Rest Peacefully Stacey R. Coniglio

A letter from Stacey's husband, Guy Coniglio:
They were married Saturday, 1/23/2016 inside Highland Hospital. She passed away 2 days later.

Dearest Stacey. My love, friend, partner, soul mate. 

I need to say thank you.  Thank you for showing me true love.  

And thank you for selflessly enduring picc lines, ports, biopsies, intubation, ECMO, transplant, cancer,  kidney failure,  liver disease, dialysis, physical therapy, medications, scars, bruises,  pain and fear, all so I could hold,  touch, love and laugh with you for just a little longer. 

Thank you for becoming my wife and making it so perfect that I am able to cope with the greatest loss I will ever know. 

And lastly thank you for making sure I understood that you could no longer fight and that you had made peace with that decision. 

Rest peacefully my sweetest princess, my love,  Stacey Ruth Coniglio.  You are in my heart forever...

Stacey's story:
Stacey received a double lung transplant on 6/29/2014 at UPMC Pittsburgh. She was discharged after a difficult recovery the following December after being diagnosed with PTLD
(post transplant lympho- proliferative disease).
We stayed in Pittsburgh until February, when she had her first Chemo for the PTLD. With the DRs agreeing to transfer care back to Rochester after that.
Two more Chemo treatments in Rochester had helped but not cured the PTLD. This is when they told us the PTLD had turned to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

A couple weeks later she was in the hospital for dizziness and confusion, which turned out to
be kidney failure brought on by the Chemo. She needed to start dialysis. She did dialysis through the summer and into early fall when her kidneys started to come
back and eventually they were well enough for her to stop dialysis. This was such a miracle
and she was so happy. It was a short lived break through, as a couple months later, her kidneys
failed again probably due to the anti-rejection meds she was on for the lung transplant. This time was harder though and she ended up in the ER twice while receiving her treatments. We had spent most of December and January in the hospital with her getting a little weaker
every day. It was getting hard and she mentioned she wasn't sure how much more she could take.

We decided to get married in the hospital as this was definitely something she said she
needed to do. Saturday was the ceremony in her room... it was perfect. Her favorite doctor performed the
ceremony and it meant so much. She was glowing and absolutely gorgeous.
The following day she told, me, my family and her mother that she had decided she couldn't
fight anymore and didn't want to receive any more treatment. We eventually accepted this,
which gave her tremendous peace. My sister and I spent the night with her. In the morning, shortly after her mother arrived, Stacey left us quietly and peacefully. On her own terms.

I thank my place of employment so much for letting me work when i can, while still being by my wifes side as much as posible for the last two years.

We are reaching to you because the cost of medical expenses and the spot we have picked out at the cemetary comes together at an astonishing cost. We will work as hard as we can to pay as much as possible, but we simply need help. We are so grateful to all that have assisted her during this long journey. Seeing Stacey's smile is the most beautiful thing on the face of this earth. 

Donate if you can, and Thank you... Thank you so much.