Jarrod fight cancer!

Hi, My name is Amber Sheehan, and I am fundraising for good friends of mine that have received the news no one wants to receive. Jarrod Shelburne is a dad of two sweet kids, Josh and Jillian. He is also a husband to Jenn Shelburne. They live in McGregor, TX and their children attend Midway ISD. Below I will share Jenn's journal entry on Caring Bridge so you can get an idea of what they are going through and how it all started but first I want to explain.

Jarrod worked in the automotive industry for 13 years doing sales & marketing before deciding to make a change in his career. With a change of that magnitude, you can understand how changes would have to happen, but that didn't stop Jarrod though. He immediately pursued a Texas real estate license and joined his wife in her current industry. Teamed together they make lots of dreams come true for people pursuing homeownership. 

However, once Jarrod decided to take on real estate he is now self-employed with no medical insurance and needs our help. In only a very short period of time, Jarrod's medical bills are unbelievably high. Please read Jenn's journal and see if you can help! We have set up a separate bank acct at TFNB & ALL donations will go straight to this account and help them pay their living and medical expenses while Jarrod and Jenn just focus on getting him better.

Jenn's journal entry:

Where do you even start.. I never thought we would have to do one of these, so I will start at the beginning, so stay with me. This will be the central place for all updates moving forward, just easier to update here!

 

"In January, Jarrod went to the dentist with a toothache. His dentist said it looked like a sinus infection, that had made some of his teeth hurt due to drainage. She gave him antibiotics and sent him on his way. he took them and started to feel better. Fast forward to March, he went into his primary care for a sinus infection, they gave him a steroid shot and an antibiotic. All good felt a little better, and kept going.

 

Now brings us to the current journey. In April Jarrod went to his primary care doctor and they said the same thing, sinus infection let's do this round of steroids in pill form, not a shot. They noticed that his Lymph node on the right of his neck was swollen, just a little though. They sent a request to ENT to get him seen. He goes home and starts the medicine, about 4 days into it he still isn't feeling any better and has noticed the lymph node is a little bigger. By day 7 and a full round of steroids he is not getting any better and the lymph. node is now about the size of a golf ball. The primary care doctor sends over another request for ENT, this time urgent. Jarrod is able to get in the same day to see the ENT. While there they notice he has a mass in his nasal cavity, that they can see on the scope. ENT schedules a lymph node biopsy and nasal biopsy, with the possibility of full glad removal during nasal surgery.

 

May 4th - Nasal Biopsy, they go in and take a small section and test it with the Pathologist, and it comes back cancerous. They had to stop the surgery, and pack up his nose and were not able to remove the mass.

 

May 9th - Lymph Node biopsy

 

May 10th - Review of findings. Met with the ENT who then confirmed that the cells were cancerous. We were still waiting on the final results.

 

Since then, everything has been in HYPER OVERDRIVE! We have found out that he has Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. This type is very rare and aggressive, so the Oncology team is treating it very aggressively. We have met with both the Chemotherapy team and Radiation team to put a plan together.

 

Plan: 5 Cycles (every 21 days) of Chemotherapy [ 15 weeks ], 33 treatments of Radiation (Mon - Fri at 5-7 minutes each time) 7-7.5 weeks. Radiation will start on the 2nd cycle of chemotherapy.

 

Monday, May 23rd - Jarrod will go in to have his Chemo Port placed

 

Tuesday, May 24th - Start his first round of Chemo.

 

They are treating it with what the Oncologist said was the old school chemo, so there may be hair loss, weight loss, vomiting, ect. We need Jarrod to not lose more than 10% (20lbs) of his body weight during his treatments or they will have to put a PEG Tube (feeding tube in his belly) to ensure he is getting nutrients. The Radiation will start to hurt his throat over time, and burn a little. His throat will become raw and hard for him to swallow. They stated this could start after week 2 of Radiation.

 

If you are still with me, thanks for sticking through, I know this is a lot of info but I need to get it out of my mind and onto paper.

 

Many of you know, that I have a servant's heart and do not ask for help but will always help where I can. With that being said, I know some may want to help, and we appreciate and thank you now, just don't ask me or I will tell you no. Meal trains will not work for us, due to the fact that Jarrod may not be able to swallow well. If you want to donate gift cards to grocery stores, amazon, target, Walmart, GNC, Jamba juice will all be so very helpful. Your prayers are the most welcome thing at this time!

 

I will keep you updated on all of this as we go.

 

Love,

 

Jenn"

Jarrods CaringBridge Journal By Jenn