Annazette’s family needs your help!

UPDATE… Annazette is no longer in pain! She transitioned from this life to glory on 12/13/23 at 9:31pm.  Her devoted husband, Aaron, & their beautiful babies are deeply grieving her loss. Any donations made will help them as they travel through these next days and weeks without their loving wife/mother. Thank you for your prayers and support. We love you all for loving our precious daughter in love so well! She will be greatly missed!! ❤️

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Hi, my name is Alan.

I am the father-in-law of a beautiful young woman. She is a loving wife, and a wonderful mother of 2 (ages 1 and 2). 1 year ago, Anna was pregnant with their 2nd child when she started having major headaches and losing vision in her right eye. The ER doctors were ignoring the symptoms and kept sending her home. Finally, after she woke up completely blind in her right eye, the ER doctors agreed to perform an MRI only to discover a tumor in her right sinus that was pressing on the right orbital socket. The tumor was crushing the optic nerve and surrounding the right artery to the brain. After several days of waiting for the doctors to do something my son, Aaron, checked his wife out of Houston Methodist and took her to Memorial Herman where the OB ER staff immediately jumped into action. They set Anna up for an emergency C-section and, after delivering their son at 36 weeks, performed a biopsy and partial removal of the tumor. The tumor turned out to be an aggressive form of adult Rhabdomyosarcoma (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/rhabdomyosarcoma/symptoms-causes/syc-20390962) Anna has gone thru 1 year of treatment consisting of both chemotherapy and radiation. The chemo did not seem to have any effect on the tumor, but the radiation was able to shrink it over 80%. Unfortunately, a person is not allowed to have more than so much radiation otherwise it will cause radiation poisoning which will increase chance of death. Anna went back onto chemo while waiting to have surgery to hopefully remove the tumor. This surgery would require the removal of her right eye, eye socket, and one of the two major arteries to her brain. It was considered risky, but her best hope in resecting the cancer. Just before surgery her doctors performed a bilateral biopsy to double check everything before performing such a life altering procedure. Unfortunately, it was discovered that the cancer spread to the left sinus cavity and attached to her skull. Both sides now surround the arteries that feed the brain. The surgeons now deemed the tumor as in-operable. The doctor has given Anna 12 to 24 months to live and they have stated the cancer is terminal and that she should be enrolled in palliative care as well as any trials that can be found. I have reached out to not only MD Anderson (https://www.mdanderson.org/) but also John Hopkins (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/kimmel_cancer_center/), the Mayo Clinic (https://www.mayoclinic.org/) and finally a last attempt at a new breakthrough study in Israel called “"T" cell” at Hadassah University in Jerusalem (https://www.hadassah.org.il/en/).

I want to tell you more about Anna. Anna came into our lives 4 years ago and at the time both she and my son were drug users. When they became pregnant with our granddaughter, they chose to leave the environment that fed their addiction and move to a place where they could not only get family support but also a new start. Both Anna and Arron are 3 years sober and have 2 beautiful children, a daughter 2 and a son 1. As a family we are not giving up hope and after all they have been through, we are asking for help financially as Medicaid and the politics of insurance refuse to pay for experimental procedures. These procedures along with travel and supporting a family are not cheap.

In the event Anna does not make it, the funds will go to take care of final expenses and to help her husband and children get through the difficult time ahead. 

Lastly, I have recently learned that as great as the United States is, we have several major faults. One of the beings taking care of people that have families that are in uncontrolled and unexpected life-changing circumstances. I am making this anonymous as if both Medicaid and Social Security find Anna is receiving any other form of benefits, they will cancel all government benefits. I am also going to ask if there are any medical providers that have the power to get Anna into a trial no matter how slim a chance it might be, to please reach out and help. Lastly, I am asking for all prayers to help with Anna’s healing both emotionally and physically. Only God knows the plan he has for us. So please pray and God bless to everyone who cares and donates.

#cancer, #chemotherapy, # Rhabdomyosarcoma, #cancerresearch, #family, #prayers