Support for Jarrod Hill's Family in Their Time of Need

We are raising funds for the Family of Jarrod Hill as Jarrod reaches the end of his wonderful life. We would like to gather support for Jarrod's wife, Taylor Galarnyk Hill and their young kids Henry and Hazel during this difficult time. Money raised will go towards past medical bills, time without income, and the kids' future needs.

Jarrod and Taylor married in 2016 and have since welcomed their son Henry and daughter Hazel into the world! They have together battled Jarrod's cancer while providing for their youngsters. Taylor has been working at Mayo Clinic, finishing her RN degree, coaching figure skating, volunteering as a Technical Specialist for US Figure Skating and mom-ing! They love to laugh and appreciate every moment of joy with each other, their family and friends!

Here is a little more information about Jarrod's Journey:

Jarrod was diagnosed with Stage IV Prostate Cancer in May of 2014 after he noticed blood in his urine. In July 2014, he had surgery to remove his prostate, part of his bladder and some surrounding lymph nodes. He also began long term hormone therapy at that time. He did multiple weeks of radiation to treat the area in January 2015.

Between 2015 and 2019, Jarrod had dozens of procedures, bladder irrigations, hospitalizations, catheters, hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatments and much more.

In January 2019, two months before their son Henry was born, Jarrod had a bladder irrigation (which was routine for him by this time) and ended up with a recto-urethral fistula (a hole between his bladder and colon). Jarrod had a 17 hour surgery in Rochester to remove his bladder, place a urostomy and repair the colon which also ended up giving him a temporary ileostomy. Unfortunately, he also developed severe neuropathy in his left leg from being on the table for so long. After 10 days in Rochester, he came home and started intense recovery and trying to navigate a new normal of two bags and limited use of his left leg. 6 weeks after he came home, Henry was born. 6 weeks after Henry was born, Jarrod had surgery to reverse his ileostomy. He started to finally feel more "normal" after this surgery and was able to eat and gain some weight back.

December 2020 came and Jarrod had an increase in his PSA (lab for prostate cancer) so he did a round of chemo which helped bring things back to his baseline. He rang the bell on February 23, 2021 and we enjoyed some normalcy again for a little while.

Summer 2021, Jarrod had another increase in his PSA and started 5 weeks of proton beam radiation in Rochester. 5 days a week driving back and forth to Rochester for 5 weeks, in the summer, was not what he had in mind. That seemed to help for a little while and he continued to have routine appointments to watch things closely.

January 2023 is when things really took a hit. Jarrod had a bone scan and cancer was detected in his bones. Metastasis to the bones is no joke and he began chemo right away to try and battle that and then he ended up being accepted into a radiation trial in Rochester that began in May 2023. Chemo stopped and he went to Rochester every 6 weeks for 36 weeks (6 total treatments). During this time, he had plenty of hospital visits due to side effects of the treatment but when he finished the trial, his tumors had shrunk significantly. In January 2024, he had multiple scans showing significant reduction in the lymph nodes and bones affected.

Fast forward to March 2024. Jarrod went into the ER with symptoms of a UTI and had a CT scan that showed a tumor surrounding his kidney and blocking the flow of urine through his ureter. The Interventional Radiology team placed a nephrostomy tube to try and reroute his urinary tract. Once the infection cleared up, he went back to have the nephrostomy tube replaced with a stent. He had a bone scan and PET scan in March which showed metastasis to his spine, ribs, shoulder, hip, and more.

After Hazel was born in April 2024, Jarrod started chemo again. A week after the first treatment, he was admitted with another infection. He had his second treatment mid-May and ended up in the hospital on Memorial Day with another infection.

In June, after talking with his large team of doctors, the decision was made to start hospice. Jarrod's body cannot continue to fight the way it has been the past 10 years. He has fought harder than most people ever will have to and it is time for him to have some "quality over quantity".

View other updates on Jarrod's CaringBridge page.

This GoGundMe is organized by friends of the family: Emily Dehmer, Mary Summers & Lauren Ward.