Emily's Fight Against Leukemia

My fiance, Jill Webler, is a fantastic mother to 3 daughters and a son. Unfortunately, her oldest daughter, Emily, has been battling Leukemia over the past two years. While much of Emily's medical bills have been covered by insurance, Jill's ability to earn a steady income over the past two years has been dramatically diminished due to the number of hours Jill has had to dedicate to caring for Emily during this difficult time. I am establishing this GoFundMe to assist Jill with her monthly bills, living expenses, and additional costs she has incurred for the constant travel back and forth to the hospital in Ann Arbor, MI.

Emily was born with Down Syndrome and had her first battle against Leukemia when she was only 2 years old. At that time, she successfully endured 26 months of chemotherapy and was able to remain in remission for the next 19 years. She is now 23, and she has had multiple relapses of the Cancer since early Spring, 2020.

When her Leukemia first returned in the Spring of 2020 (during the height of Covid), the medical team assigned to Emily was able to achieve a short-term remission using traditional chemotherapy and a newer Car-T treatment which used cutting edge science to fight the Cancer. Unfortunately, after the Leukemia returned, another round of chemotherapy and Car-T were administered with no effect. The Leukemia worsened and options were becoming very limited.

It was at this time that a miracle opened up an opportunity. Within a week, Emily went from her Cancer accelerating to her being in COMPLETE remission. Even the doctors at the National Institute of Health were left unable to explain how this occurred. The only explanation they could say was maybe this came from a higher power.

With Emily unexpectedly in remission again, the door was opened for Emily to get on the Bone Marrow Registry as a Bone Marrow Recipient. The doctors warned that due to Emily's Down Syndrome, this procedure would be extremely risky and could only go forward with this if she had a 100% donor match with the best chance of a match being her siblings. They tempered expectations by also letting us know that some people wait many months (or even years) to find a match.

We did the DNA swabs on her siblings and were given the news that none of them were a match to Emily as far as being eligible as a donor. Our last hope was to find a match with some unknown donor. To our surprise, we found out a couple of weeks later that almost 750 perfect donor matches came up for Emily.

Emily's Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) took place on June 30, 2022 with the expectation of Emily being in the hospital for 6-8 weeks of recovery time. We are excited to say the Bone Marrow Transplant itself was a success. Unfortunately, Emily has been hit with a number of obstacles as she has been hit hard by a number of the potential side effects that can come with having a BMT. She has had numerous trips to the ICU during her stay as her body has been ravaged by "graft vs host" disease (the new immune system attacks Emily's skin, organs, etc...), infections from Mersa, TMA attacking her lungs, sleep issues, heart and blood pressure issues, and constant blood transfusions to keep her blood counts up. With each trip to the PICU, Emily's muscle has atrophied further - making her weaker by the day.

As Emily continues to fight and overcome the various obstacles she faces, her admission in the hospital continues to be extended further and further out. We have already surpassed the original 6-8 week projection, and based upon the amount of physical therapy she needs along with the other medical issues they need to stablize before she can go home, we are projecting a minimum of another 3-4 weeks in the hospital before Emily can come home.

However, getting home is only the next step in her recovery. It will be another 3-6 months of full-time care needed for Emily once she is home as we work on strengthening her, helping her to learn how to walk and take care of her personal hygiene again so she can regain the level of independence she once had. As you can imagine, this will further strain Jill's availability to work and earn money to pay for her monthly bills and living expenses.

This GoFundMe is being set up to help Jill cover the costs associated with monthly bills and living expenses as Jill tries to focus on Emily's care during this time. As mentioned previously, Emily has Down Syndrome, and she requires a parent to be present 24/7 while both in and out of the hospital. Emily has already spent several months in the hospital, and with a minimum of another 3-6 months required for her recovery, the funds from this GoFundMe will go directly to Jill Webler to assist her with her reduction in earnings during this time.