10/18/2023 Update - A Message From Her Mom Gina

Just last Friday, Oct. 13th, we received the news we didn’t want to hear. Jaque’s blood cancer is worse and spreading fast in her liver.

As a mother with a child, no matter the age, who is battling cancer, and in Jaque’s case a life-long battle, is the most challenging and unique life experience a mother goes through. There are no words to explain how I feel - my sorrow, frustration, sadness (so many other words) as I watch my daughter suffer and there is absolutely nothing I can do to make her better. As a mother, I can’t even donate my own cells to help her. With her multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, there are many treatments, and my baby Jaque has done many – including a bone marrow transplant 2 years ago that was a difficult and painful recovery for Jaque and it didn’t work! Jaque is a young 38-year-old beautiful, caring, loving, young lady. I am proud how she has been a great warrior through her cancer journey.

As you may have read last year, they found a small 2.0cm mass (multiple myeloma cancer mass) in her liver. She did radiation, continued with her maintenance medications (takes 2 of them) and did chemo once a week then chemo changed to 1 time a month this year in May because there were no new cancer cells growing.

Several weeks ago, Jaque started feeling more tired than usual, as well as more body pain, especially in her abdomen. On October 6th her PET scan showed a 7.6cm cancerous mass insider her liver. Her oncologist at Ironwood immediately called the Mayo to request that Jaque get on the CAR T-cell transplant procedure list. On October 11th the MRI of the liver further showed 2 other masses growing that are 1.2 and 1.3cm as well as multiple other masses and blood clots. There is now an urgency for Jaque to get the CAR T-cell transplant to help fight her MM but knowing that people don’t always get it because there is a long list of patients needing it, just overwhelms me with sadness for my baby Jaque. We are hoping that they choose her as a good candidate for the procedure.

As we prepare for the procedure and try to prepare for Jaque’s health to slowly get worse. I want to be by her side every minute and I know her husband and kids do too when she has her transplant or when she has any hospitalization stays. During Jaque’s cancer journey she and her family have had many financial challenges because they still must pay for the thousands of dollars for the dozen or so different medications she must take, gas money to go to many doctor appointments, keep up with the house bills, and Jason’s unpaid days off work when he cares for Jaque or just to be by her side – because mentally she needs someone there with her.

I want to thank everyone for their past financial and other support for my baby Jaque and her family.

I could tell you more about my baby Jaque and how wonderful my relationship is with my her but it would take many pages to do so – maybe I will write a book someday about this journey.

Jaque is a warrior and a beautiful person, who needs your support. We are re-posting the original GoFundMe that Jaque’s sister Brandi created at the beginning. If you could share this with your family and friends, we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you everyone!!

8/1/20 

**This gofundme is for Jaque Henry. Funds will be received by our mother, Gina Vacanari who handles Jaque’s medical bills. 

Recently my sister in Arizona, Jaque, was having back pain and was left extremely uncomfortable to the point of having to miss work. Prior to this, she had to miss days working the front line at a pediatrics office because some of our family members tested positive for COVID. She had chest pain and breathing complication so she got tested, luckily the results were negative.  

Friday, July 31st, she went to the emergency room because she lost feeling in her arms and hands. After CT scans and an MRI, they identified a mass on her spine. The doctors identified it was a tumor on her spine that deteriorated a bone on her spine between her neck and back, more specifically between her C7 and T1 which connects the cervical spine and thoracic spine. They said that if she had waited any longer to come in to the hospital, she likely would have become paralyzed. She is currently in a neck brace to keep her stable and still. Since this is a delicate surgery because the tumor deteriorated her bone and an implant is needed, she has to wait until this following Tuesday or Wednesday to hopefully get the surgery to remove the tumor on her spine and also have it biopsied to see exactly what it is. Obviously, we hope it is benign, but worst-case scenario is that there is a possibility that this could be cancer and we will have to navigate the next steps if or when that time comes.  

No matter the outcome, she will be out of work for a total of about 1 month so far. She is a loving wife and mother of 4 children with a mortgage. Arizona was hit really hard with the pandemic and life is already stressful enough in this time. I know that a majority of people are dealing with financial, emotional, family, job/career, and health struggles of all sorts as is, but anything will help her family hopefully have some peace of mind at least with finances while they deal with what’s to come.  

She is currently in the care of Thunderbird Hospital in Glendale, Arizona which is where she chose to go because this is where she had her 4 children.

They have always taken great care of her and she said they are taking great care of her now as well.

When we have an estimate on current medical bills, because we all know insurance and PTO (if those are even an option right now) only cover so much, the amount on this GoFundMe may be raised to help her cover those as well. Medical bills can be crippling. I’m hoping we can at least get ahead of even one bill and help her and her family in this difficult time. 

Updates on her condition, surgeries, biopsy, results, and everything else will be posted here as well. 

Even if you can’t donate, if you could please share, it would mean the world us. 

This GoFundMe will be linked to my mom, Gina’s, account since she is in Arizona and physically closer to my sister and her family and be able to distribute the funds directly to bills, food, necessities, and medical bills for my sister.  

Thank you.