HELP Jay's Journey
Donation protected
I am writing this on behalf of my cousin Julie Delcamp, and her family who suddenly became a SINGLE INCOME family after her husband, Jay, who is only 43 years of age, had emergency brain surgery on January 4 to remove a brain tumor discovered the previous day. He is already scheduled for another surgery January 18, as the preliminary results for the biopsy on the tumor was that what was removed is a “stage 4 Neoplasm. The malignant tissue has cells that look most abnormal and tend to grow quickly”.
All of this comes just 2 days after the family had returned home from traveling to Coos Bay, Oregon to say goodbye to Julie’s mother, my Aunt Gail, whose celebration of life was held on December 28.
The money raised will cover wage loss, hospital bills, medical treatments, travel expenses, food, utilities, mortgage- so they don’t lose their home they just bought in 2016, etc. Any surplus money will be donated to charity (they commonly give to Salvation Army, Good Will, their church and a couple orphanages). This is the only way I could get them to agree to letting me make this account for them.
Backstory:
Julie (Bennett) DelCamp is from North Bend, Oregon, North Bend High School class of 1982- resided in Monmouth, Oregon 1988 leaving in 2010, and has been in Billings, Montana area since Sept 1, 2010.
Jay DelCamp is from Ballantine, Montana, it is located just west of Billings. Jay has lived in the area the majority of his life. Jay is well known in his community and everyone loves him.
Julie and Jay found one another in the fall of 2008, marrying in 2009. “These have been the best 10 years of my life”, Julie said. Julie has also said, “It was love at first Tracy”, referring to Jay’s daughter who was 2 years old at the time. They resided in Monmouth, OR the first 2 years together, then moved to Billings, Montana area where Jay’s family lived.
Julie and Jay added another member to the family in 2012, Addie who was 6 at the time, officially became a DelCamp 2 years ago. Both girls, Tracy and Addie are now 11. Jay said, “Julie is my ROCK and best friend. We truly enjoy each other and have a very happy marriage”. I can tell you, they really are sickening to watch, all lovey dovey, lol.
After years of renting, Julie and Jay were finally able to purchase their dream home in Huntley, outside of Billings, a year and a half ago. Julie is a paralegal and Jay is a truck driver, they were living the dream and following the words of God. They are members of Open Bible Church family in Billings. Jay had been serving as youth pastor for his second year. They are active church members and have gone on retreats to continue to enhance their relationships with God and to be overall better people, better Christians.
Fast forward to January 2018:
Julie arrives home by plane and Jay (along with their daughters) arrive home after 2 days of driving. Jay was getting headaches on the drive home and started taking his migraine medication in Billings. He has had some issues in the past with migraines, so just another episode he thought. After they all got home, Julie went back to work as a paralegal and Jay as a truck driver. The girls were excited to get back to school…but Jay’s headaches continued.
On January 3, Jay’s headaches persisted but he also became confused, displayed odd behaviors, his ability to converse and process had diminished. Jay even got lost in Walmart, HA- HA. Funny/ Not funny... True story though- Julie had to have Jay paged over the intercom and when she found him he said to her “I heard you calling me”. HUGE RED FLAG.
Julie took Jay to the ER…they were initially going to treat Jay for migraines but due to his inability to converse and process they did an MRI. Julie told me that changed everything, right away, when the results came back. Next thing she knew was she was being told Jay needed immediate brain surgery and he might not make it through the operation…she called as many of their local family members, as she could think of, to come and say possible good-byes before the surgery, just in case… which she said, “THAT SUCKED”.
January 4, Jay had his 2 hour exploratory brain surgery to get a biopsy, for a tumor which measured 7x5x3…It’s in the shape of a spike going 5 inches into his brain, when the spike reaches the surface of his brain it covers the ENTIRE top of his right hemisphere as if you are looking down. It’s also hyper venous meaning it’s been there long enough the blood vessels have grown into it. (This makes it inoperable).
By some miracle Jay went home on January 5 ….. they left the hospital waiting for pathology results.
Preliminary results were being conducted in Billings and forwarded to Salt Lake City, if need be. Julie said, “We wait to find out our next plan of action with the brain surgeon next week. We do know that it needs to be reduced or he will not be on this planet much longer. Something has to be done. He doesn’t want to die so he will do whatever he needs to do to get well”. Julie called the Dr. on Friday fishing for information and was told the preliminary results… stage 4 tumor.
