Medical Expenses For Jenn
Donation protected
Last summer Jenn started having headaches and some vision problems . After many tests and Dr visits, they found a cancerous tumor on the back of her brain. It was very fast growing and she had surgery in the beggining of December to remove it. After weeks of radiation, countless Dr visits and other treatments, they have found the tumor is regrowing and she will need further treatment. She has not been able to do what she loves so very much, teach kids, since late October. Being out of work so long, she has exhausted her sick days and personal time. As we all know, health insurance is sky high, even impossible for some and at this time she is paying for it out of pocket as well as her co pays and medications. She is blessed to be surrounded by a loving husband, family and friends. We would love to try to help take some of the burden of mounting medical costs off her family with your support. Even the smallest of donations add up. Thank you for any and all support
***********************************************************
They say love sometimes takes its time.
For Brian and Jennifer Chenoweth, who were set up on a date by friends in 2009, love finally found its mark.
Through mutual interests, and similar goals, the two found common ground. They shared a love of live music, of being outdoors as often as possible, of spending time at the beach – Jennifer soaking in the sun, Brian casting a line out past the breakers to catch fish straight from the sea.
Both of them had grown children from previous marriages when they met. But Jennifer, a longtime Pinellas County educator and third-grade teacher at Plumb Elementary School in Clearwater, made the decision to adopt two young girls, sisters Mariah (now 11) and Jasmine (now 13), prior to marrying Brian in September 2014.
Brian, a self-employed contractor, who owns Full Service Craftsman, said Jennifer taught Mariah in class and often spoke of wanting to do more to help the girl. When she got the opportunity to assume a lifelong responsibility, she took it.
On their wedding day, the couple celebrated by taking about 50 family members and friends to watch the Tampa Bay Rays play the Chicago White Sox at Tropicana Field. The Rays lost, but the couple didn’t care – their future was set, a lifetime of love and raising children together to look forward to.
Less than a year later, that all changed.
A Diagnosis No One Expected
Jennifer, 47, began complaining of headaches and her peripheral vision out of her left eye seemed strangely off. Several medical appointments later, following a CT scan, the truth was revealed.
“There was some sort of mass on the back side of her brain,” said Brian, 43. “It was almost the size of a baseball.”
Doctors diagnosed the mass as a malignant tumor, a particularly virulent and damaging form of cancer.
Jennifer was forced to take a leave from work. She could no longer drive with her vision impaired. In December 2015, the mass was removed and she began chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
Undeterred, the tumor returned, smaller this time but growing, bringing with it a renewed wave of fear for their family.
A Ray of Hope from the Tar Heel State
It was a radiologist who first mentioned an experimental program to Brian and Jennifer after a follow-up MRI showed the tumor’s regrowth. The technician asked the couple if they had ever heard of The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
Brian immediately began to research online. What he found was hope.
“They have top researchers that work at Duke who specifically target this type of tumor and they’ve been curing people, so it’s very promising,” he said.
Brian contacted some of the physicians at the Tisch Center, nationally-known doctors who had appeared on leading news programs like 60 minutes, to discuss the treatments offered.
“They take 700 people a year,” Brian said. “We were lucky to be one of them.”
It’s hard to imagine the couple not being accepted given Brian’s steadfast determination to do anything and everything possible for his wife.
“I don’t like to hear no – once I get an answer in my head I want to hear, I don’t hear anything else, so I just stayed with it,” he said, laughing.
That persistence paid off this week when the tumor center called to say Jennifer’s insurance would cover most of the cost of any procedure.
No Time to Waste
Brian and Jennifer are leaving Monday, April 18 to drive to Durham for an initial consultation on Wednesday, April 20. The couple has no idea what to expect. They don’t know if they will be asked to remain in North Carolina indefinitely while Jennifer begins treatment. They hope to be able to cover the cost financially of an extended stay out of state while friends and family care for Mariah and Jasmine. With Jennifer out of work now for six months, though, money has become increasingly tight.
They also don’t know what type of treatment might be proposed. There is one procedure that has shown significant success where doctors inject a virus directly into the tumor to essentially kill the cancerous cells.
“If that’s what they want to give us, it’s almost like a miracle, to be honest with you,” Brian said.
