One day, after a seemingly routine trip to the dentist, Julia discovered she had a rare type of cancer in her jaw.  It was an absolute shock and was the beginning of a long and winding medical journey!  The doctors immediately scheduled her for a complex surgery to remove the tumor which involved removing part of her jaw.  They had to remove a bone from Julia's left leg to reconstruct her jaw.  The surgery was successful, and Julia was discharged home.  Her recovery was complicated by a severe infection in her neck, and she was readmitted to the hospital.

 Initially the doctors thought that the surgery would remove all the cancer, but they discovered that it was behaving aggressively and had metastasized to a lymph node and was attacking the surrounding bone.  Now Julia is undergoing daily radiation therapy.  It's a long and difficult treatment regimen with painful and unpleasant side-effects.  She is also having acupuncture, speech and physical therapy, and works with a nutritionist to help manage the side effects of radiation.  Once the radiation therapy is complete Julia will need intensive rehabilitation to regain function to be able to eat and return to work and school. 

 As you probably heard, Julia was pursuing her MBA full time while working as a per diem employee at UCSF.  Some of you may not know this, but as a per diem employee, Julia does not qualify for state disability.   She also does not get medical benefits through her employer and needs to provide her own insurance.  So, the medical bills keep coming in while the income is not, and Julia has had to live on her savings.

Julia's friends decided to create this GoFundMe page (with Julia's permission), because many of you have asked: "What can I do and how can I help?".  This will give people a chance to help and to send good wishes her way. 

Supporting Julia in this rough time would help her afford to pay for health insurance, co-payments and other medical expenses.  These expenses include acupuncture, lymphedema therapy, and manual therapy to mitigate scar formation, and to regain strength and range of motion in her neck and jaw.  She will also be able to benefit from functional medicine to decrease the probability that the cancer will return.  These treatments are mostly not covered by health insurance. 

 Let Julia know that you are thinking of her!

Thank you for helping our dear friend!  Your generosity will not only help offset Julia’s medical expenses, it will help her recover more fully, with greater dignity.  Hopefully she will emerge from this ordeal more whole!

 Caroline, Sonja and Deena.