Currently Jay requires 24 hr. care and cannot be left alone, can’t drive, can’t work, he is obviously still visibly affected by the tumor, which is still intact ... and I must not forget, he has a fancy new haircut, lol.
Julie, as the sole financial provider now, was forced to go back to work last week since she exhausted her PTO to say good bye to her mother in Oregon. Jay is also out of vacation time as of this past week. They were under the impression Jay had Aflac disability through his employer, that was incorrect, they do not.
Currently, Jay’s father, Mack DelCamp, and son, Schuyler DelCamp care for Jay during the day. Julie’s income is the only income and any time she misses work it is without pay.
Does she go home and spend time with the man she loves more than anything and risk losing everything…………or go to work to maintain status quo?
What a terrible choice Julie has. She struggles with knowing there are times she will need to be with Jay, which brings anxiety for job security.
What’s next:
Radiation or Reduction which will be required for the tumor, which will either occur in Seattle or Billings. That will be costly. As they wait for the complete Pathology results from Salt Lake City, they have an appointment with Jay’s Brain Surgeon on January 15 and Jay has another surgery on January 18 scheduled. They will find out more at Monday’s appointment but the assumption is that this surgery will be to see how much, if any, of the cancerous tumor can be safely removed. I will post an update after the appointment with brain surgeon on Monday.
WRAPPING UP:
Wow, I didn’t expect this to be this long. I wanted to paint a picture for you to see where your generous donation would be going to. This is an example of a great family being given the shit stick (pardon my French, as my grandma Avril used to say). I wish I lived closer, I wish I could do more. Julie is my cousin, but has always been more of a sister and I love her and her family very much. It is why I am doing this… Jay is her gift from God.
To reiterate, the money raised will cover wage loss, hospital bills, medical treatments, travel expenses, food, utilities, mortgage- so they don’t lose their home, etc. This money will be used immediately as medical bills are already coming in. Any surplus money will be donated to charity.
I appreciate your time reading this and thank you in advance for any generous donation you are able to give, if you’re unable, sending a prayer, or sending positive thoughts to the family is a great gift as well.
Thank you and take care.
Rachel
All of this comes just 2 days after the family had returned home from traveling to Coos Bay, Oregon to say goodbye to Julie’s mother, my Aunt Gail, whose celebration of life was held on December 28.
The money raised will cover wage loss, hospital bills, medical treatments, travel expenses, food, utilities, mortgage- so they don’t lose their home they just bought in 2016, etc. Any surplus money will be donated to charity (they commonly give to Salvation Army, Good Will, their church and a couple orphanages). This is the only way I could get them to agree to letting me make this account for them.
Backstory:
Julie (Bennett) DelCamp is from North Bend, Oregon, North Bend High School class of 1982- resided in Monmouth, Oregon 1988 leaving in 2010, and has been in Billings, Montana area since Sept 1, 2010.
Jay DelCamp is from Ballantine, Montana, it is located just west of Billings. Jay has lived in the area the majority of his life. Jay is well known in his community and everyone loves him.
Julie and Jay found one another in the fall of 2008, marrying in 2009. “These have been the best 10 years of my life”, Julie said. Julie has also said, “It was love at first Tracy”, referring to Jay’s daughter who was 2 years old at the time. They resided in Monmouth, OR the first 2 years together, then moved to Billings, Montana area where Jay’s family lived.
Julie and Jay added another member to the family in 2012, Addie who was 6 at the time, officially became a DelCamp 2 years ago. Both girls, Tracy and Addie are now 11. Jay said, “Julie is my ROCK and best friend. We truly enjoy each other and have a very happy marriage”. I can tell you, they really are sickening to watch, all lovey dovey, lol.
After years of renting, Julie and Jay were finally able to purchase their dream home in Huntley, outside of Billings, a year and a half ago. Julie is a paralegal and Jay is a truck driver, they were living the dream and following the words of God. They are members of Open Bible Church family in Billings. Jay had been serving as youth pastor for his second year. They are active church members and have gone on retreats to continue to enhance their relationships with God and to be overall better people, better Christians.
