Help Sammi Beat Cancer!
Donation protected
Hello, everyone. My name is Ryan.
A lot of us no doubt experienced a harrowing 2020, but even as that rather apocalyptic year began to fade into the rear view, my very good friend Sammi was forced to confront a new set of challenges going in to 2021.
Around New Year's Eve 2020, Sammi complained of severe abdominal pain. She had been having this pain in lesser degrees on and off for a few months prior to New Year's, but each time regarded these prior bouts as indigestion and didn't think much of them. This time, though, there was blistering pain accompanied by a very high fever. Consequently, Sammi was rushed to the Emergency Room on New Year's Day 2021, and she spent almost a week there as medical personnel assessed her situation. Given her symptoms and the current state of world affairs, she was tested for COVID-19 four times and tested negative each time.
Because her pain was originating from her abdomen, doctors ordered both an endoscopy and a colonoscopy. It was during these procedures that doctors discovered a foreign mass in her intestine, which was biopsied. The biopsy made Sammi's condition known. She had a very rare form of intestinal lymphoma--peripheral T-cell lymphoma, part of a family called clonal mature T-cell proliferation.
Once Sammi's condition became known, she began to seek out cancer specialists. Sammi lives in Orlando, Florida; and is working as a Commercial Bus Driver for Walt Disney World while she is in school pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor herself. Given the array of medical treatment facilities around her and her own health insurance with Disney, Sammi thought she was in good hands.
Sammi first saw a gastroenterologist, who told her that her cancer was so rare that he had never seen it in his thirty years of medical practice. She was then bounced to a hematologist, who told Sammi that he had only seen her particular form of cancer three other times in his medical career, and that he didn't feel comfortable treating it. As a result, the hematologist referred her to the same facility he had referred his other three patients to with the same cancer--Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.
She called Moffitt in an effort to set up ongoing treatments. It was at this point in Sammi's quest that the ugly underbelly of American insurance-based healthcare was revealed. The receptionist on the phone told Sammi that they don't work with Disney's insurance. Sammi tried to explain the urgency of her situation, but this effort proved fruitless. Sammi was rudely told that she could either self-pay or go somewhere else.
Sammi then sought the advice of her boyfriend's father, an esteemed doctor and medical research professional in his own right. He recommended that she try going to Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville. This facility is almost a two hour drive from where Sammi currently resides. This is not a problem, of course--Sammi is willing to go wherever she needs to go to get treatment. She just never fathomed that a cancer center near her hometown of Orlando would reject her on account of her working for Orlando's Walt Disney World.
As I write this, we are a week away from entering March 2021. Sammi has not had any cancer treatments to date. She is busy gathering her medical history and faxing paperwork to Shands, hoping that they will eventually help her. During this waiting period, she and her mother are at home trying to iron out contingency plans; diligently researching other facilities that might be able to help her. Sammi and her mother sought out M.D. Anderson in Texas, only to be told that they were not currently researching or treating this type of cancer.
In the meantime, Sammi is suffering in silence. She is feeling more and more exhausted and socially isolated by the day. She decided to slow down a bit after struggling at a social outing recently with her boyfriend and a couple of their mutual friends.
Sammi may feel some embarrassment that I am starting this on her behalf, but I can't wait any more. I refuse to allow her condition to deteriorate when I know there are people out there that want to help. I met Sammi's boyfriend when we were both freshmen in college more than ten years ago. We go back a ways. I owe almost my entire social circle to him alone. He has been dating Sammi for three years, so I have known Sammi for that long myself. My mutual friends and I travel to Orlando every so often to see them, so this news really stung. Sammi is one of the most down to Earth people I have ever met. She and her parents have always been gracious to me, welcoming me to stay with them for a few nights while I was in the area recently.
Sammi is a fighter, and I have faith that she will win this battle, but it's really hard to suffer in silence by yourself. She needs your help. All donations received from this fundraiser will be used to help with the inevitable travel expenses that will arise from Sammi's treatments at Shands (or wherever she ends up going), as well as the treatments themselves, whether that is chemotherapy, stem cell transplants, or even experimental treatments somewhere. Hopefully we don't make it to the experimental regimen. Hopefully we can knock this thing out early with more conventional treatments. We just don't know where this is going, but obviously it's better to have ready access to funds if the unforeseen arises.
I am also hopeful that if this fundraiser reaches enough people, someone else may be able to recommend a facility somewhere, a doctor, or course of treatment that she and her family might consider. As previously stated, Sammi is willing to travel. She is all ears.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Ryan (Sammi's Friend)
A lot of us no doubt experienced a harrowing 2020, but even as that rather apocalyptic year began to fade into the rear view, my very good friend Sammi was forced to confront a new set of challenges going in to 2021.
