Stand with Joshua Jones
Donation protected
Life is Full of Surprises
On December 19th, 2017, just two months after they were married, Joshua and Shemary went to St. Peter’s urgent care to have an ultrasound, finding out they were pregnant. While at St. Peter’s a Doctor noticed a suspicious lump on Joshua’s face and also did an ultrasound on his face, revealing a large tumor that was ultimately diagnosed as stage 4 adenoid cystic carcinoma of the right parotid gland.
Against All Odds
On February 16th, 2018 Joshua had a surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center that lasted over 15 hrs to remove a 5.6 cm cancerous tumor from his face and neck. Joshua’s right parotid salivary gland was removed along with his upper nerve division on his face, multiple facial structures, 33 lymph nodes in his neck and much of his masseter jaw muscle.
Thankfully, the surgery was successful and Joshua had nerves grafted in from his leg so he can still move most of the right side of his face including closing his eye and smiling. In addition to the nerves, Joshua had a large skin graft, flap and tissue from his leg transplanted into his face.
BY THE GRACE OF GOD Joshua recovered from this major surgery in just 5 days. He then went on to weekly 200mg cisplatin chemotherapy at MSK in Basking Ridge, NJ and 33 radiation treatments at ProCure in Sommerset, NJ. A month after chemo and radiation treatments, Joshua and Shemary’s daughter Eliyanah was born on July 14th 2018- exactly 3 years after they first met. Eliyanah’s name means “God has heard our prayer.” On September 21st, 2018, Joshua was declared cancer free.
The Battle Continues
About 6 weeks ago Joshua started having severe neck pain, thought to be muscular in nature. After trying everything from stretching to a chiropractic appointment, Joshua’s neck just became more painful. Finally, on March 3rd, Shemary drove Joshua to Malta urgent care where they discovered multiple fractures in his neck and rushed him by ambulance to Albany Med.
At Albany Med they discovered multiple lesions in his vertebrae which were thought to compromise his neck integrity. Amazingly, Joshua was neurologically intact, although his neck was extremely compromised. Upon discovering the lesions, Joshua was transferred back to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where two of MSK’s top surgeons, Dr. Jay Boyle and Dr. Mark Bilsky performed emergency neck surgery that went extremely well.
Joshua is now recovering at MSK as the Doctor’s test the lesions for malignancy and prepare a plan for continued treatment. Joshua and Shemary are believing for complete recovery in Joshua’s health and are forever in debt to the prayer covering by those who have been faithfully praying for healing in this situation.
YOU CAN HELP!
We ask for continued prayers first and foremost as your sacrifice of time for prayer is the richest blessing we could hope to receive. We’ve had several people ask if they could contribute financially. For those who can and are called, we are graciously accepting monetary donations that will cover large medical bills and travel expenses for the Jones family. This includes the many costs not covered by insurance, trips to/from NYC, hotel and lodging costs.
Thank you for praying and being an answer to our prayer!
On December 19th, 2017, just two months after they were married, Joshua and Shemary went to St. Peter’s urgent care to have an ultrasound, finding out they were pregnant. While at St. Peter’s a Doctor noticed a suspicious lump on Joshua’s face and also did an ultrasound on his face, revealing a large tumor that was ultimately diagnosed as stage 4 adenoid cystic carcinoma of the right parotid gland.
Against All Odds
On February 16th, 2018 Joshua had a surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center that lasted over 15 hrs to remove a 5.6 cm cancerous tumor from his face and neck. Joshua’s right parotid salivary gland was removed along with his upper nerve division on his face, multiple facial structures, 33 lymph nodes in his neck and much of his masseter jaw muscle.
Thankfully, the surgery was successful and Joshua had nerves grafted in from his leg so he can still move most of the right side of his face including closing his eye and smiling. In addition to the nerves, Joshua had a large skin graft, flap and tissue from his leg transplanted into his face.
BY THE GRACE OF GOD Joshua recovered from this major surgery in just 5 days. He then went on to weekly 200mg cisplatin chemotherapy at MSK in Basking Ridge, NJ and 33 radiation treatments at ProCure in Sommerset, NJ. A month after chemo and radiation treatments, Joshua and Shemary’s daughter Eliyanah was born on July 14th 2018- exactly 3 years after they first met. Eliyanah’s name means “God has heard our prayer.” On September 21st, 2018, Joshua was declared cancer free.
The Battle Continues
About 6 weeks ago Joshua started having severe neck pain, thought to be muscular in nature. After trying everything from stretching to a chiropractic appointment, Joshua’s neck just became more painful. Finally, on March 3rd, Shemary drove Joshua to Malta urgent care where they discovered multiple fractures in his neck and rushed him by ambulance to Albany Med.
At Albany Med they discovered multiple lesions in his vertebrae which were thought to compromise his neck integrity. Amazingly, Joshua was neurologically intact, although his neck was extremely compromised. Upon discovering the lesions, Joshua was transferred back to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where two of MSK’s top surgeons, Dr. Jay Boyle and Dr. Mark Bilsky performed emergency neck surgery that went extremely well.
Joshua is now recovering at MSK as the Doctor’s test the lesions for malignancy and prepare a plan for continued treatment. Joshua and Shemary are believing for complete recovery in Joshua’s health and are forever in debt to the prayer covering by those who have been faithfully praying for healing in this situation.
YOU CAN HELP!
We ask for continued prayers first and foremost as your sacrifice of time for prayer is the richest blessing we could hope to receive. We’ve had several people ask if they could contribute financially. For those who can and are called, we are graciously accepting monetary donations that will cover large medical bills and travel expenses for the Jones family. This includes the many costs not covered by insurance, trips to/from NYC, hotel and lodging costs.
Thank you for praying and being an answer to our prayer!
Organizer and beneficiary
Janelle Fiske
Organizer
Ballston Center, NY
Joshua Jones
Beneficiary