Help Kat in her battle against Crohn’s & Colitis

Danielle Jones is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hello all,

If you’re here because you know Kat, then you know how much light she brings into any room she walks into and how easily her kindness touches the people around her.

If you don’t know Kat, then let me start by saying she is the most caring, fun, hard working and smartest person I know (just to name a few of her incredible qualities).

All Kat wants to do is bring love and joy to the people she surrounds herself with, whether it be family, friends or her wonderful clients.

She works incredibly hard to not only connect with everyone she meets, but to make sure they always have a smile on their face before they part ways.

4 years ago, Kat was diagnosed with a very complex form of Crohn’s disease. Kat has been fighting day in and day out to live life with intense attacks and flare ups every morning, every night and even sometimes throughout the afternoon.

Her doctors struggled to diagnose her when she was originally admitted into the hospital. They removed her appendix unnecessarily and then went on to call her an ‘enigma’ or an ‘odd duck.’

Once she was finally, properly diagnosed, she was put on extremely high doses of a top tier biologic (we were told it would probably be better not to name brands). Unfortunately, her body did not react well to that treatment and over the course of time, the Crohn’s Disease progressed.

She continued to be in and out of the hospital for surgeries every few months.

Over time, Kat began developing new symptoms including, but not limited to, chest pain, severe hive like rashes all over her body, and continued inflammation from head to toe. She even began to lose hearing, but the doctors could not figure out what was happening.

As a response to the new symptoms, the doctors continued to increase her doses of the high strength biologic. This furthered the symptoms and made an already difficult battle even harder.

Kat decided to get a second opinion after over two years of worsening symptoms. She was put on a waitlist and thoroughly interviewed to see if she was qualified to see some of the greatest specialists in Boston. Due to the severity of her condition, she was bumped to the top of the list and was quickly meeting with her new team of doctors. Hope began to peer through the clouds.

It turns out that the original biologic was causing a very severe case of psoriasis all over her body, along with pleurisy in her chest cavity, making it difficult to breathe.

They immediately stopped the medicine and decided to switch to a second tier biologic, hoping this would provide Kat with some relief. Unfortunately, her body had an almost immediate allergic reaction to the second medicine and her calves swelled, as well as the cartilage in her knees.

They discontinued her biologics for a few months to give her body a chance to heal from the additional symptoms.

While the additional symptoms improved over time, the Crohn’s Disease still progressed and spread.

With no relief from the Crohn’s Disease, Kat continued having to go in and out of the hospital for more surgeries on a frequent basis.

In December of 2021, Kat was brought into the hospital to have an ileostomy done. Her doctors collectively decided this was the only way she would get any relief.

In the 3 months that followed a long and difficult recovery from the ileostomy, Kat seemed to be doing well and her quality of life was coming back to her. She was able to work throughout the day and enjoy time with her clients without experiencing any attacks; she was able to maintain hobbies and spend time doing things she was not able to do before. She could take her niece and nephew out to do fun things without having to excuse herself repeatedly throughout their time together. Kat was beginning to find happiness again and enjoy the simple things in life without her body fighting against her.

About 4 weeks ago, Kat began experiencing terrible attacks again and severe abdominal pain, but in different areas than before. Kat returned to the hospital, was given a number of tests and was then diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. They sent her home with more steroids and let her know that she could come back in if things did not get better.

Things did not get better. In fact, they got worse; Kat returned to the hospital just about a week after, having experienced things she had never had trouble with before.

The staff began recognizing her from all the time she had spent in and out of the hospital. They joked that she should be given a ‘frequent flyer’ card for discounted rates and parking.

Kat is still currently in the hospital and has been for over a week; all original imaging done was inconclusive again, so Kat begged the doctors to do a physical exam under anesthesia.

The doctors came back just two days ago with what they described as, “incredible findings.” They found that she was “riddled with ulcers” and that there was an “unbelievable amount of inflammation and swelling.” The ulcers they found were described as “craters” and “filled with infection”. They went on to tell her that all of the tissue was “incredibly diseased.”

Her specialists are currently still putting their heads together to come up with a game plan.

We are eagerly waiting on more tests and information to find out what route Kat has to go down, but her doctor’s ultimate fear is that she may have to have her colon removed entirely and her ileostomy be permanent.

Again, if you know Kat, you know that she never deserved to struggle with this. If you don’t know Kat, I can assure you she is one of the greatest people you’d ever meet.

If you are a client of Kat’s that finds yourself reading this and have been patiently waiting for her to return to work, please know that she is beyond thankful for your kindness, patience and understanding of her needing time to figure these things out and try to restore her quality of life.

As you can imagine, over the years, the medical bills have been quite high and continue to pour in as she tries to find answers and treatment.

Sitting around waiting for answers becomes very costly; it puts a lot of stress on her shoulders knowing that those bills continue to pile up. It’s our goal to help Kat recover some of those finances and to help her pay the new bills that continue to accrue.

We are forever thankful and appreciative of everyone that has supported Kat through this and continue to support her as she battles these autoimmune diseases. For all the new support from people just learning about Kat’s true fight, we thank you as well.

We hope to see Kat’s quality of life restored very soon, as she has only had a very brief period of relief over the last 4 years.

Any little thing helps and we can’t thank you enough for taking the time to read this and share her story.