Emily's breast cancer fundraiser

Dear Friends, Family, co-workers, and members of our church;

 

We've never thought I would be sitting down to write to ask for funds to help fight my wife's breast cancer. But here we are. We firmly believe God is in control of our lives and somehow, this breast cancer is part of His plan. Romans 8:28 says that "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." We love God, we are as Christians called to His purpose; so therefore all things for us will somehow work together for good. We don't know how or why, but by faith we trust God in this.

 

A brief rundown: Emily felt a lump that wasn't going away. An ultrasound showed it looked cancerous and a biopsy confirmed. After meeting locally with a doctor, we realized that we should head down to Seattle to get the best care. Nothing against the local cancer doctors, but they don't have the expertise to know about the myriad other health conditions that Emily already has going on. We're getting most of Emily's care done through the SCCA (Seattle Cancer Care Alliance). There's a few other clinics there that are helping on the integrative side of her treatment.

 

The good news: it's a very slow moving/growing cancer. It's likely no chemotherepy will be needed at this point.

 

The bad news: the initial lump is either one of two lumps or one very large lump. Surgery is going to be required. As it is an estrogen-driven cancer, down the line some nasty drugs might be involved to block estrogen.

 

Down to the point of needing help. We have very good health insurance, but it's not perfect. Currently, we pay 20% of all bills up to a max out of pocket. We have $4500 left to pay until we hit that mark. Then everything is covered 100%. The big caveat being IF the providers are in network. We know SCCA is, but through surgery, many other health care professionals are involved that may not be in-network. I'll be applying for network exemptions left and right if that's the case.

 

Then there are the extraneous costs. Travel to Seattle is cheap for us because of my work, but it's not free. Then there are hotel rooms, rental cars, and food. Just the first trip down was $700 total.

 

Speaking of food, we're trying to supply Emily's body the best chance to help fight off this cancer naturally as we go down the conventional path. That means carrot juice, and more carrot juice. Do you know how many carrots it takes to make a quart of juice?! A lot! So Juneau folks if you've noticed the price of carrots go up, that's not inflation, that's more demand. Good 'ol supply and demand. Emily is also eating strictly organic. All of which adds up. Our grocery bill last month was $1,800.

 

Adding together, it's a fair amount of money. I'm estimating $10,000 or more. If you're able to help us out, thank you. If by God's grace we get through this not needing everything we raised, I'll try to get money back to you. Thanks for your help.

 

Jered Gebel

PS: if you’d prefer to do Venmo instead our Venmo is Jered-Gebel