Help Hope Live for Emily Nussdorfer's successful treatment and recovery from Ovarian Cancer

August 24, 2025

I am finally surfacing after spending several months recovering from three more rounds of chemotherapy. My journey toward complete healing is still a work in progress and this feels like the right moment to update you with wonderful news, and some challenging news. Please read below and, if inspired, click on the Help Hope Live link to make a tax deductible donation and/or pass it on to those who might be interested and inspired to do so.

On July 21st, I learned that my abdominal CAT scan showed no signs of cancer! It was so incredible and relieving to hear this milestone was reached!!!!! YAY! My oncologist confirmed that I am in remission, with a much-improved tumor marker. While my CA125 (blood test measuring presence of cancer cells in the body) is not yet at zero but so much lower than at the start of my treatment, my care team recommends continuing Avastin treatments (an immunotherapy drug) for 15 more months. So, so much good news to share with you --- my amazing family and friends that held me on my journey through the chemo and successful major abdominal surgery to get to this place! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your support has saved my life!

Again, thank you, from the bottom of my heart! Mahalo Nui Loa as they say in Hawaii!

And here for the challenging news - I completed my 7th and final round of chemotherapy on the last day of June 2025. These 7 chemos that commenced January 2nd were part of an aggressive treatment plan designed to target the cancer cells with full force. While the treatment continues to fight the disease, it has also taken a toll on my body that I did not expect. I am currently dealing with neuropathy, a painful and exhausting side effect, and just endured a viral upper respiratory infection, due to post chemo/steroid malaise syndrome which led to a hospital stay on July 11th. Scans during the hospital stay found critical spinal canal narrowing in my cervical spine, possibly worsening now as a side effect of chemotherapy. I began experiencing more extreme neck and shoulder pain as I attempted to take on more of my daily activities without help, and was told that I needed an MRI. The MRI found evidence of a large central disc bulge with severe stenosis. I will be seeing a neurosurgeon on Sept 4th to evaluate the need for surgery. I have been put on a course of physical therapy to address the neck pain and upper body weakness. Recently I had to return to the ER due to food poisoning. And unfortunately, because of all these after effects of chemo on my body, I have not been able to work consistently in July and August, as I had planned and am therefore still not able to fully provide for my financial needs.

My body is asking for rest—deep, sustained rest—while I slowly build up my therapy practice. My medical team has prescribed continued physical therapy, biweekly acupuncture and monthly lymphatic drain massage (all paid out of pocket or with high copays because I have a high deductible plan) for at least 6 more months to heal and regain my strength after this 6-month journey of chemo and major abdominal surgery.

So dear friends, I wish I could just leave you with wonderful news, but… it is instead mixed! Wonderful and amazing progress has been made in my cancer treatment – no more cancer seen on my scans! Halleluiah! However, I still have some evidence of cancer on the tumor scans, even though at a very low level, so another year of immunotherapy drug treatments are needed to reduce the risk from any remaining cancer cells, and I am still working to heal from these difficult side effects that have taken a toll on my strength and energy. So my treatment is not yet complete – I am halfway through.

I am doing my best to keep my spirits up, but the costs associated with treatments, medications, cancer fighting supplements, and basic living needs continue to add up, in addition to my need to rest and focus on healing. I am reaching out again to ask for another round of financial support. Any contribution—large or small—to my medical campaign at Help Hope Live will go directly toward my care and recovery, helping ease the burden so that I can continue to focus on healing and rebuilding my capacity to meet with the number of clients I need to take care of my own finances. I know with your help we can do this together, as the past 6 months of my cancer journey has shown me. Because I have the love and support of so many wonderful people holding space for me on this healing journey – and an amazing state of the art integrated clinical team - we will find a way through this! I know that I will have even more to give to others after, and will pass all this love and care forward, because healing happens with support, and “we are all in this thing together!” as a dear being named David Hamilton shared in a beautiful song he wrote this year.

I want to share here, asking for more support is uncomfortable for me. You already have given me so much! Please know how much I appreciate each of your donations and words of encouragement, and that when I feel better, I will be writing an individual thank you note to each of you! But I also need to share that my original goal through Help Hope Live was $50,000 when the fund was launched in January of 2025, when I was in a very critical and dangerous physical state from cancer. Since then, our campaign has raised a whopping $26,237 as of June 2025. This is incredible! And as you can see, there is still more to go to reach our campaign goal.