In the meantime, the family continues to rely on friends for support. Most nights someone will hand-deliver a hot meal to minimize their stress.
“We are optimistic. We are hopeful. And we have a lot of people who are praying for us,” Brian said. “She’s strong. We’re just going day by day and each day has been OK so far. That’s been our routine.”
So far, Jennifer has been able to continue to care for their two young girls, both of whom attend Morning Star School in Pinellas Park, but Brian doesn’t want to risk her health by waiting.
“I’m trying to expedite this as quickly as possible because we don’t want anything else to happen,” he said.
Diminishing Resources but No Loss of Faith
There have been small efforts to date to raise money. A friend and educator who worked with Jennifer is trying to organize a fundraiser. But the family has resisted asking for direct support, until now.
If the trip to North Carolina becomes an extended stay, Brian won’t be able to work and the former two-income turned one-income household will have no immediate income.
“They could say we need you here for three weeks or a month,” he said. “We don’t know what their plan is yet.”
Regardless of the cost, or the strain, Brian is resolved to make sure Jennifer has a fighting chance with the best treatment in the country, So that she can watch her two young ones mature and grow.
That’s the thing about love.
Even when it takes its time making a forever connection, once it sticks, nothing else matters.
“This morning, I was thinking – when we got the phone call from Duke, I said, ‘I don’t know if I want to sit here and cry for the day or take a nap for a week,’” he said, explaining the mixture of elation, relief and total exhaustion that he felt. “Overwhelmed would sum up how I felt when I got the call yesterday, for sure.”
What You Can Do
The Internet and websites like GoFundMe have provided an immediate and often profitable way for people to raise money. Typically, the effort is designed for happier needs like funding a wedding or as a way to raise support for a loved one experiencing sudden, unexpected unemployment.
Brian and Jennifer have no gauge yet to know how much their trip to Duke University and the subsequent treatment and recovery time for Jennifer may set them back. When you’re a self-employed contractor but you can’t take on new clients or construction jobs, there are few options for providing that necessary financial support for a family of four.
That’s why we – Brian and Jennifer’s immediate family – are asking that anyone who knows them reach deep into their hearts and their pockets. But more, we hope to share their story with anyone who works or has worked as an educator and who knows how significant and rare a good teacher can be. Anyone who is self-employed and knows the struggle of performing a skilled trade and how tight the times can be between paying jobs. Anyone who has watched a loved one suffer from cancer without a possibility of hope for an actual cure.
Any amount you can give, whether $5 or $50 or $500 will go directly to Brian and Jennifer to help offset their costs. The money will be used to provide housing, long-term, if needed; to buy food; to pay for the daily needs of two pre-teenage girls.
Every dollar counts and every donation will help lessen the burden and worry and allow Brian and Jennifer to focus on the one thing that truly matters right now – beating this cancer once and for all and giving Brian and his wife the best chance to continue their love affair for many, many years to come.
Family Website:
www.HelpJennChenoweth.com
***********************************************************
They say love sometimes takes its time.
For Brian and Jennifer Chenoweth, who were set up on a date by friends in 2009, love finally found its mark.
Through mutual interests, and similar goals, the two found common ground. They shared a love of live music, of being outdoors as often as possible, of spending time at the beach – Jennifer soaking in the sun, Brian casting a line out past the breakers to catch fish straight from the sea.
Both of them had grown children from previous marriages when they met. But Jennifer, a longtime Pinellas County educator and third-grade teacher at Plumb Elementary School in Clearwater, made the decision to adopt two young girls, sisters Mariah (now 11) and Jasmine (now 13), prior to marrying Brian in September 2014.
Brian, a self-employed contractor, who owns Full Service Craftsman, said Jennifer taught Mariah in class and often spoke of wanting to do more to help the girl. When she got the opportunity to assume a lifelong responsibility, she took it.
On their wedding day, the couple celebrated by taking about 50 family members and friends to watch the Tampa Bay Rays play the Chicago White Sox at Tropicana Field. The Rays lost, but the couple didn’t care – their future was set, a lifetime of love and raising children together to look forward to.
Less than a year later, that all changed.