Around New Year's Eve 2020, Sammi complained of severe abdominal pain. She had been having this pain in lesser degrees on and off for a few months prior to New Year's, but each time regarded these prior bouts as indigestion and didn't think much of them. This time, though, there was blistering pain accompanied by a very high fever. Consequently, Sammi was rushed to the Emergency Room on New Year's Day 2021, and she spent almost a week there as medical personnel assessed her situation. Given her symptoms and the current state of world affairs, she was tested for COVID-19 four times and tested negative each time.
Because her pain was originating from her abdomen, doctors ordered both an endoscopy and a colonoscopy. It was during these procedures that doctors discovered a foreign mass in her intestine, which was biopsied. The biopsy made Sammi's condition known. She had a very rare form of intestinal lymphoma--peripheral T-cell lymphoma, part of a family called clonal mature T-cell proliferation.
Once Sammi's condition became known, she began to seek out cancer specialists. Sammi lives in Orlando, Florida; and is working as a Commercial Bus Driver for Walt Disney World while she is in school pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor herself. Given the array of medical treatment facilities around her and her own health insurance with Disney, Sammi thought she was in good hands.
Sammi first saw a gastroenterologist, who told her that her cancer was so rare that he had never seen it in his thirty years of medical practice. She was then bounced to a hematologist, who told Sammi that he had only seen her particular form of cancer three other times in his medical career, and that he didn't feel comfortable treating it. As a result, the hematologist referred her to the same facility he had referred his other three patients to with the same cancer--Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.
She called Moffitt in an effort to set up ongoing treatments. It was at this point in Sammi's quest that the ugly underbelly of American insurance-based healthcare was revealed. The receptionist on the phone told Sammi that they don't work with Disney's insurance. Sammi tried to explain the urgency of her situation, but this effort proved fruitless. Sammi was rudely told that she could either self-pay or go somewhere else.
Sammi then sought the advice of her boyfriend's father, an esteemed doctor and medical research professional in his own right. He recommended that she try going to Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville. This facility is almost a two hour drive from where Sammi currently resides. This is not a problem, of course--Sammi is willing to go wherever she needs to go to get treatment. She just never fathomed that a cancer center near her hometown of Orlando would reject her on account of her working for Orlando's Walt Disney World.
As I write this, we are a week away from entering March 2021. Sammi has not had any cancer treatments to date. She is busy gathering her medical history and faxing paperwork to Shands, hoping that they will eventually help her. During this waiting period, she and her mother are at home trying to iron out contingency plans; diligently researching other facilities that might be able to help her. Sammi and her mother sought out M.D. Anderson in Texas, only to be told that they were not currently researching or treating this type of cancer.
In the meantime, Sammi is suffering in silence. She is feeling more and more exhausted and socially isolated by the day. She decided to slow down a bit after struggling at a social outing recently with her boyfriend and a couple of their mutual friends.
Sammi may feel some embarrassment that I am starting this on her behalf, but I can't wait any more. I refuse to allow her condition to deteriorate when I know there are people out there that want to help. I met Sammi's boyfriend when we were both freshmen in college more than ten years ago. We go back a ways. I owe almost my entire social circle to him alone. He has been dating Sammi for three years, so I have known Sammi for that long myself. My mutual friends and I travel to Orlando every so often to see them, so this news really stung. Sammi is one of the most down to Earth people I have ever met. She and her parents have always been gracious to me, welcoming me to stay with them for a few nights while I was in the area recently.
Sammi is a fighter, and I have faith that she will win this battle, but it's really hard to suffer in silence by yourself. She needs your help. All donations received from this fundraiser will be used to help with the inevitable travel expenses that will arise from Sammi's treatments at Shands (or wherever she ends up going), as well as the treatments themselves, whether that is chemotherapy, stem cell transplants, or even experimental treatments somewhere. Hopefully we don't make it to the experimental regimen. Hopefully we can knock this thing out early with more conventional treatments. We just don't know where this is going, but obviously it's better to have ready access to funds if the unforeseen arises.
I am also hopeful that if this fundraiser reaches enough people, someone else may be able to recommend a facility somewhere, a doctor, or course of treatment that she and her family might consider. As previously stated, Sammi is willing to travel. She is all ears.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Ryan (Sammi's Friend)
Organizer and beneficiary
Ryan Thompson
Organizer
Orlando, FL
Samantha Alberigi
Beneficiary