Our beloved Jen White needs your help to recover from heart surgery! I suspect most of you reading this can remember a time when she was "there for you". Now is the time to pay that kindness forward, no amount is too small, no gesture of goodwill will go unappreciated!
Her heart surgery is coming up in just a few days and the cupboards and coffers are growing bare. It's time to swallow the pride pill and reach out for a little help from the community.
For more of the back story that lead us here, please keep reading.
So here's the situation: our beloved Jennifer White aka "Mother to us All" was diagnosed with a heart condition known as atrial fibrillation
(or AFib) last March. She will be undergoing surgery and has a long recovery journey ahead.
Jen has always been one to give back. To her family and friends and to the community at large. From her early days in Provincetown working with events like Sisters in the Name of Love to 20 years of co-organizing the Kook Toy Drive. That doesn't take into account all the times she opened her door to friends in need of an ear to listen, a couch to crash on, a job, advice, a laugh, a cry, a plate of her famous comfort food-she has been and always is there for us ALL and now we need to be there for HER.
Her heart condition is causing shortness of breath, dizziness, heart palpitations/racing heart, chest pain, and just general weakness and wooziness all over. We figured between the bladder cancer, thyroid nodules, uterine cancer, arthritis and plantar fasciitis she had been tested ENOUGH. But nooooo, they had to go and throw AFib into the mix.
Unfortunately, her condition did not really improve much with the medication and lifestyle changes that she made. She was alive but by no means was she kicking. After the CC healthcare system gave her a bit of a run around, we finally got her up to Boston to meet a cardiologist. They recommended she undergo a surgery called "pulse field ablation". This procedure will use rapid electrical pulses in a minimally invasive way to allow weak veins to close and stronger ones to work properly again. Minimally invasive but it's still heart surgery, you know what I mean?
On top of all the heart crap she also has posterior tibial dysfunction, tarsal tunnel syndrome and bone spurs on both feet. She has not been able to do PT for these yet. Per doctors orders it all needs to wait until after heart surgery. SO a long road of surgical recovery made even longer by the physical therapy looming in the future. We hope she is "back on her feet" by summer, but who knows...
I know it is a tough time of year to be asking. I know the world is wounded right now. I know this Winter is dragging us all to the brink!! But if you can remember a time when your life was made a tiny bit better by having Jen White on your side, please donate what you can towards her recovery fund. And if you cannot donate right now that's ok too. Maybe reach out with a call or text to let her know how much she means to you and that you're thinking of her. You know she would never ask for help like this if it wasn't dire. Thanks for reading this long tale. Thank you for loving my mom. Thank you for all the support, always. Love you guys!