Brooke has had a challenging road over the past 3 years.  During the pandemic, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease and Polycystic Kidney Disease at 16 years old. She has had ongoing treatment since then with infusions every 4-8 weeks to manage her Crohn’s symptoms. She handled everything like a champion, always with a positive attitude and making the best of her health complications and soon went off to her first year of college in Rhode Island.  Shortly after coming home for the summer of 2022, she was taking a lifeguard certification class with her sister and noticed a lump on her chest.  After a whirlwind of tests, we got the devastating news that she had Classic Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Devastating isn’t even a strong enough word to explain how we felt finding out our child had cancer.  Brooke was fortunate to have the opportunity to take the time to go through fertility preservation before starting treatment and was able to freeze 10 eggs. She was amazing and tolerated all her treatments well, always with that positive attitude shining through.  Her cancer treatments were complete in November 2022 when she had her last surgery to remove her chemo-port. Brooke had started working again and was saving money to buy a car and had hoped to go back to school this coming fall. The night she brought home her new car she found another lump on her chest. Since then, she has gone through another series of tests, 3 CT scans, a PET scan, 2 surgical biopsies, and a needle biopsy along with several doctors’ visits and lab work.  The result is a relapse of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.  We met with her team of doctors at CCMC and got a second opinion at Boston Children’s Hospital. They will all be working together to treat Brooke moving forward.  She is starting with 2 to 6 cycles of Chemotherapy in CT at CCMC and then will move on to Boston Children’s for a Stem Cell Transplant.  She will have to be in the hospital in Boston for 4-6 weeks.

As you can imagine these years of medical treatments have resulted in mounting medical bills and debt.  We have met our high deductible and out-of-pocket max every year for the last 3 years. Not only the medical bills but the cost of transportation, meals, parking and loss of wages for both her parents to have the time to be with and support her through all of this. These are just a fraction of some of the costs of ongoing treatment. These upcoming treatments will add significantly to that financial strain, especially the long stay in Boston.  We have always been very fortunate to have such great family, friends and a community that has rallied around us. We are so appreciative of everyone that has been there for our family. Brooke is a beautiful person inside and out.  She is a wonderful daughter, a great big sister to Andi and Reegan, and a loving granddaughter, niece, cousin and friend. We are asking for any financial donation you can make to help support our family through another challenging medical hurdle. Everyone always asks, "What can I do to help?"  Meals can often feel overwhelming and with Crohn's can be difficult to navigate.  So please help by donating and sharing this Go Fund Me to support Brooke and our family through all of this.  Thank you so much in advance Your encouragement and love have helped Brooke keep that smile on her face and positive attitude and we all are really going to need that for what is coming.

Sincerely,

The Pasieka Family