Fast forward to January 2018:
Julie arrives home by plane and Jay (along with their daughters) arrive home after 2 days of driving. Jay was getting headaches on the drive home and started taking his migraine medication in Billings. He has had some issues in the past with migraines, so just another episode he thought. After they all got home, Julie went back to work as a paralegal and Jay as a truck driver. The girls were excited to get back to school…but Jay’s headaches continued.
On January 3, Jay’s headaches persisted but he also became confused, displayed odd behaviors, his ability to converse and process had diminished. Jay even got lost in Walmart, HA- HA. Funny/ Not funny... True story though- Julie had to have Jay paged over the intercom and when she found him he said to her “I heard you calling me”. HUGE RED FLAG.
Julie took Jay to the ER…they were initially going to treat Jay for migraines but due to his inability to converse and process they did an MRI. Julie told me that changed everything, right away, when the results came back. Next thing she knew was she was being told Jay needed immediate brain surgery and he might not make it through the operation…she called as many of their local family members, as she could think of, to come and say possible good-byes before the surgery, just in case… which she said, “THAT SUCKED”.
January 4, Jay had his 2 hour exploratory brain surgery to get a biopsy, for a tumor which measured 7x5x3…It’s in the shape of a spike going 5 inches into his brain, when the spike reaches the surface of his brain it covers the ENTIRE top of his right hemisphere as if you are looking down. It’s also hyper venous meaning it’s been there long enough the blood vessels have grown into it. (This makes it inoperable).
By some miracle Jay went home on January 5 ….. they left the hospital waiting for pathology results.
Preliminary results were being conducted in Billings and forwarded to Salt Lake City, if need be. Julie said, “We wait to find out our next plan of action with the brain surgeon next week. We do know that it needs to be reduced or he will not be on this planet much longer. Something has to be done. He doesn’t want to die so he will do whatever he needs to do to get well”. Julie called the Dr. on Friday fishing for information and was told the preliminary results… stage 4 tumor.
Currently Jay requires 24 hr. care and cannot be left alone, can’t drive, can’t work, he is obviously still visibly affected by the tumor, which is still intact ... and I must not forget, he has a fancy new haircut, lol.
Julie, as the sole financial provider now, was forced to go back to work last week since she exhausted her PTO to say good bye to her mother in Oregon. Jay is also out of vacation time as of this past week. They were under the impression Jay had Aflac disability through his employer, that was incorrect, they do not.
Currently, Jay’s father, Mack DelCamp, and son, Schuyler DelCamp care for Jay during the day. Julie’s income is the only income and any time she misses work it is without pay.
Does she go home and spend time with the man she loves more than anything and risk losing everything…………or go to work to maintain status quo?
What a terrible choice Julie has. She struggles with knowing there are times she will need to be with Jay, which brings anxiety for job security.
What’s next:
Radiation or Reduction which will be required for the tumor, which will either occur in Seattle or Billings. That will be costly. As they wait for the complete Pathology results from Salt Lake City, they have an appointment with Jay’s Brain Surgeon on January 15 and Jay has another surgery on January 18 scheduled. They will find out more at Monday’s appointment but the assumption is that this surgery will be to see how much, if any, of the cancerous tumor can be safely removed. I will post an update after the appointment with brain surgeon on Monday.
WRAPPING UP:
Wow, I didn’t expect this to be this long. I wanted to paint a picture for you to see where your generous donation would be going to. This is an example of a great family being given the shit stick (pardon my French, as my grandma Avril used to say). I wish I lived closer, I wish I could do more. Julie is my cousin, but has always been more of a sister and I love her and her family very much. It is why I am doing this… Jay is her gift from God.
To reiterate, the money raised will cover wage loss, hospital bills, medical treatments, travel expenses, food, utilities, mortgage- so they don’t lose their home, etc. This money will be used immediately as medical bills are already coming in. Any surplus money will be donated to charity.
I appreciate your time reading this and thank you in advance for any generous donation you are able to give, if you’re unable, sending a prayer, or sending positive thoughts to the family is a great gift as well.
Thank you and take care.
Rachel
Organizer and beneficiary
Rachel Salsedo
Organizer
Billings Metropolitan Area, MT
Julie DelCamp
Beneficiary
