After Jill’s stage four cancer diagnosis last summer, finding out she has an inoperable brain tumor in December, and surviving multiple strokes this Spring, she has been left severely impaired. She is now at Morning Breeze Nursing Home getting the care and therapy she needs. She is finally seeing improvements, but still needs medical equipment to get her in and out of bed and into her wheelchair, still relies on a feeding tube, her voice remains hard to understand, and her body is still incredibly weak, with movement on the right side very limited.
Jill wants to resume her cancer treatment and, more generally, she wants to start living her life again, not just survive - she wants to go to concerts, baseball games, and see friends and family.
With a van, Jill could achieve these goals - having the transportation she needs to attend her medical appointments, treatment, and scans in Indianapolis AND regain a sense of freedom to live her life.
However, vans are expensive, and with other medical bills piling up, funds are limited to allocate to a new vehicle, which is why we are raising funds for a fully accessible van.
Every dollar helps. Your prayers, cards, and support in other ways have meant so very much to us, and we are so grateful for our community and any support you can provide.
With the end goal of getting her home, this van would be the first step in making that a reality and would enable her to resume her treatment and regain the freedom she’s lost.
While Jill’s future remains uncertain with her neuroendocrine cancer and incurable brain tumor, all we can do is make sure she can live to her fullest potential today.
Our Full Story
When Jill was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer last August, it felt like the odds were against us. This type of cancer is rare, affecting only 1 in 100,000 people. When we found out the news and that Jill’s cancer had spread and was stage four, we were scared, but ready to take it head-on. Jill went through four rounds of chemotherapy and handled it really well, continuing to work in her role at the Public Library.
In December, Jill started noticing headaches. When you asked her oncologist about them and asked if the cancer could have gotten to her brain, they wrote her off and said this type of cancer “doesn’t go to the brain”. They were wrong; it does, it's just incredibly rare, happening in only 3% of cases.
Later that month, Jill went for her scan to check how the tumors were responding to the treatment. We were all incredibly nervous about the results. When her oncologist called, he said, " We have gotten most of the results back, and we see significant shrinkage in all of the tumors.” It was the greatest relief of our lives - maybe we would be okay, maybe we could fight this thing.
That all came crashing down just 30 minutes later when the doctor called back and said, “We just got the results from the brain scan, and it’s gone to your brain. Pack a bag and come to the hospital now. Don’t eat or drink anything, as you may need to go into brain surgery”. Our world stopped that day. We were all in shock.
We made it to the Indianapolis hospital, and Jill was rushed into scans. The results were not what we had hoped; the tumor was located on her brain stem - the thing that controls all of your basic movements like speech, swallowing, and moving your body - so it is too dangerous to operate. They said, the best thing we can do is radiate on the area.
Two weeks later, we were at IU’s Simon Cancer Centre, and Jill went for 5 treatments on her brain. Now, all there was to do was wait and hope it worked. As time passed, Jill's body kept getting weaker and weaker; she was losing all strength rapidly, despite her best efforts to maintain it.
On the night of Good Friday, Jill woke up unable to move her right side, including her arm and leg. She had had a stroke-like event caused by the tumor swelling. Strokes happen in 1 in 15 people who have had radiation on the brain. Again, it felt like we were always winning the worst lottery possible.
After that first incident, Jill stayed in the ICU for a week before being released to an acute rehab centre, where she would undergo intensive rehabilitation. Sadly, this was cut short when just a week later, she had another stroke-like event. This time, it was even worse. She could no longer swallow or talk. After several weeks back in the hospital, the doctors said, there is nothing else we can do for the brain tumor, so we advocated to get her back to Greensburg, her home of nearly 30 years, and where her community is.
On May 1st, we arrived at Morning Breeze with a feeding tube, speaking but a few words, and unable to use her right side. For those of you who know Jill, you will know she is incredibly intelligent, resilient, and met her therapy team, and said, I want to fight this, I want to get better, I want to be around.
Thanks to her hard work, support from family and friends, faith, and the absolutely amazing staff at Morning Breeze, Jill has been getting better every day.
Today, her progress continues to amaze us and gives us hope for the future. She is now enjoying pureed foods and can move her right arm for the first time in two and a half months. Each day, she gives 100% in her daily speech and physical therapies. She inspires me and so many others.
While Jill's progress has been remarkable, she still has a lot of recovering to do. She still cannot move independently. She relies on medical equipment to lift her into her chair and bed, still unable to stand without significant support.
Jill has been stable for over two months, and as she improves, she is ready to resume her fight against the cancer. She wants to start her chemo pills again so we can go back to fighting this disease.
We have felt like we were always winning the worst lottery possible. Now we are ready to change our luck. We are ready to beat the odds. And with your help, we believe we can start trying.