Rebecca's Fight Against Hodgkins
Donation protected
Please read our story below about why we are asking for assistance in paying for medical bills, fertility treatment, rent, and helping us have our wedding. You can also take a look at Rebecca's Caring Bridge at the following link. https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/rebeccapettet
My name is Terry Amelunke and I am engaged to the most amazing, loving, and thoughtful girl in the world Rebecca Pettet. I am honestly blessed to be marrying the girl of my dreams on September 24, 2016. Over the past year we have been anxiously awaiting the date and planning feverishly, knowing that our lives would be changing in so many ways the Summer and Fall of 2016. I would be finishing my first year of Pharmacy School, while Rebecca would be graduating from Pharmacy School allowing us to finally "start" our grown-up lives. The process though stressful at times was moving more swiftly than we could have ever imagined, until June of 2016 came around.
Rebecca had been experiencing some unexplained itching and tiredness which at first we both just dismissed as her finding a reason not to study for her upcoming board exams, after all she likes to say she was in school for 21 years. We went with that for a couple of weeks, but it just seemed to be getting worse. One night Rebecca came to me and asked me to feel her abdomen. I thought this was a rather strange request but I did it anyways and what I found was a rather large lump under her skin. In shock we scheduled an appointment the very next day. Long story short she received an incorrect diagnosis of Cat Scratch Disease or B. Henselae infection for you science lovers. This diagnosis never really sat well with us, we don't even have a cat, but she went ahead and did the round of antibiotics I mean the Physician is educated on diagnosis. After the round of antibiotics failed the doctor proceeded to prescribe a second round, at this point we knew that it was the wrong diagnosis.
The following day Rebecca switched tactics and went to an Urgent Care, where the Physician reported "There is no way this is Cat Scratch, I believe you have some sort of Lipoma." After meeting with a General Surgeon she was scheduled for surgery/biopsy and after two long weeks we received the definitive results of Hodgkins Lymphoma. The diagnosis could not have come at a worse time, we were set to move 100 miles for Rebecca to start her new job as a Graduate Pharmacy Intern and transition to a Pharmacist position upon passing her board exams. None the less we forged forward and completed the move hoping for the best with a small amount of denial and hope that we had just received another incorrect diagnosis.
Since we completely changed cities, the transition from surgeon to Oncologist was definitely not the smoothest. At one point her file actually got lost, it was only found thanks to her calling to inquire if they could prescribe her a medication to help with the extreme itching caused by Hodgkins. This call set us down a frantic path that frankly we were not mentally prepared to handle yet. In the matter of three hours the Oncology Office set up her PET scan for the next day (only gave her a 1 minute warning for fasting), chemotherapy port placement the three days later, Oncologist appointment one week down the road, Fertility appointment the day after the Onc, and Pulmonary and Cardiovascular check appointments. Needless to say we went form "0-60 mph" pretty quickly. With this we were nowhere prepared for the onslaught of medical bills that would commence almost immediately from these array of appointments and treatments.
Only adding insult to injury is the fact that Rebecca even though she is a Pharmacist by name, she will likely be unable to work with the passing of her board exams due to the side effects of treatment and risk of illness. Additionally, I am a full time Pharmacy Student which means that I get to work 40 hours a week for free this fall. This means that we will have virtually no income to allow us to pay for rent, food, and other necessities much less pay for medical bills, fertility treatment, and paying for the remaining invoices for our wedding (50% down payments were required almost across the board). As a result of this we are even in the process of shutting down our wedding registries to ask for assistance in paying living and medical expenses instead.
I sincerely ask you to assist us along the road of treatment so that we may be able overcome this bump in the road, live a long happily married life with the possibility of having the four children that we have always talked about having, kick cancer in the butt, and give us the opportunity to repay the debt 1000 fold by positively impacting the lives of countless patients that we will undoubtedly encounter in our future careers. The ironic part about our entire story is the fact that Rebecca has always said that she would one day like to have a Pharmacist position where she is able to provide Medication Therapy Management for patients with serious diseases such as cancer and that I hope to one day be a Pediatric Oncology Pharmacist. Ultimately, I could never explain what your assistance in our journey would mean to us, just know that we will be eternally grateful and will spend our entire lives working to repay our gratitude.
