Help Jenny Gruslin beat cancer!
Donation protected
For those of you who don’t need a lot of information because you know and love Jenny, Holly and Gus as much as I do, feel free to cut to the chase and slide right down to the donate button.
For those of you are not blessed to know the Gruslin/Wiesendanger family, or for those of you, who like me, love information, the bottom line is that my dear friend Jenny has cancer and she needs our help, spiritually, emotionally and, unfortunately, financially, to get her through the next six months to beat this blasted disease. As usual, there is more to the story than meets the eye. Please read on and if you can find it in your heart (and wallet), please make a donation.
Sometimes life throws you a curve ball, sometimes it throws you three.
As many of you know, Jenn Gruslin & Holly Wiesendanger have had one hell of a year and a half. Last February, after many years of trying to get pregnant, Jenny gave birth to a stunningly beautiful baby boy named William August Dennis (aka Gus). Quite unexpectedly, Gus was born three months premature, weighing only slightly less than 2.5 lbs. As you can imagine, this was quite a challenge, but Jenny and Holly have persevered and after three months at Women & Infants, they were able to bring Gus home and he has been thriving ever since. Gus’ early birth brought some challenges, he receives Early Intervention services, and around the time he would have started to eat regular food, he was diagnosed with FPIES (short for Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome aka, he is allergic to EVERYTHING except breast milk and plums). As you can imagine, this has caused a great deal of stress for the family, but they have found ways to deal with it; Jenny has continued to breastfeed and friends and friends of friends have donated a ton of pumped milk for Gus. Then, just when things were settling down and the family was establishing a good rhythm, Holly got laid off from her job of 12 years. As they had with Gus, Holly and Jenn handled this set-back with a positive kick ass attitude. Holly got a bit of a severance and it afforded her some time to bond with Gus and to avoid having to pay for expensive in-home child care (group child care is not recommended for Gus because his compromised immune system associated with his early birth). Soon though the severance ran out and they began to be concerned about money, so Holly began searching for work. She was cautiously optimistic that she would be able to find something that would allow her to work from home and stay home with Gus. Just when Holly was getting into her job search, Jenny was diagnosed with tongue cancer (as you can imagine, there is far more to the story than “Jenny has tongue cancer.” See below for more information). It was quite a shocker as Jenny is only 41 and has never been a smoker. Her prognosis is good, but the journey to wellness is not going to be without challenges, both emotional and financial. Jenny is scheduled to have an 8-hour surgery at Dana Farber on June 15, before that there have been several trips to Boston for pre-op and to receive infusions that will hopefully shrink the size of the tumor before surgery. She will be in the hospital for about 8 days and would like to have Holly and Gus close. The Farber has a special deal with a hotel that they rent to families for $40 a night, but unfortunately the rate is currently only available for three of the ten nights they need it, so will have to pay about $2,000 out of pocket for the room and parking. Post –surgery, Jenny will have a 5 – 8 week recovery period and then seven weeks of chemo/radiation will begin. After that phase of the treatment is complete, they expect another 2-3 months before she is completely recovered. Because Jenny is part of a promising study group in Boston, the surgery and radiation/chemo must be done at Dana Farber. This means daily travel to Boston with associated gas and parking costs. And if life isn’t complicated enough, Jenny has had to stop breastfeeding Gus. Because of his FPIES, there is a limited supply of donated milk and without her breast milk Gus won’t have enough eat. Jenny and Holly could turn to a breast milk bank, but an 8oz bottle runs about $27 and Gus needs four of these a day. There is one other alternative, which is a highly specialized supplement, a special prescription elemental formula that Gus seems to be able to digest, but costs about $160 for a one week supply.
Jenny’s employer, Thundermist, is being great and she will be able to collect TDI for up to 26 weeks. This will cover a good portion of her salary, but she will be responsible to cover the premiums for her health insurance while she is out in addition to the short-fall in salary (approximately $7,200), and she will surely meet her deductible and out-of-pocket maximums for the year ($5,000).
Overall, Jenny has an amazingly positive attitude about what lies ahead. She is handling this with the same kick-ass manner that she handles most everything, but all of these added and unexpected expenses, coupled with Holly’s need to be home to care for Jenny and Gus, have resulted in a pretty high stress level. I hope you can find it in your heart and budget to help Jenny, Holly and Gus get through this difficult time. We’ve set a goal of $20,000 to get them through the initial phases of treatment, but the longer this goes on the bigger the burden and the challenge. As I mentioned, Jenny is much more knowledgeable and articulate about the medical challenges she is facing. You can follow her at for more information and updates. https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jennylgw/
For those of you are not blessed to know the Gruslin/Wiesendanger family, or for those of you, who like me, love information, the bottom line is that my dear friend Jenny has cancer and she needs our help, spiritually, emotionally and, unfortunately, financially, to get her through the next six months to beat this blasted disease. As usual, there is more to the story than meets the eye. Please read on and if you can find it in your heart (and wallet), please make a donation.
