Help Jessica Heigh in Her Cancer Journey

Hello, everyone,

My name is Jenny, and I have the honor of helping the Heigh Family navigate through this challenging time. I met the Heigh's through our church many years ago. We became quick friends when I started watching their daughter in my daycare and now consider ourselves family. As some of you know, Jessica is starting her battle with breast cancer. Their community's support is incredibly important to them and I'm here to help facilitate communication, share updates on needs, and provide a space for others to offer love, prayer, encouragement, worship songs or podcast suggestions.

Jessica wanted to share some of what has all ready taken place in her journey.....

About 10 years ago Jessica was made aware that she may be a carrier for the Braca 1 Cancer gene. A gene that if positive, makes you at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer. The testing was new then and was not covered by insurance. Still young, doctors didn't seem too concerned at the time. In 2020 the test became covered by insurance and since she was done having kids and older, she decided to move forward with the test. It came back positive. From there she saw a few doctors and decided it was best to remove her ovaries in late 2021 since ovarian cancer is hard to detect, spreads quickly and is hard to treat. She didn't want to take the chance of something going undetected. They also wanted to do a double mastectomy but felt like as long as she kept up with a 6 month rotation between breast mri's and mammograms till she was 40, she would be ok to wait a while. That leads us to the current situation.

In May Jessica went in for a yearly women's exam. During the exam the doctor felt a new lump that had not been seen on screenings. She encouraged her to schedule a mammogram to check it out since she was considered high risk. Jessica went in for a mammogram on Friday, May 31, was then walked across the hall for an ultrasound, then the radiologist was brought in and told it was different this time. It was not uncommon for them to find a few lumps but were always benign.

They scheduled her right away for biopsies on Monday June 3rd and appointments with an oncologist and surgeon for followup. Tuesday morning she got the call from the radiologist that it in fact was breast cancer. That same day she had a phone conversation with her surgeon and scheduled her for port surgery for June 11th, which went well.

She met with her oncologist on Monday, June 24th. Chemo will start weekly the first week of July for 6 months followed by a double mastectomy. Although caught early it is an aggressive breast cancer, so treatment will be aggressive. At this time she is looking at a full year of care from treatments to recovery from surgery next year.

With things moving quickly she has spent time with her family and working out details of her business'. She is very grateful to be surrounded by such an amazing support group. White Aspen Creative will stay running smoothly with the help of her amazing Team stepping up more than they already do. Lady J memories will be taking a hiatus till further notice, and she will continue to keep Heritage Home running with friends help when she is feeling up to the task.

James' work has been very accommodating, allowing for extra time off to be with Jessica for doctor visits and will allow him to work from home on the not so great days to be a support to Jessica.

With the loss of income from Lady J memories and taking her own wages to pay employees to cover what her day to day tasks are, a large out of pocket max to meet for insurance for this year and next year, additional medical needs that are not covered by insurance, they are reaching out for support from their amazing family, friends and community.

A few answered prayers already! They caught it early thanks to all the preventative screening they were doing. Lymph Nodes and a right breast lump were tested negative.

Jessica and Family are in good spirits with God already answering many prayers and blessings pouring out on them. They will continue to lean into Him for strength and wisdom. As Jessica feels better, she will be journaling her healing journey on her Caring Bridge web site https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessicaheigh, so please check their for updates.

Ways to help!

Meal Train- please visit the Caring Bridge link above and click the tab marked “ways to help”. Days will be added weekly for meals depending on when Jessica‘s chemo sessions are.

Gift cards:

Amazon- Jess has a wish list going (please ask me for the link)

Walmart and Target gift cards- they will be taking advantage of grocery online order and pick-up

Costco or general Visa gift cards

Words can not express the support they are all ready receiving. Thank you for taking the time to read Jessica's story so far. I leave you with these words that I believe we will be able to testify to over and over again.

Our God is a God of Miracles!