Please remember that any contribution you are able to make will be 100% tax deductible. Here is the link: https://helphopelive.org/campaign/25040/

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for walking alongside me and holding me up on this intense and transformational healing journey with your compassion and generosity. Your continued support means the world.

With deep gratitude,

Emily

June 1, 2025

THANK YOU so much everyone who contributed yesterday and during the month long lead up to the May 30th Hope in Action Day! Thanks to you all, over $5000 was added to the fund over a two week period! That is amazing! This funding will help me tremendously in this intricate time of treatment, while I am still recovering from surgery, with more chemos to come, that are increasingly tiring - all causing me to start up work again at a greatly reduced caseload for the month of June and perhaps into much of July as I recovery my strength and stamina. So I can not tell you how incredibly grateful I am to each and every one of you! And thank you so much for your messages of encouragement and support and love! Each message has meant so much to me! Bless you all from the bottom of my heart!

May 13, 2025

Update as to my medical status and info about the upcoming May 30th online fundraiser – Help Hope in Action.

First – a HUGE Thank you is in order! I think of all of you who have supported me here at Help Hope Live so often! Because of your amazing generosity I have been able to pay for my supplements, prescriptions, doctor appointments, medical copays, acupuncture before and after chemo to help me manage the effects, and support people to help me in my own home after surgery, while being unable to work. Looking at your names, your generous donations, reading your encouraging notes, both took my breath away, and uplifted me in ways I cannot even begin to describe. You all have helped my spirit keep up the fight! I was hoping to have sent a special thank you to each one of you directly by now, but with managing chemo and work in Jan- early April, and then the surgery and more chemo coming up, I have had less energy than I hoped. Please know first - how grateful I am to each of you, and second - that I will be sending each of you a personal thank you when this is over and my energy fully returns!☀️

Now for the Update! I had abdominal surgery to remove the tumor and surrounding cancerous organs on April 17th and it was very successful! I am incredibly grateful to the surgeon Karen Houk and her awesome surgery team at Fox Chase Cancer Center, and the amazing nurses who took care of me at Temple Main Hospital in Philly. After the surgery, I was whisked away to a beautiful home in Bucks County to convalesce just as spring started to unfurl, and was wonderfully taken care of by beloved friend Karen Dehaven and her husband. However, this is not the end of my ovarian cancer treatment journey. While my surgeon did an amazing job removing the tumor and most of the cancer, there is still a small amount of cancer left. I will need three more rounds of chemo treatments (May 19th, June 9th and June 30th) to completely kill off the remaining cells. I will need to continue eating a high-quality cancer-fighting diet (i.e. organic Mediterranean diet), working with my oncological nutritionist, and taking the researched supplements that she suggests that improve longitudinal outcomes for nonrecurrence of ovarian cancer. After chemo is finished, I will need to get an infusion of a powerful immune drug called Avastin, every three weeks over the course of a year to ensure these cells do not have a chance to regrow, and to improve my chances at non-recurrence.

So we have one last leg of my healing journey to push through that is upcoming - starting this May 19th. Fortunately, Help Hope Live is offering an online fundraising opportunity called Help Hope in Action just as I start this next stage of my healing journey! On May 30th, 2025, all day long, credit card fees of any donation made to my medical fund will be waived so more money can go directly to the fund. Any financial support made to my fund that day will go far and be so greatly appreciated!!! I am attaching a wonderful video the folks at Help Hope Live made for me to promote the reason for my fund and inspire giving on this day. Feel free to share the fundraising link that brought you here, as well as the video with all those you feel would be moved by it. Thank you again, with all of my heart, for your love and support of me!❤️

January 19, 2025

I am overwhelmed at the generosity of all of you who have contributed and so uplifted by your warm wishes and care and kindness to me! I just want you all to know I have a wonderful clinical team supporting me, and a wonderful nutritional oncologist helping me with diet and supplements to mitigate the effects of chemo, and an amazing group of friends helping me out with meals and chores! I feel a level of love I have never felt before in my life, and it is so wonderful to hear from loved ones and friends from so many different parts of my life! I am so grateful to you all! It is so very precious your care and encouragement and love!The chemo is doing its job bringing down the fluid build up in my abdomen and shrinking the tumor. My prognosis is very good according to my clinical team. Your financial support for me right now in this moment, is enabling me to pay for my supplements and unexpected copays that the hospital is requiring before certain procedures that I could not have afforded. I am still working, but my caseload is reduced right now, so I do not have as much income coming in.It takes my breath away, how much you are all helping! I could not do this healing journey without you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Lots of Love and hugs to you all! 💕Emily