Help Shari (Jenny and the Bets) Get Her Life Back

Hello, friends and family of our friend Shari, (known to many of you as ‘Jenny and the Bets’). I am writing this on her behalf, because as you can imagine, she is not one to easily ask for help. Shari is someone who has always braved storms on her own, but there are some things in life that undeniably require help from loved ones and community, and this is no doubt a dire situation.

Shari has been battling unthinkable health issues over the past 2+ years, and Canadian healthcare has truly failed our friend. To put it bluntly, she is dying, wasting away, and without medical help outside of Canada, we do not know what the next year looks like.

Shari has been diagnosed and misdiagnosed over and over, and has been subjected to several unnecessary surgeries, including the removal of several organs in an attempt to guess what might be causing her the debilitating pain she has been living with. However, even after many surgeries, they have yet to offer a proper diagnosis and/or solution. Currently the pain leaves her with the inability to eat most days (resulting in drastic and dangerous weight loss), sit, bend, twist or move without excruciating pain. Her quality of life is nearly intolerable, but if you know our girl, you know that she continues to put on a brave face and make us all laugh.

Shari also struggles with Lupus and at the start of this hellish journey, the doctors wanted to blame all of her symptoms on her Lupus. They found though, that her Lupus inflammation numbers had actually never been better. When they hit a wall with incorrect Lupus assumptions, she was told it is a ‘woman’s issue’, so she scheduled an appointment to see a gynecologist. After waiting months to be seen, she was told that she was only there because she ‘didn’t have a penis’, and offered no solution to her growing pain. Doctors doubted the severity of the situation, and even blamed her pain on mental health issues (after removing organs from her, mind you), which couldn’t have been further from the truth. They then diagnosed her with MS, which was a devastating blow, however at least it offered some potential answers. Only for them to retract the diagnosis once again. To say this medical mystery has been frustrating for our girl, would be an epic understatement.

She went from being a powerlifter, holding a high-level union position, a full time job, playing sports, being outdoors with her dog Alfie, socializing with friends, dating, and being a human living an active human life, to being bed-ridden and only able to make it through each day with the help of nerve-blockers, heavy narcotics and Twitter.

Her pain has consistently been in her right ribcage. It is so tight and constricted, that it is crushing her insides. She has been looking in the US and Europe for additional and alternative medical care and scouring online forums to try to find people who may be experiencing anything similar.

There is a Doctor in the states who might be able to help her, a much needed glimmer of hope that at the very least a proper diagnosis could be made. And even more-so, a course of actionable treatment that actually would help not only her quality of life, but to also save her life. This might include a surgery that would cost upwards of $50,000, not including travel, recovery time and lost wages from nor working. Shari was able to get an appointment for February 2025, but is also on a cancellation list to hopefully get in sooner. She, her many therapists and most recently her Nerve Specialist suspects that this could be slipped rib syndrome and anterior cutaneous nerve entrapment syndrome, and if they are correct, this doctor could not only diagnose her properly, but hopefully begin the repair and rehabilitation process.

This is where we come in, friends. The out-of-country travel, surgery and care is not cheap, but well worth it if it will help her recover. She would willingly trade any of her worldly possessions for her life back. She has spent $20k of her savings on physical therapies, massage therapies, alternative therapies, and travelling for medical care. She has been forced to be on disability for the past 2 years as her health has rapidly declined, spending up to 20 hours a day in bed. Every donation truly can help our girl get to the US, and to get her life back. This community we have here is truly something special in times like this, and I know we can come together to get Shari on the road to recovery. Please consider donating–any amount helps. Please share and retweet this, so that we can rally our incredible community around one of our household favorites. All and any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you so much.