Sometimes life throws you a curve ball, sometimes it throws you three.
As many of you know, Jenn Gruslin & Holly Wiesendanger have had one hell of a year and a half. Last February, after many years of trying to get pregnant, Jenny gave birth to a stunningly beautiful baby boy named William August Dennis (aka Gus). Quite unexpectedly, Gus was born three months premature, weighing only slightly less than 2.5 lbs. As you can imagine, this was quite a challenge, but Jenny and Holly have persevered and after three months at Women & Infants, they were able to bring Gus home and he has been thriving ever since. Gus’ early birth brought some challenges, he receives Early Intervention services, and around the time he would have started to eat regular food, he was diagnosed with FPIES (short for Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome aka, he is allergic to EVERYTHING except breast milk and plums). As you can imagine, this has caused a great deal of stress for the family, but they have found ways to deal with it; Jenny has continued to breastfeed and friends and friends of friends have donated a ton of pumped milk for Gus. Then, just when things were settling down and the family was establishing a good rhythm, Holly got laid off from her job of 12 years. As they had with Gus, Holly and Jenn handled this set-back with a positive kick ass attitude. Holly got a bit of a severance and it afforded her some time to bond with Gus and to avoid having to pay for expensive in-home child care (group child care is not recommended for Gus because his compromised immune system associated with his early birth). Soon though the severance ran out and they began to be concerned about money, so Holly began searching for work. She was cautiously optimistic that she would be able to find something that would allow her to work from home and stay home with Gus. Just when Holly was getting into her job search, Jenny was diagnosed with tongue cancer (as you can imagine, there is far more to the story than “Jenny has tongue cancer.” See below for more information). It was quite a shocker as Jenny is only 41 and has never been a smoker. Her prognosis is good, but the journey to wellness is not going to be without challenges, both emotional and financial. Jenny is scheduled to have an 8-hour surgery at Dana Farber on June 15, before that there have been several trips to Boston for pre-op and to receive infusions that will hopefully shrink the size of the tumor before surgery. She will be in the hospital for about 8 days and would like to have Holly and Gus close. The Farber has a special deal with a hotel that they rent to families for $40 a night, but unfortunately the rate is currently only available for three of the ten nights they need it, so will have to pay about $2,000 out of pocket for the room and parking. Post –surgery, Jenny will have a 5 – 8 week recovery period and then seven weeks of chemo/radiation will begin. After that phase of the treatment is complete, they expect another 2-3 months before she is completely recovered. Because Jenny is part of a promising study group in Boston, the surgery and radiation/chemo must be done at Dana Farber. This means daily travel to Boston with associated gas and parking costs. And if life isn’t complicated enough, Jenny has had to stop breastfeeding Gus. Because of his FPIES, there is a limited supply of donated milk and without her breast milk Gus won’t have enough eat. Jenny and Holly could turn to a breast milk bank, but an 8oz bottle runs about $27 and Gus needs four of these a day. There is one other alternative, which is a highly specialized supplement, a special prescription elemental formula that Gus seems to be able to digest, but costs about $160 for a one week supply.
Jenny’s employer, Thundermist, is being great and she will be able to collect TDI for up to 26 weeks. This will cover a good portion of her salary, but she will be responsible to cover the premiums for her health insurance while she is out in addition to the short-fall in salary (approximately $7,200), and she will surely meet her deductible and out-of-pocket maximums for the year ($5,000).
Overall, Jenny has an amazingly positive attitude about what lies ahead. She is handling this with the same kick-ass manner that she handles most everything, but all of these added and unexpected expenses, coupled with Holly’s need to be home to care for Jenny and Gus, have resulted in a pretty high stress level. I hope you can find it in your heart and budget to help Jenny, Holly and Gus get through this difficult time. We’ve set a goal of $20,000 to get them through the initial phases of treatment, but the longer this goes on the bigger the burden and the challenge. As I mentioned, Jenny is much more knowledgeable and articulate about the medical challenges she is facing. You can follow her at for more information and updates. https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jennylgw/
Organizer and beneficiary
Marlene Roberti
Organizer
Warwick, RI
Jenny Gruslin Wiesendanger
Beneficiary
