Help Jen Melvin & family with out of pocket medical expenses

Imagine waking up on any given day and being faced with the possibility of experiencing a host of unprovoked medical symptoms such as mouth sores/cold sores, neurological symptoms effecting your face, arms or eyes, neck pain, headache, malaise, flu like symptoms, head pressure, severe “roaring” or “buzzing” in the head/ear with dizziness, severe sound sensitivity, nausea, fever, head pressure/fullness unprovoked spinning vertigo episodes that last for hours, sudden adrenaline rush, flushing all over, feeling clammy, heart racing, blood pressure spikes, tunnel vision, the feeling of fading away! It sounds like a horrible day!

Now imagine living with these symptoms for more than a decade and for them now to have progressed to the point where you are a young working mother with a family that is unable to get out of bed for any length of time. So debilitating that you miss key moments in your young daughters life, special events, time with friends, the symptoms are now so incapacitating that you work from bed to be able to continue to provide for your family and support the healthcare system that employs you.

The same healthcare system that Jen has been navigating to get a diagnosis and her quality of life back. She has seen Internal Medicine, ENT, Infectious Disease, Immunology, Cardiology and Neurology endless trips to her family physician and the emergency room. Many invasive tests and many disappointments in the healthcare system.

This is the current life experience of our friend, Jen Melvin. She has been navigating this health crisis for more than a decade, it has now progressed to the point of needing

specialized care that cannot be provided in Nova Scotia or Canada.

Her family has suffered tremendous financial strain to get a diagnosis for Jen. Desperate to get answers Jen has sought out her own specialist both in Canada and the US. In August of this year she made the decision, along with husband Jonathan, to travel to the US for consultation with the Mayo Clinic to seek answers. After intensive investigation and consultation, they left with specialists suggesting her symptoms are attributed to a Cerebral Spinal Fluid Leak. The recommendation is to have a specialized test called a Photon-

Counting CT Myelogram (PCCT). This will allow the healthcare team to look at areas

around Jen’s spinal cord and spinal canal. The purpose is to detect the CSF leak or the possible fistula that is causing these debilitating symptoms and allow treatment to occur. Of course, seeking care in the United States is expensive and after several appeals to MSI which have been declined, Jen and Jonathan need to move forward on the path to treatment for Jen.

This is where we as a community come in! We are asking that anyone who has the means to contribute to this fund do so and assist us in getting Jen on the road to recovery! She has spent so many hours being her own healthcare advocate, it is time that as a community we step up and help her get across the finish line.