Help Jesse whip the Whipple!

My husband Jesse is facing a very serious surgery , the Whipple procedure, that is scheduled for November 30 at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. His doctors are recommending him for the Whipple procedure, which will require removing his duodenum, part of his stomach, and part of his pancreas, to remove cancer on a polyp that was found in his duodenum during an endoscopy in July. This surgery will likely require a 1-2 week stay at MD Anderson, possibly longer if complications arise during surgery. In patients with FAP, the Whipple procedure causes complications in about 20% of all those patients. This procedure should significantly extend Jesse's life expectancy. His doctor even mentioend 50-60 more years of life as being possible.

Jesse has always had higher than average medical expenses beause his FAP (familial adenomatous polyposis) requires upper/lower endoscopys every six months. To read more about FAP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Familial_adenomatous_polyposis Jesse's FAP is particularly aggressive in how it grows polyps, so we have been to MD Anderson 2-3 times a year for the past several years. This time, however our stay is going to be much longer and cost much more money.

The budget for this fundraiser is to help cover the following expenses:

$3,150 to help us meet our insurance out of pocket maximum. Our insurance deductible is met but we still must pay 20% of all expenses after the deductible until we reach our out of pocket maximum, which is $6,950. However, we already spent $3,800 toward this amount because of the 2 endoscopies Jesse had earlier this year.

$1,100 for an Airbnb room for Laura while she is in Houston during Jesse's surgery and recovery (and sometimes Matthew or Kate) to stay for about 2-3 weeks. (The room is currently booked for 3 weeks, but if Laura checks out early the remainder is refunded so that is good)

$350 for parking and food for Laura, as unfortunately even as a patient at MD Anderson, parking is basically $12/day with no in/out priviliges. We are looking into any other ways to get from the room where Laura is staying to MD Anderson each day to avoid parking.

These funds will really help our family out during this time of need. Jesse is currently an engineering technology student at LeTourneau University and hopes very much to still be able to return to complete his final senior semester in Spring 2018 so that he can graduate and obtain a full time engineering job. Thankfully, Laura has enough sick pay saved up so that her income will not change during this time off.

Most importantly, we ask for your prayers for our family during this time, even during the days when we prepare for this disruption in our lives. We would love for you to follow along and pray specifically with us for prayer requests we will share on our CaringBridge website: www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessesprayerteam

We also will have other ways you can help us, like in something simple like clearing out leaves from our yard, helping drive Matthew or Kate to Houston for a visit with Daddy, or bringing us meals when we return home. More information on ways you can help will be on the CaringBridge site in the future.

Thank you so much for your prayer support. If you feel led to give financially, we very much appreciate that as well.

Here's Jesse doing what he does best - being a dad!

Summer remodeling - thankfully this has been completed. No more remodeling for a while until after his recovery.