Stand with Shawna in Her Battle for Health

Everyone remembers spotting the little red haired girl walking the streets of Central City, giving it all she had, making her way to and from anywhere and everywhere she needed to go! To and from work and home, to pick her children up something to eat if needed, and even to Walmart when she needed items she couldn't get right here in town. That may have been a few years back but certainly no one has forgotten her. You may have seen her smiling face at the local Goodwill, where she worked her way from cashier up to an assistant manager, and eventually got her drivers license and her very own car. From the Goodwill, she took what she had learned there, to the Walmart Vision Center, where she was well on her way to earning her degree as a Licensed Optician. That was as of December 2023. My name is Morgan Simms-Schroader, and that sweet, hard-working, wonderful, little red haired girl is my sister, Shawna Deann Simms-Reeves.

In December of 2023, Shawna contracted Covid, which led to her losing her voice completely, and her voice has never returned. As she was pushed from doctors to nurse practitioners and back and forth, for four months with no definite answers, I was finally able to help Shawna get in to see Dr. Bracken Lewis. Dr. Lewis saw no real reason that since Shawna's Covid recovery, she should still be without the use of her voice. He took swift action and was able to get Shawna an appointment for an endoscopy within a week's time. On Thursday, April 11th (yesterday), Shawna had an appointment in Lexington at UK Markey Cancer Center where the endoscopy was preformed. Doctors at UK Markey Cancer Center have found a large mass at the base of Shawna's vocal chords, her vocal chords are three to four times larger than normal, many nodules throughout her throat and esophagus, as well as an abnormal tonsil that is extremely larger than the other one. While we don't have a clear and exact diagnosis yet, they are absolutely treating this as if the mass and nodules are malignant/cancerous. Shawna will have a CT Scan on Monday, April 15th, then emergency surgery on Tuesday, April 16th. This absolutely would have been done on the day of her endoscopy, however, Shawna's Medicaid provider wasn't very cooperative and needed 24-48 hours for the approval that's needed for all of her procedures. Which is how we landed on emergency surgery on Tuesday, April 16th.

Since December 2023, with Shawna having no voice, she has been unable to work. Exhausting her FMLA (Family Medical Leave), Shawna then resorted to short-term disability which was then denied twice. Once due to zero paperwork being sent in by her nurse practitioners office at that time, and a second time due to inefficient paperwork on part of her nurse practitioners office. They only allow you to apply twice. Shawna's next best option was her unemployment benefits, to which she was denied, because her most current previous employer worked off a point system, and ultimately she was terminated for gaining too many points after her FMLA was over. Unfortunately, unemployment will not pay when the termination is due to any attendance issue. Since Shawna became unable to work she has lost her home, one vehicle, and a second vehicle is in progress of repossession. Even if by the small chance, Shawna's condition is not cancerous, she's still looking at multiple trips to Lexington (a 230 mile one-way drive for Shawna and my Mom), hotel and other travel expenses for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday next week, as well as many future trips to her Doctors at the UK Markey Cancer Center, that will come after her emergency surgery. Including one on April 24th for the results of the biopsies on the mass and vocal chords, and a consultation as to where she goes from here regarding her health. Most of you already know that Shawna's health has been in great decline since she spent 8 days in the hospital at Owensboro Health back in July of 2022. All of these expenses on a woman who has lost her employment, evicted from her home, in the process of vehicle repossession, with absolutely no income.

You may know of the little red haired girl who walked the street of Central City until she earned her way to an assistant manager and then saved for her very own car, but if you truly know my sister you know she is one of the most giving, loving, loyal, honest, and hard-working people whom has ever walked this planet, and a heart of gold at that. You also know she certainly does not deserve this hardship, nor the ones she has already faced. Here is where she needs your help! If you could please donate to Shawna's cost of medical expenses and travel, we would all so greatly appreciate it. If you could just share this on any and all social media, we would greatly appreciate that as well. I promise our family is doing all we can to support Shawna during this difficult time, especially my mom, but these expenses are beyond our scope of finances at this moment in time.

If you've made it this far I sincerely thank you for your time. If you can donate and/or share this post we are so grateful for that too. Whether you share and/or donate, you are welcomed to check this page for any updates on Shawna's condition as I will be updating the page as much as possible on surgery day and beyond. Please pray for Shawna and our family during this very difficult time, pray that the mass is benign, pray for a speedy recovery for Shawna, and for understanding and healing for Shawna and our family. If for some reason you don't feel comfortable donating through the gofundme page, please contact Shawna or myself directly, or anyone in our immediate family, on Facebook. Again, I sincerely appreciate your time, donations, shares, and prayers.