My name is Terry Amelunke and I am engaged to the most amazing, loving, and thoughtful girl in the world Rebecca Pettet. I am honestly blessed to be marrying the girl of my dreams on September 24, 2016. Over the past year we have been anxiously awaiting the date and planning feverishly, knowing that our lives would be changing in so many ways the Summer and Fall of 2016. I would be finishing my first year of Pharmacy School, while Rebecca would be graduating from Pharmacy School allowing us to finally "start" our grown-up lives. The process though stressful at times was moving more swiftly than we could have ever imagined, until June of 2016 came around.
Rebecca had been experiencing some unexplained itching and tiredness which at first we both just dismissed as her finding a reason not to study for her upcoming board exams, after all she likes to say she was in school for 21 years. We went with that for a couple of weeks, but it just seemed to be getting worse. One night Rebecca came to me and asked me to feel her abdomen. I thought this was a rather strange request but I did it anyways and what I found was a rather large lump under her skin. In shock we scheduled an appointment the very next day. Long story short she received an incorrect diagnosis of Cat Scratch Disease or B. Henselae infection for you science lovers. This diagnosis never really sat well with us, we don't even have a cat, but she went ahead and did the round of antibiotics I mean the Physician is educated on diagnosis. After the round of antibiotics failed the doctor proceeded to prescribe a second round, at this point we knew that it was the wrong diagnosis.
The following day Rebecca switched tactics and went to an Urgent Care, where the Physician reported "There is no way this is Cat Scratch, I believe you have some sort of Lipoma." After meeting with a General Surgeon she was scheduled for surgery/biopsy and after two long weeks we received the definitive results of Hodgkins Lymphoma. The diagnosis could not have come at a worse time, we were set to move 100 miles for Rebecca to start her new job as a Graduate Pharmacy Intern and transition to a Pharmacist position upon passing her board exams. None the less we forged forward and completed the move hoping for the best with a small amount of denial and hope that we had just received another incorrect diagnosis.
Since we completely changed cities, the transition from surgeon to Oncologist was definitely not the smoothest. At one point her file actually got lost, it was only found thanks to her calling to inquire if they could prescribe her a medication to help with the extreme itching caused by Hodgkins. This call set us down a frantic path that frankly we were not mentally prepared to handle yet. In the matter of three hours the Oncology Office set up her PET scan for the next day (only gave her a 1 minute warning for fasting), chemotherapy port placement the three days later, Oncologist appointment one week down the road, Fertility appointment the day after the Onc, and Pulmonary and Cardiovascular check appointments. Needless to say we went form "0-60 mph" pretty quickly. With this we were nowhere prepared for the onslaught of medical bills that would commence almost immediately from these array of appointments and treatments.
Only adding insult to injury is the fact that Rebecca even though she is a Pharmacist by name, she will likely be unable to work with the passing of her board exams due to the side effects of treatment and risk of illness. Additionally, I am a full time Pharmacy Student which means that I get to work 40 hours a week for free this fall. This means that we will have virtually no income to allow us to pay for rent, food, and other necessities much less pay for medical bills, fertility treatment, and paying for the remaining invoices for our wedding (50% down payments were required almost across the board). As a result of this we are even in the process of shutting down our wedding registries to ask for assistance in paying living and medical expenses instead.
I sincerely ask you to assist us along the road of treatment so that we may be able overcome this bump in the road, live a long happily married life with the possibility of having the four children that we have always talked about having, kick cancer in the butt, and give us the opportunity to repay the debt 1000 fold by positively impacting the lives of countless patients that we will undoubtedly encounter in our future careers. The ironic part about our entire story is the fact that Rebecca has always said that she would one day like to have a Pharmacist position where she is able to provide Medication Therapy Management for patients with serious diseases such as cancer and that I hope to one day be a Pediatric Oncology Pharmacist. Ultimately, I could never explain what your assistance in our journey would mean to us, just know that we will be eternally grateful and will spend our entire lives working to repay our gratitude.
Organizer and beneficiary
Terry Amelunke
Organizer
Cape Coral, FL
Rebecca Pettet
Beneficiary
