Jesus Gauna is a father of 3 adult children, a grandpa to 6 granddaughters, and a very hard-working husband.

In January of 2022 Jesus started complaining of rib pain. He went and got checked and was informed that it was probably a pulled muscle of some sort and began taking a muscle relaxer. Jesus proceeded to have more pain for weeks to come and was trying to take it easy but the pain was just getting worse.

One day while Jesus was home, he sneezed and got stuck. A simple sneeze caused his back to break. Not in one place, but 3 different spots. That led to a lot more testing with a result of Multiple Myeloma, a blood cancer.

Multiple Myeloma is a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. Healthy plasma cells help you fight infections by making antibodies that recognize and attack germs. In Multiple Myeloma, cancerous plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells.

Jesus and his wife Lupita then made the difficult decision that their best option would be to leave the farm life in Kansas and move to Nebraska where their daughter is. She lives a 30 minute drive from the Fred and Pamela Buffet Hospital and is able to provide Jesus and his wife with a place to stay without worries of paying rent. Obviously Jesus isn’t able to work and Lupe is not working at this time so she is able to care for her husband.

Jesus has completed 12 rounds of chemo and has a stem cell transplant scheduled for July 25, 2022. He will be in the hospital for about 3 weeks, then will do the remaining 10 months of recovery at his daughters home. Once he is well enough, he will start physical therapy to help with his broken back and to build up his strength.

While Jesus is on the right track with recovery, he won’t know until summer 2023 with the repeat testing if he has gone into remission.

In summary, Jesus and Lupe have worked hard their entire lives in agriculture and farm work outdoors. Now they have found themselves in a situation of needing support for groceries, fuel, phone, and even dental work for Lupe.

If you feel you can give at this very difficult time, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers.