**UPDATE**

Barbara has had 3 surgeries totaling 26 hours over 3 days, suffered a stroke Sunday morning and development acute tubular necrosis. Even after all of that she’s continuing to fight and seems to have finally turned a corner in her recovery! She has been off the ventilator for 24 hours and is awake and alert, even letting her sarcasm and sass show through the pain. Her kidney results are improving and they will be moving her to an ICU room that requires less monitoring. All of this is great news and we are happy and excited to see the improvement. Please continue to send her loving thoughts and prayers.

On May 28th, Barbara received the life-changing news that she had stage 4 jaw cancer. In the 5 weeks that followed, she faced days filled with pain and fear while trying to remain strong and smiling.

On July 3rd, she entered the operating room for what ended up being a 13-hour surgery where she had her lower jaw bone, cheek, and facial muscles removed. She had bone and skin from her lower arm and skin from her upper arm removed to reconstruct her face. At 2 am on July 4th, just 5 hours after her first marathon surgery, she was brought back into the operating room to repair vessels in her face that were not responding in the way they hoped.

As we all prayed for a quick recovery, Barbara was brought back into the operating room again on July 5th with concerns that her jaw bone was not receiving the blood flow it needs to stay alive. At this time, she is back in ICU recovering, but the next 2 days will determine whether her newly constructed jaw will stay alive or need to be removed.

Barbara has a long, hard road of recovery ahead of her and needs the support and love of family and friends to help her get through this. We know times are tough for many, and asking for help isn’t easy, but any contribution, big or small, will bring us one step closer to helping Barbara get the support she needs. Thank you for all the love and support you are giving.