next few months for chest tubes, surgeries to drain fluid accumulating around her lung and to close the gap between her lung and the pleural sac.

May 2011
Lisa was given the devastating news that her cancer had spread to the brain. Tests showed lesions on her brain and cancer cells in the cranial fluid that surrounds the brain. A fresh round of radiation was performed to her head in hopes of reducing the brain swelling caused by the lesions. A second port was then placed in her skull so that chemotherapy could be started directly into her brain. The recommended treatment is actually 2 different types of chemo administered in parallel. One injected directly into the brain via the port in her skull to battle the brain cancer and another injected into her chest port to battle the rest of the cancer in her body which has now spread to her skeletal system.

December 13, 2011
Faced with ever increasing levels of pain and impairment coupled with very limited expectations of future treatments, Lisa started in-home hospice care.

December 16, 2011
Lisa’s deteriorating condition and pain management needs required her to begin in-patient hospice care at Abington Memorials Warminster location.

December 20, 2011
With both her parents at her bedside, Lisa passed on comfortably in her sleep at 3:41 AM.