Follow Sarah Knouse During the Battle of Her Life

On May 14th, just two days before Sarah's birthday, she received a call she always feared. Her biopsy results came back that she has breast cancer. Having been through medical trauma before, with Mordekai being born 3 months premature, we have a slight idea of what we are in for. We started this page because we know we are going to need help and support from the people we love. We also started this page because it's hard to contact everyone we love and give all the updates. In fact, it's incredibly overwhelming. So we are going to use this as a chance to update the journey every step of the way. Right now, most of our time is spent on calls with labs, doctors, and taking care of Mordekai, so it's impossible to speak to everyone individually. Here's everything we know and have been through as of today 5/25/2026. We have done ultrasounds, an MRI, and a biopsy. We won't know the stage truly until a surgery to remove the tumor happens and the surrounding tissue is analyzed. So far, what we can tell is that we caught it early. In July of 2025, Sarah did a mammogram, and there was nothing in that test. In 10 months since then, we can see a 3 cm tumor in her left breast. We met with an Oncologist that we fell in love with, Dr Sedrak. He made us feel better, spent hours with us explaining everything, and did some blood tests to find a course of action. He put in for more testing: A PET scan, a brain MRI, and an ultrasound-guided needle biopsy to test the nodes closest to the tumor. All to make sure the cancer truly hasn't spread. He informed us that Sarah has Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, the most common form of cancer. For those of you who know about cancer, it has low estrogen receptors (5%), negative progesterone receptors, and is HER2 negative. Because of low ER receptors and how fast it has grown the tumor acts like a triple negative tumor. It's the most aggressive form of cancer, and traditionally one of the hardest to treat. Luckily, there have been huge advancements in breast cancer, and there are a lot of treatment options. We scheduled an appointment for June 2nd to meet with him again to review the results, make a plan, and start treatment right away. After the oncologist, we met with a surgical oncologist who told us the same things. It was very reassuring. We also really like her, and feel comfortable with her performing the surgery when the time comes. They both said the likely course of action for the type of cancer Sarah has is chemotherapy for 4-6 months, followed by surgery, then additional treatments (like radiation) to make sure the cancer is gone. We are waiting on the blood tests the oncologist took, specifically Guardant360 Liquid to analyze the cancer and tell us which specific meds will work best. On Friday afternoon, as we were looking hopeful, we got a call from the labs saying they needed to cancel our appointments. They told us AETNA had renegotiated contracts lately and they were no longer covered in our plan. In a panic, we called our insurance back and found out our oncologist is also no longer in network. So, it looks like we are going to have to pay for the oncologist, and all the tests they took, out of pocket. We have no idea what that will cost, but honestly, that's a stress for another day. I'm just grateful the Guardant360 test has already started, and we should have those results back on Tuesday. Since it was a Friday afternoon before a holiday, we are at a standstill until Tuesday morning. We have to reschedule all of our labs somewhere else and find an oncologist ASAP. I'm truly hoping this won't push back the treatment by much. We have names and numbers ready to call, and we will let you know how it all goes.