StephyStrong#...Cancer Warrior!

Update 12/28/2023

Well, we are going to a Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment center on Friday 1/05 to see if this might be another way to go (generally 2hr visits 5 times a week for 8 weeks). It seems that surgical intervention may need some assistance. Her wound is open from the inside to the outside again after multiple surgeries including 3 flap surgeries. This is exhausting for her to say the least. Pray for her if you can. If this is a way to go, I pray that no side effects are encountered.

Our Story...

First, a little bit about Stephanie and myself. We have known each other for 29+ years, ever since I moved up here from Texas. A few years ago, we reconnected as she and I were going through a divorce. Once we reconnected, it was serendipitous fate that we connected in the strongest way two souls can. What can I say more, Stephanie is my Life!! I don't know what I would ever do without her.

Stephanie began to kick butt at her Kohl's Sephora opening. She was promoted from supervisor in Jewelry/Beauty to a Supervisor position in the new Sephora department at Kohl's in Western Hills. I myself, work as a Deputy Sheriff, and side a side gig as a firefighter-paramedic. Presently only at the Sheriff's Office as most of my time is spent taking care of Stephanie until she returns full circle. The photo below is from her store opening day, a short time later, all hell broke loose.

In the beginning of 2022, my wife and I noticed a small knot on the left side of her throat. After a few appointments with her physician, she was referred to a head and neck specialist. It didn't take him very long to look at her neck and tell her that she had the dreaded "C" word. My wife Stephanie was diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma (Tonsil Cancer). This was the beginning of one of her toughest battles in life.

A surgeon looked at her case and recommended that she see a Chemotherapy and Radiation Specialist at her current hospital of choice. He did not see that there was a viable surgical option at that time. We spoke with those that deal with this on a daily basis and the thought was to start her off on 7 chemotherapy treatments over the course of 7 weeks (1 treatment per week of Cisplatin). And to go along with it, 35 heavy doses of radiation therapy (5 per week).

At the conclusion of the 7 weeks, we continued to monitor her weight. One other issue was the pain in her throat became intense throughout care and her food intake slowly dwindled. Once she lost a considerable amount of weight, the next plan was to add a feeding tube to get her weight back up. This did a great job, but she still had pain in the throat that was causing her issues. It was at this point that she began to get worse and her physicians in charge were not keeping up on the issue. No one was doing any scopes (internal looking of the problem area).

The picture above is the night her airway collapsed. She had to be paralyzed and intubated. No one should ever have to see a loved one intubated. Talk about a fast-moving scary event. Simply one of the toughest women I know. The picture below is her on a ventilator in the ICU department, awake, and ready to watch a Bengals football game against the Chief's.

And by Jan 2023, I rushed her to the hospital with a collapsed airway. She was in the hospital for over a week before they decided to do anything. Soon after meeting with the surgeon from the get-go, we decided that it was better to go to a much larger, level one trauma center that could handle this. He did not have any confidence in how he was going to approach it anyways.

Since then, more whirlwinds unfolded. She would keep developing leaks (fistulas) from the inside of her throat to the outer portion of her neck, multiple skin infections, port catheter infections, missed leaks on barium swallow tests, etc. She has been in surgery 10 times so far with 3 full flap surgeries performed.

At this point she has a tracheostomy and that will remain for the rest of her life. Hopefully when she gets healed, the feeding tube will be removed. A recent PET Scan shows that she appears to have no more cancer cells left. And maybe after, she will be able to get a voice prosthetic inserted, to be able to speak again. Who knows when she will be able to get back to work.

So, after almost 2 full years of her battle, the bills have piled on to the point we need a little help. I wish we were wealthy enough to handle everything and being a public safety servant, we certainly are not paid a whole lot. We are asking anyone that could spare a few dollars to help out with the mounting medical bills. I know it's the holiday season and if you can't do it, don't do it. Don't stress out over it. She is covered insurance, and as with any insurance, it does not pay everything. Just our costs alone will be well over $100k as I am able to tell. Pretty sure with the current hospital stay, she is at $2 million in billable insurance fees. Going down to one household salary, added medical, added drives to the hospital, and other incurred costs, we are starting to struggle. I've done as best I could so far, just need a little added push from family or friends to get past this year.

Thank You For Any Help You Can Muster!

B