John’s Battle with Cancer: We Need Your Help

My name is Giovanna Cimaglia and I am the wife of John Cimaglia, the fellow on the above picture. I work full time as a Middle School Spanish Teacher.

My amazing and one of a kind husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 Throat and Neck Cancer in October 2022. These news were devastating to us since we have not been married for a long time but John is a fighter and I supported him since this nightmare started.

At the beginning of our Cancer journey, he received the most aggressive treatment of Chemotherapy, to be more specific, Cisplatin, which is an infusion of platinum administered at three different times of this treatment, and Radiation Therapy daily from Monday through Friday for three months. After this we thought he was in remission but after CT and Pet Scans done by Wellstar, we found out that the Cancer was back. The tumor occupied a third of his tongue. We were told that he could die on the operating room, that many have died with this surgery, not to mention he will be left with a tracheotomy and a speech impediment, but my wonderful husband mustered the courage and decided to move forward with this surgery which had to be robotic due to the unreachable location this tumor was located. Emory was the only hospital that could have performed this surgery. After nine hours in the operating room the surgery was successful; however, the surgeon informed me that he saw a couple of concerning spots in his back, T6 and T11, but told me not to worry because there was only a 3% probability that the Cancer had metastasized to his back, that this was rare. To our dismay when he went back to have a byopsy of these spots on his bones, we were told that indeed his Cancer had metastasized to his bones, that there was nothing they could do anymore but to give him more Chemotherapy and Radiation to extend his life. John clang to life and decided to receive more treatments, even Carboplatin, Paxol, Keytruda, and, lastly, Monoclonal Antibodies. The sad reality was that nothing worked. We gave it our all, but nothing worked. We had to face reality and accept our fate.

Throughout all this time my insurance covered 85% of all his expenses but the rest came from our pockets, and savings. We waged war against this terrible disease for two years now, treatments, surgeries, medication, you name it. This disease is for the wealthy not the working man.

Now, his disease is consuming him day by day. He is in hospice at home. Unfortunately, he has started the dying process and needs 24/7 care, care that I cannot provide because my insurance will not cover this type of care via caregiver who charges $30.00 per hour. And, to make matters worse, I need to keep working because I am the one that pays the bills. John has not worked since he was diagnosed.

I would like everyone to know that despite this tragedy happening to us, I am so grateful to my husband for the amazing love he has shown me through the short years of our marriage, his support, and his loving care, and, also I am very grateful to our Heavenly Father for the gift to have placed my husband in my life, for the strength that He is giving us day by day to endure the unthinkable, and for all our friends everywhere who have been giving a helping hand, time of their own, and prayers. Prayers that have blessed us all these challenging two years.

May God bless you.