Lifesaving Surgery for Janine May

Have you ever had a friend that you knew most of your life? Someone that even though you didn’t see often, you could pick up the phone and talk and it would be like you just talked yesterday? That’s my friendship with Janine. We met when she was 14, I was 18. That was 48 years ago. She still lives in Ohio, but I relocated to New Jersey 21 years ago. We’ve been through good times together and bad times. I can honestly say the majority of our friendship has been filled with joy and laughter. But there is a shadow hanging over our friendship now. That shadow is called Ovarian Cancer. Janine has been fighting this ugly disease for almost five years. We thought she had it beat three years ago. She went into remission. That lasted for two whole years. But now it’s back. It’s growing. Her doctors at Cancer Treatment Center of America, Chicago, say her best hope to get healthy is a procedure called HIPEC surgery. They will open her up, remove the tumors that are on her spleen, liver, diaphragm and any others they see. Then they will insert heated chemo in her abdominal cavity for two hours. This will kill off any remaining cancer cells.  This procedure was approved in 1999 by the FDA. It has been performed successfully many times. Janine has even spoken to women who have had it done and are now living healthy lives. The difference between those women and Janine? Their insurance company covered the procedure. Janine was three days away from the surgery on March 20, 2018, when Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey denied the claim. Their reason? It’s experimental. I don’t understand how something that has been practiced for 20 years can be called experimental, but that is their ruling. All appeals have been exhausted. Janine and her husband are now trying to determine some means to fund this procedure out of their pockets. They are middle class people and already have some heavy medical debt due to her previous treatments. (Her yearly deductible alone is $5,000.00!) We had a miracle on March 27, 2018. Thanks to a nurse at the insurance company, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield agreed to pay for the surgery to remove all the cancer that the surgeon possibly could. They still refused to pay for the HIPEC procedure, which is really the lifesaver. So Janine and her husband opted to go ahead with the surgery and figure out how to pay the $35,000.00 price tag on the HIPEC. On April 4, the surgery and HIPEC was performed and it has truly been a lifesaver! The doctors have been amazed at how well she has done! But the bill still needs to be paid! That's why this fundraiser. Can you help?