Help The Heal Family
Donation protected
Jenifer and Kassidy met when they were in Jr. High and started dating their sophmore year of High School in 1999. They got married in 2005 and now have 3 beautiful children that are 9, 3, and 1 years of age. The Heal family has had a rough 2015 and could really use your help.
In January of this year, Jen became ill and was unable to hold anything down; food, water, or even the medicine that was being perscribed to her to treat the "severe postpartum depression" and "Cyclic Vommiting Syndrome" that she was diagnosed with after several trips to the ER when the vommiting was not ceasing after 7 weeks straight. She lost close to 20lbs, but the vommiting finally stopped after almost 2 months of not being able to eat or drink anything.
In March, Jen was driving with her 2 littlest ones, when she bagan to feel extremely dizzy and turned back home before she got too far. They rushed her back to the Emergency Room and they determined that she just had a bad case of vertigo, and prescribed her more medication to take. The next 3 months were filled with frustrating doctor's appointments that were leaving them without solid answers, while Jen's mobility/health was declining at a rapid rate, to the point of no longer being able to walk, control her eye movement, and she had a blinding pain that would shoot through her head, neck, and right arm.
Jen was rushed back to the ER and got admitted to the hospital Monday, June 22nd around 9 PM after spending the day in ER having tests/scans done. She had a MRI and a MRA done, along with various mobility tests to see what all was being affected.
The next morning, her neurologist let us know that he found an "abnormal mass" on her 4th ventricle and it is serious. It is not on her brain, it is in her brain, which makes it very difficult to get a biopsy. The neurosurgeon spoke with us that afternoon and gave us some encouraging words.
They ran some more tests and started Physical Therapy right away so that she wouldn't lose anymore mobility. The neurologist said that if he was a betting man, he was 85% sure this is a form of lymphoma, but "the results from the tests hopefully let us know for sure, then we'll know where to go from there." A biopsy was set to be performed the following Saturday morning, and Jen would spend the next 4 days having plasmapheresis and steroid treatments done. On the evening of June 26th, 12 hours before she was to have a brain biopsy, the nuerosurgeon came in to tell the family that he would not be performing the biopsy because he no longer believes it to be cancer based on the results of some preliminary blood and MRI tests that were ran. Feeling beyond confused after the family received an 85% diagnosis not 4 days prior to this conversation, Kassidy asked the doctor, "If it's not cancer, than what is it?" The nuerosergeon was unable to answer directly, but said that he believed it to be some sort of autoimmune disease.
Jen remained in the hospital for the next 2 weeks continuing her plasmapharesis and physical therapy, but most days were filled with fear and anticipation for the results of a blood test that would reveal the kind of autoimmune disease she had. On Wednesday, July 8, Jenifer was officially diagnosed with Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO), an extremely rare autoimmune disease that mimics MS, but attacks the optical nerves, brain stem, and spinal cord. The doctors confessed that this was beyond their scope of treatment because they did not know enough about the disease and advised that we seek a nuerologist from a University Hospital to ensure the best possible care for this little known about disease.
Kassidy spent the next few days writting and calling dozens of neurologists in the area, and found one at UCLA that is currently treating other patients with NMO. The commute from Pomona to UCLA is a little over an hour each way on a good day, but to finally feel like Jen is getting the medical attention that she deserves is priceless.
The money that we are raising to help the Heal family will be used to assist with additional co-pays, insurance premiums, rising gas prices and added mileage driving to treatments and appointments, and lost hours from work. At this point, we are estimating these costs to be around $20,000. There is no such thing as a small donation, so if you could spare $5, the Heal family could really use it.
Thank you all for your love and support, and we ask that you please call or message us before visiting Jenifer at the hospital. This is all very overwhelming, but we are finally getting answers...even if they're scary ones.
In January of this year, Jen became ill and was unable to hold anything down; food, water, or even the medicine that was being perscribed to her to treat the "severe postpartum depression" and "Cyclic Vommiting Syndrome" that she was diagnosed with after several trips to the ER when the vommiting was not ceasing after 7 weeks straight. She lost close to 20lbs, but the vommiting finally stopped after almost 2 months of not being able to eat or drink anything.
In March, Jen was driving with her 2 littlest ones, when she bagan to feel extremely dizzy and turned back home before she got too far. They rushed her back to the Emergency Room and they determined that she just had a bad case of vertigo, and prescribed her more medication to take. The next 3 months were filled with frustrating doctor's appointments that were leaving them without solid answers, while Jen's mobility/health was declining at a rapid rate, to the point of no longer being able to walk, control her eye movement, and she had a blinding pain that would shoot through her head, neck, and right arm.
Jen was rushed back to the ER and got admitted to the hospital Monday, June 22nd around 9 PM after spending the day in ER having tests/scans done. She had a MRI and a MRA done, along with various mobility tests to see what all was being affected.
The next morning, her neurologist let us know that he found an "abnormal mass" on her 4th ventricle and it is serious. It is not on her brain, it is in her brain, which makes it very difficult to get a biopsy. The neurosurgeon spoke with us that afternoon and gave us some encouraging words.
They ran some more tests and started Physical Therapy right away so that she wouldn't lose anymore mobility. The neurologist said that if he was a betting man, he was 85% sure this is a form of lymphoma, but "the results from the tests hopefully let us know for sure, then we'll know where to go from there." A biopsy was set to be performed the following Saturday morning, and Jen would spend the next 4 days having plasmapheresis and steroid treatments done. On the evening of June 26th, 12 hours before she was to have a brain biopsy, the nuerosurgeon came in to tell the family that he would not be performing the biopsy because he no longer believes it to be cancer based on the results of some preliminary blood and MRI tests that were ran. Feeling beyond confused after the family received an 85% diagnosis not 4 days prior to this conversation, Kassidy asked the doctor, "If it's not cancer, than what is it?" The nuerosergeon was unable to answer directly, but said that he believed it to be some sort of autoimmune disease.
Jen remained in the hospital for the next 2 weeks continuing her plasmapharesis and physical therapy, but most days were filled with fear and anticipation for the results of a blood test that would reveal the kind of autoimmune disease she had. On Wednesday, July 8, Jenifer was officially diagnosed with Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO), an extremely rare autoimmune disease that mimics MS, but attacks the optical nerves, brain stem, and spinal cord. The doctors confessed that this was beyond their scope of treatment because they did not know enough about the disease and advised that we seek a nuerologist from a University Hospital to ensure the best possible care for this little known about disease.
Kassidy spent the next few days writting and calling dozens of neurologists in the area, and found one at UCLA that is currently treating other patients with NMO. The commute from Pomona to UCLA is a little over an hour each way on a good day, but to finally feel like Jen is getting the medical attention that she deserves is priceless.
The money that we are raising to help the Heal family will be used to assist with additional co-pays, insurance premiums, rising gas prices and added mileage driving to treatments and appointments, and lost hours from work. At this point, we are estimating these costs to be around $20,000. There is no such thing as a small donation, so if you could spare $5, the Heal family could really use it.
Thank you all for your love and support, and we ask that you please call or message us before visiting Jenifer at the hospital. This is all very overwhelming, but we are finally getting answers...even if they're scary ones.
Organizer
Jenifer Beckman-Heal
Organizer
Pomona, CA