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Help April Recover From Throat Cancer Surgery

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Update: May 31st, 2022
Hello everyone!!!! April's Miracle continues. This weekend she was able to enjoy memorial day weekend time with her sister, and her two nieces. She continues to recover at her rehabilitation apartment in Boston. Currently, she is doing daily hyperbaric chamber sessions to help with wound healing. She still has two open wounds that are slowly closing. She is also getting regular physical therapy for her right leg, from which a muscle was harvested to rebuild her throat during her grueling and life-saving 10.5-hour surgery on March 25, 2022. She has had some rough days, but they are getting fewer and farther apart. It is a daily process of cleaning the wounds, going for treatment at the hospital, and then feeding herself through her g-tube with food she is now cooking and blending up. All of her time and energy is focused on healing, eating, taking medications, sleeping, and the current details of medical self-care. Another very exciting thing that is taking place is that her voice will be cloned from old messages and recordings of her speaking. The process of creating her cloned voice is being done pro bono, however, the daily use will have a fee associated with it. She is still in great need of financial support from the community. Please donate if you can. Thank you so very much for all you have done!!!!!

Update: April 25th, 2022
APRIL IS IN HER RECOVERY APARTMENT!
April has moved into her recovery apartment near Mass Ear & Eye. She will be living here for the next 12 months in order to be close to her care providers and her daily therapies. Moving day was a bit intense. A group of friends and her sister gathered up her belongings and brought as much as they could to the new space. She also got to take her first shower in 30 days! WOW!

She is still quite frail and working on getting used to this next stage of recovery.

Thank you Mass Ear & Eye. Thank you Brigham Women's Hospital.
THANK YOU FOR SAVING APRIL'S LIFE!!!!

Update: April 18th, 2022
APRIL IS SCHEDULED TO BE RELEASED AND TO COME HOME Sunday, April 24th!

We have succeeded, through this fundraising, to secure the first four months of April's rehabilitation apartment near her incredible medical team while she continues to heal and recover. She will need to continue to have speech therapy, physical therapy, occupation therapy, medical check-ins, and support. We are so incredibly grateful to all of you! We now have over 79 donations. We are so incredibly grateful to all of you. May you all be blessed in one way or another with a miracle you need in your lives. May this over-pouring of love and kindness flow directly back to all of you!

We need to continue to fundraise for her rehabilitation. Thank and continue to spread the word!

Update: April 14, 2022
ALL OF APRIL'S DRAINS HAVE COME OUT! She is preparing to go to rehab! The Miracle Continues!

Update: April 10, 2022

First, Thank you to the over 70 people who have donated to helping April recover from throat surgery.

YOU ARE A VITAL PART OF THIS MIRACLE! THANK YOU!!!!

Since her 10.5 hr grueling surgery, April has been moved to Mass Ear and Eye. She will be there until she is ready to move to rehab. She has an incredible team of physicians, nurses, and specialists. Her treatments range from saline drains, a hyperbolic chamber, nutritional enhancement through feed tubes, various types of complex medications and other means, and blood transfusion.  She is planning for a GTube Surgery on 4/11/2022 so she can get more nutrition into her system. 

Today April said, (through her writing device), " I see myself making a full recovery and being able to play tennis again.!

SHE IS GROWING STRONGER DAY BY DAY! Thank you again for all you have given. 



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Once in a lifetime, you may hear of a miracle that is only the result of pure love.

Today We Got A Miracle.

This miracle story involves a brilliant woman with a steadfast desire to fight, live, and love, a brilliant surgeon willing to take on the most incredible decision to save a life in unconventional ways, and a massive community of people dedicated to praying in unison.

At the center of this story is April Heaslip, an incredible human being, filled with starshine, love, brilliance, and an uncanny sense of wit and charm. She has graced so many lives in her 54 years, inspiring young women to hold on tight to their dreams and educating thousands of education-hungry people. With her Ph.D. in mythology and women's studies, she continues to share her vast depth of knowledge with the world. Before this recent occurrence of cancer, she was in the process of finishing a book that was due to be published. This book focuses on mythology and the divine feminine in an age when women are rising into more and more positions of power and blazing a tour d force path of epic decision making. April is part of making this happen.

Our dear April Heaslip was diagnosed with throat cancer last year. She received treatment, but unfortunately, the cancer came back. This past Monday, March 21st 2022, she almost died twice. Without the incredible talented medical professionals at Massachusets General Hospital, she would not be with us.

They saved her life three times. The third intervention, on March 25th, 2022, involved a heroic-10 hr surgery performed by Allen L. Feng, MD, a fellowship-trained head and neck surgeon who specializes in head and neck cancer and microvascular reconstruction. He removed a cancerous mass, and in doing so, he reconstructed half of her throat and neck. This surgery removed her voicebox, requiring a trach for the foreseeable future. It was grueling, and all of her loved ones waited anxiously all day and into the night. It started at 10 am EST and ended at 8:30 pm EST. She made it through. Then we had to wait through the night.

And then a miracle happened. April woke up. (March 26th, 2022)

The amazing surgical team at Mass General feels there are options for continued treatment to fight this. It is critical she has the best, state-of-the-art care at this pivotal point.

She has had a challenging time finding housing while she has been battling cancer, and we want to be able to take that burden off of her. The recovery is going to be long. She will need ongoing care from nurses, ot's, speech therapists, and close proximity to her specialists.

Our goal is to raise $100k so she has a fighting chance to beat this. Please join us in helping April win! #aprilchooselove

ALL PROCEEDS WILL BE PUT INTO A NON-PROFIT 501 C3 Organization 
"APRIL HEASLIP RECOVERY TEAM, Inc".

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Donations 

  • Kathleen Miller
    • $50
    • 9 mos
  • David Smith
    • $100
    • 1 yr
  • Nicole Grello
    • $10
    • 2 yrs
  • Beth Girshman
    • $76
    • 2 yrs
  • Jamie Neithold-Nash
    • $50
    • 2 yrs
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Organizer

April Heaslip Fundraising Team
Organizer
Boston, MA

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