Help Jami continue to fight her cancer.
Welcome: Thank you for listening to Jami’s story.
as of 12/01/2023 Jami has been able to get more appointments. It’s been a rough year. Sadly this fight isn’t over.
After Jami’s surgeries this last year there were complications with her muscles in her neck spasming and causing her throat to close off making breathing and eating extremely painful and nearly impossible. Jami has had to go through extensive physical therapy. Not only has it lead to a significant weight loss, but it also has been extremely painful. Getting this situation under control has been her doctors biggest challenge. Slowly it seems to be getting manageable. We are hoping she can get a few calories to stick on now.
Now that it’s becoming more manageable her doctors feel that it’s time to address the remaining cancer. She is scheduled for both and MRI scan and a PET scan. Radiation therapy will start as soon as the nerves in her face start to settle back into working again after they were gently moved to get to the cancer and then replaced. Sadly cancer is complicated. We are just happy that Jami is still strong. Thank you for all the help. Let’s keep going and supporting Jami in these tough times. Hopefully 2024 will be the pivoting point for her.
What happened? Earlier this year, Jami was diagnosed with "metastatic papillary thyroid carcinoma" on the left side of her neck and a "pleomorphic adenoma" on the right side of her neck. This was going to require hours and hours of very risky surgery, as the growths pressed against a major artery in the neck and several nerves that impact the ability for her face to function.
These masses in her neck have been causing her severe pain for months, and needed surgery immediately despite the risks to her life and ability to function.
She did all the “right” things…eating well, sleeping well, exercising, going to doctor appointments and health screenings, and managing her stress. And yet, life is unfair and CANCER SUCKS!
Surgery one - a bit gnarly, but Jami won the first round (few images from the first operation below). Round two - fight: getting to go in for a ~6 hour surgery now.
What can you do now? April 6 update Thank you everyone who has been involved so far. Jami is about to go in for her second surgery, which hopefully is the last for quite some time.
(pre-op stuff)
Unfortunately the initial campaign got derailed by accusations of fraud - for example, the money was going toward playing poker.
Now that we have better visibility into the expenses, here’s why we think the $50K target still makes sense and why we’re hoping to re-ignite the GoFundMe.
- Rent - $1500/mo
- Ubers (e.g., to hospital, groceries) - $500/mo
- Meals (mix of groceries + delivery) - $1000/mo
- Supplements + out of pocket Rx - $500/mo
- Other miscellaneous bills (TV subscriptions, massages to help regain function of lymph nodes in neck, chiropractor) - ~$250/mo
- Other planned expenses: ~$2500
Total = $3750/mo
Current recovery time before being able to work again (e.g., to regain full functionality in face, finish radiation therapy, recover energy levels) - 8-12mo
Estimated expenses to be covered - $32.5-47.5K
As of 05/31/2023 Jami is now facing out of pocket expenses for procedures to help her to manage her symptoms from her two surgeries. Her pain levels have been so extreme she was at the hospital for a week because her body was going into shock. This had to be managed. They gave her on 7 different medications to help calm down her body’s response to the pain. She needs injections to try to cut some of these pain medications out. Why? Well because the medications are extremely hard on internal organs. She is told weekly by her pharmacist the risks and this past month she had a scare when her legs buckled underneath her and her heart rate dropped. She was rushed to the ER. The faster she can get off so many medications the better for her overall health both mentally and physically. These injections are priced out at $1000. We can do this.
Organized by: Julie and Daniel
