Support Jenni's Battle Against Aggressive Cancer

My name is Jenni, and I never imagined I would have to make one of these, but life unfortunately has had other plans. I am blessed to be the mother of five of the most amazing kids in the world. They range from age 7 to 19, and watching them grow has been the greatest honor I could have, and I desperately hope that I get to continue to do so.

In January I began to have an elevated heart rate, and it became increasingly harder just to do ordinary tasks. I had also been having terrible back and left shoulder pain for a couple months prior. One night, during my shift as a labor and delivery nurse, I just couldn't make it anymore and ended up in our emergency department. I was admitted to the hospital with low blood counts, and a bone marrow biopsy confirmed my greatest fear: I had cancer. Specifically diffuse large b cell lymphoma (DLBCL), originating in my bone marrow, especially concentrated in my back and shoulder, the areas that had been giving me so much pain.

Initially I was told that even though it was rare for DLBCL to start in the bones rather than lymph nodes and that my cancer was aggressive, it was the easiest to kill, that it would respond well to chemo and I would be cured. This optimism quickly faded, as several different chemo regimens over the coming months failed to halt the progression of the cancer, much less cure it... Finally, with the fifth regimen we gained ground and have started to beat the cancer back, but not before it had managed to spread to my central nervous system, to my brain, aggravating several cranial nerves resulting in intermittent double vision and right sided facial palsey.

Now we are moving to CAR-T treatment, a feat of amazing science that takes my cells and adds a receptor to them, allowing the cells to eradicate the cancerous cells. I have already undergone the collection of my cells, and am awaiting their return from the manufacturer of Yescarta. To collect the cells we had to postpone chemo for two weeks. That short time frame was when the cancer cells were able to spread to my cranial nerves. We chose Yescarta because they tend to have the fastest turn around time for getting cells back for infusion. This is scheduled to take place August 5th, and is a long recovery road with a month or more away from home. I'll spend at least 2 weeks in the hospital if none of the expected side effects occur, longer if they do, and then 2 weeks in a hotel by Mayo after release.

I have been an RN for 13 years, serving the North East Florida population with 6 years in acute psychiatric care (most of which in pediatrics,) 6 years in the emergency department, and the last year in labor and delivery, the specialty of my dreams. I want nothing more than to make it through this and get back to helping families through their scariest and their most joyful moments.

I have been on leave since my hospital admission in January, and while my job has been amazing through this, corporate policies say that since I have hit 6 months of leave, I must pay COBRA prices for my health insurance. To keep my children insured it would be $3,000 each month, and to keep just myself insured it is $860. I have applied for medicaid, to cover my children and myself, but have to keep my existing coverage as long as possible because they have already approved CAR-T services, and my out of pocket maximum has been met, meaning as long as I have it, the monthly premium is all I have to pay. Waiting for a hopeful approval of medicaid, then waiting for them to approve CAR-T would result in my death, as this cancer has proven it is relentless and time is of the essence.

All proceeds from this go fund me will go towards paying to keep my insurance for the calander year so that I can continue my cancer treatment with Mayo Clinic and be here for my children and my community. Should we exceed the amount needed for insurance, proceeds will help pay the bills that living at the 60% disability rate of my previous income makes difficult.