I'm Debbie, Kelly Shaffer's mom. I am starting a GoFundMe for Kelly to assist with her medical and routine bills. As some of you know, she has had colorectal cancer twice in her life. In addition, she had to have a liver transplant when she was 11 after the chemo for her cancer caused liver failure. She has had 16 or more major surgeries over her lifetime and numerous procedures and outpatient exams. She has had an ileostomy since she was three months old and wears a bag for her stool to empty into. At the present time, she is in stage 4 out of 5 kidney failure and is looking at starting dialysis in the near future. On top of this, she was recently diagnosed with invasive oral cancer (left cheek) and will undergo 8-10 hours of surgery today to remove this mass and have reconstructive surgery. She will have at least three surgical sites. The first will be the cheek; the second one will be on her thigh where they will remove muscle and fat to fill in the hole left in her cheek area. The third area will be her left wrist where they will take the skin, arteries, and vein to move to the new cheek graft to create a blood supply. She will be in a cast for two weeks while the left hand heals. She will also have a feeding tube for a couple of weeks for nutrition since she will not be able to eat. With her immune system compromised, her risk of getting an infection is high. However, she must continue with her medicine in order to keep her liver from rejecting. She will possibly be looking at six weeks of radiation therapy after she heals, depending on the final pathology results.

Due to her being unable to work for over a year, she has outstanding bills. She is having to pay over $250.00 a month for her ostomy supplies and will have to pay out of pocket for her tube feeding needs. She was dropped by TN Care about 2 years ago and has reapplied but was denied. She has appealed 4 different times but has still been denied. At the present time, she has a pro bono lawyer helping her to reapply again. She has no kind of health insurance at this time and this surgery is expected to cost over $100,000.00.

I have been supporting her for a while, but with my MS and being 70 years old, I am unsure of how much longer I will be able to do so. It is with a humble heart that I request this support. I know God will provide our needs as He has over the past 37 years of illnesses.