Support Jolee's Journey Back to Health

Update 4/14/25:

Many of you have asked for an update on Jolee's health. Since January, she's had 18 surgeries on her calciphylaxis wounds. 16 of those were for wound debridement and the recent 2 were for skin grafts. She spent 5 days in the ICU after her first graft surgery due to severe pain and was later moved to another floor that specializes in skin graft care. The last 5 months in the hospital have been challenging for Jolee and Matt, but they continue to fight this battle together. Matt hasn't missed a day visiting Jolee, even while juggling a job and a home miles away. Despite several months of severe pain and fear for the future, Jolee has done her best to remain positive and still find ways to bring enjoyment to this chapter of her life with her family and friends. She has built friendships with her nursing staff and, in true Jolee fashion, always finds ways to make her nurses laugh despite her difficult circumstances. She has expressed many thanks to everyone who continues to support and pray for her during this challenging time. She's grateful to God for helping her heal and giving to her His strength and comfort. We're happy to share that she has not had any new calciphylaxis wounds in months. We're praying that remission is in her future and that her grafts remain free of infection. Her doctors are beginning to have conversations around discharging. While we don't have an official discharge date yet, Jolee is both extremely excited and nervous to leave the hospital she's had to call home for the last 5 months. Life will look different for Jolee and she'll need to learn her new normal, but she's confident that she can find peace and happiness in her new chapter of life. Thank you to everyone for the support you've shown Jolee during this time!

On September 7th, an ankle break brought Jolee, my childhood bestfriend, into the emergency room. A routine visit ended up changing her life forever. While doing their routine exams, doctors discovered that Jolee was in Sepsis. They determined it was caused by a UTI. Her kidneys began to fail at the same time that her liver started failing. She was immediately transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where she remained in the ICU for 11 days while receiving 24/7 dialysis in hopes of improving organ function. Doctors told loved ones that she would need a liver and kidney transplant to survive, but said that she didn't quality for a transplant at that time. At 26 years old, she was given 1-3 months to live.

Doctors continued dialysis and IV medications while all of Jolee's loved ones prayed for a miracle. After a couple weeks, her numbers were improving and her organs were beginning to work properly again. Her doctors and loved ones were astounded. We thought this nightmare was over and Jolee would be healthy again.

Weeks later, after being released from the hospital, Jolee began experiencing extreme leg pain. After several trips back to the emergency room and receiving no answers or pain relief, Jolee's kidney team finally diagnosed her with Calciphylaxis. Google will tell you that Calciphylaxis is an extremely rare, life-threatening disease that involves the buildup of calcium in small blood vessels of fat tissues and the skin. The disease has no known cure and an extremely high mortality rate with typical patients only living about 6 months after diagnosis due to the high rate of wound infection. Doctors aren't sure why Jolee developed Calciphylaxis as it usually only affects patients who have been in kidney failure and on dialysis for years, not a couple weeks like Jolee. Thanksgiving and Christmas looked quite different for Jolee and her husband Matt this year as they spent the holidays at Massachusetts General Hospital with a team of doctors working diligently to manage pain and keep wounds clean and free from infection. Jolee has not left the hospital since before Thanksgiving.

This week Jolee underwent her first surgery for wound debridement which removes damaged, infected, or dead tissue from a wound to help it heal. The doctors say she will need this surgery every 3-5 days to continue healing and hopefully lead her to eventual remission. She'll remain in the hospital for at least another month, depending on how well her wounds respond to debridement. We're all continuing to pray for another miracle.

The last few months have been both physically and mentally taxing for Jolee and Matt. Jolee has been unable to work since her health began failing in September, leaving them without half their income. Matt, who works for the U.S. Coast Guard, has been lucky enough to use his accrued leave time to be by Jolee's side in the hospital. Matt drives more than 3 hours each day to be with Jolee during the day and return home in the evening to take care of their two pets, Eve and Dill. It has been challenging to accept their current reality all while having to manage growing expenses and a loss of income. I'm starting this GoFundMe to raise awareness of Jolee's situation and ask for prayers and support from others. Jolee has told me that it's all of the love and support from her loved ones that's helping her stay strong and continue to fight through this.