Helping Hand for Team Keegan

What does living with a chronic life limiting illness look like? It looks like trying to get out of bed each day and not being sure if you can or want to. It looks like trying treatment that is offered, knowing that your body is failing. It is knowing that your time is shorter than you hoped and not being able to plan too far into the future. For families it looks like trying to juggle family, work, personal life, finances, a home, and trips to chemo or radiation, medical appointments, inpatient unit hospitalizations and expensive trips to the pharmacy for medication and medical supplies. It is looking at short term rehabs, praying for no infections, and wondering what is ahead. The constant strain for patients and their caregivers can’t be underestimated. For that reason, I asked Kim and her family if it was alright for me to put together a Go Fund Me page for them. Team Keegan is Geri’s family and their journey in the fight against cholangiocarcinoma. Cholangiocarcinoma is a malignant cancer that starts in the bile ducts. Geri and her family have worked to raise awareness of this rare and hard to diagnose cancer since Geri’s diagnosis. They give back to so many around them including coordinating chemo comfort bags for cancer patients and when Geri was well she regularly donated hats to the MGH Cancer Center. Now is our opportunity to help ease some of this difficult time for them. Unfortunately, the aggressive cancer and 3+ years of chemo and radiation has taken an unrepairable toll on Geri’s body causing continued hospital stays. In the last five months she has endured five hospitalizations, four of which were two weeks or longer. The financial toll it has taken on Geri and her family is enormous since she was first diagnosed in 2013. The doctors have told her and her family that she’s getting sicker. They pray every day to have as much time together as possible. I’m requesting that you donate what you can to help with things like parking, tolls, gas, meals, and hotel stays so that Geri’s family can spend as much time with her as possible. If you can give more to allow Geri’s daughters the flexibility of taking time off when it’s needed, it would be a huge help. I grew up with Kim in Holliston MA, where she and Geri reside. I work in Palliative Care and see the struggles families face. Please help make the struggle a little less stressful.