Support Jess's Life-Saving Surgery and Recovery

Hi, everybody. Luke Trayser here, Jess’s husband.

This may come as a surprise to those of you who know Jess because she presents with so much vitality, but she has been battling daily pain since 1996.

The past

Back when she was 11, she began experiencing significant pain in her midsection. Doctors attributed it to ovulation, essentially saying “welcome to womanhood” rather than taking it seriously.

At age 13, all of that pain finally revealed itself to be as serious as she was trying to tell people it was. For two years, fluids had been building up inside of Jess’s body with nowhere to go. So she suffered a rupture, and once again dealt with more medical professionals who either didn’t know what to do with her or didn’t believe her. Eventually, an exploratory surgery saw the immensity of the problem, and the surgeon worked hard to repair damage and remove organs that shouldn’t have been there.

The present

Fast forward roughly 27 years. The pain has never left. Jess has been busy living life and refusing to give in to it, simply assuming that pain was just part of being human and something she had to make the most of. She got an education, devoted herself to helping others, and (miraculously) brought three healthy boys into the world. She is the founder of Parenting From The Floor, a business she runs solo that has quickly established itself as the place parents go when nothing else has worked.

But in early 2025, the pain once again became too much to bear. No one Jess talked to had a reason for it, making it eerily identical to her experience in the 90s. But that doesn’t make sense, because the surgery fixed everything, right?

Well, that’s the thing. In March 2025, an MRI revealed that what happened in the late 90s was indeed happening once again. She was misdiagnosed back then, not everything that needed to be removed was actually removed, and a fluid-filled growth was once again wreaking havoc inside her body.

I’ll write that again. The immense trauma she dealt with as a tween and teen had returned for another round. It’s been a stupefying truth to process, and a supremely unfair hand to be dealt for such an engaged, active ray of light. Jess is currently bedridden from the pain and awaiting next steps.

The future

And now we get to the hopeful part of the story, and where all of you reading this come in. Another surgery is needed, planned for summer 2025. Jess’s surgeon, who delivered our third child and caught this misdiagnosis, is ready to perform the procedure Jess should have received over a quarter century ago. The doctor is confident it will drastically reduce the pain Jess battles daily, an idea that seems so foreign that it doesn’t feel real.

Despite the long line of healthcare professionals who have let her down, we are not pursuing legal action. But we do need help, in the present and the future.

Jess’s lost income, current medical costs, the cost of surgery and the cost of recovery will be significant. The $15,000 goal we set will not cover everything, but it will absolutely help.

We are not counting on your donation today. Whether this page raises six figures or zero figures, I will find a way to give her the pain-free life she’s always deserved. But if you’ve read this far, I ask that you share the page with someone you know.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to learn Jess’s story. It’s remarkable and truly one-of-a-kind. She’s an absolute unicorn of a human being, a bonafide life-changer and live-saver, and now she needs a life change of her own.