On January 25th I took my wife, Nichole (27), to the ER because she was having severe pain on the right side of her abdomen. We assumed that she was suffering from appendicitis and it would be a quick easy fix, but it wasn't that easy...

CT scans showed a massive growth on her left ovary which was causing pain and pressure shifting everything to the right. On February 1st, she had surgery to remove the mass, which ended up being cancerous. The biopsy confirmed that the 2.2lb, 16 x 10.5 cm tumor was Stage 1C1 ovarian cancer (yolk sack tumor). During removal, the tumor "leaked", which means a more intense chemotherapy protocol. Starting Monday, February 27th, my wife will begin four 21-day rounds of infusion chemotherapy. She will have to physically be hooked up on days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 15. This is going to cause her to miss a lot of, if not all of work during this time.

Nichole is the Deputy Town Clerk of a town in southern Rhode Island and has been since we moved here from California in March of 2022. We found out the hard way that in Rhode Island, local government is exempt from having to pay into Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI). That means the only way her time off would be paid is if she had enough accrued sick, personal, and vacation time to cover it. Unfortunately, all of her accrued time has already been used up from her surgery and hospital stay, leaving us with no other alternative.

Making this is a last resort. Our living expenses are not going to go on pause while she battles through this chemotherapy. We are in the middle of remodeling a house we purchased last year, have living expenses where we currently live, as well as all the typical bills.

Any support would mean the world to us and keep us afloat during this unexpected bump in the road.