A Diagnosis No One Expected
Jennifer, 47, began complaining of headaches and her peripheral vision out of her left eye seemed strangely off. Several medical appointments later, following a CT scan, the truth was revealed.
“There was some sort of mass on the back side of her brain,” said Brian, 43. “It was almost the size of a baseball.”
Doctors diagnosed the mass as a malignant tumor, a particularly virulent and damaging form of cancer.
Jennifer was forced to take a leave from work. She could no longer drive with her vision impaired. In December 2015, the mass was removed and she began chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
Undeterred, the tumor returned, smaller this time but growing, bringing with it a renewed wave of fear for their family.
A Ray of Hope from the Tar Heel State
It was a radiologist who first mentioned an experimental program to Brian and Jennifer after a follow-up MRI showed the tumor’s regrowth. The technician asked the couple if they had ever heard of The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
Brian immediately began to research online. What he found was hope.
“They have top researchers that work at Duke who specifically target this type of tumor and they’ve been curing people, so it’s very promising,” he said.
Brian contacted some of the physicians at the Tisch Center, nationally-known doctors who had appeared on leading news programs like 60 minutes, to discuss the treatments offered.
“They take 700 people a year,” Brian said. “We were lucky to be one of them.”
It’s hard to imagine the couple not being accepted given Brian’s steadfast determination to do anything and everything possible for his wife.
“I don’t like to hear no – once I get an answer in my head I want to hear, I don’t hear anything else, so I just stayed with it,” he said, laughing.
That persistence paid off this week when the tumor center called to say Jennifer’s insurance would cover most of the cost of any procedure.
No Time to Waste
Brian and Jennifer are leaving Monday, April 18 to drive to Durham for an initial consultation on Wednesday, April 20. The couple has no idea what to expect. They don’t know if they will be asked to remain in North Carolina indefinitely while Jennifer begins treatment. They hope to be able to cover the cost financially of an extended stay out of state while friends and family care for Mariah and Jasmine. With Jennifer out of work now for six months, though, money has become increasingly tight.
They also don’t know what type of treatment might be proposed. There is one procedure that has shown significant success where doctors inject a virus directly into the tumor to essentially kill the cancerous cells.
“If that’s what they want to give us, it’s almost like a miracle, to be honest with you,” Brian said.
In the meantime, the family continues to rely on friends for support. Most nights someone will hand-deliver a hot meal to minimize their stress.
“We are optimistic. We are hopeful. And we have a lot of people who are praying for us,” Brian said. “She’s strong. We’re just going day by day and each day has been OK so far. That’s been our routine.”
So far, Jennifer has been able to continue to care for their two young girls, both of whom attend Morning Star School in Pinellas Park, but Brian doesn’t want to risk her health by waiting.
“I’m trying to expedite this as quickly as possible because we don’t want anything else to happen,” he said.
Diminishing Resources but No Loss of Faith
There have been small efforts to date to raise money. A friend and educator who worked with Jennifer is trying to organize a fundraiser. But the family has resisted asking for direct support, until now.
If the trip to North Carolina becomes an extended stay, Brian won’t be able to work and the former two-income turned one-income household will have no immediate income.
“They could say we need you here for three weeks or a month,” he said. “We don’t know what their plan is yet.”
Regardless of the cost, or the strain, Brian is resolved to make sure Jennifer has a fighting chance with the best treatment in the country, So that she can watch her two young ones mature and grow.
That’s the thing about love.
Even when it takes its time making a forever connection, once it sticks, nothing else matters.
“This morning, I was thinking – when we got the phone call from Duke, I said, ‘I don’t know if I want to sit here and cry for the day or take a nap for a week,’” he said, explaining the mixture of elation, relief and total exhaustion that he felt. “Overwhelmed would sum up how I felt when I got the call yesterday, for sure.”
What You Can Do
The Internet and websites like GoFundMe have provided an immediate and often profitable way for people to raise money. Typically, the effort is designed for happier needs like funding a wedding or as a way to raise support for a loved one experiencing sudden, unexpected unemployment.
Brian and Jennifer have no gauge yet to know how much their trip to Duke University and the subsequent treatment and recovery time for Jennifer may set them back. When you’re a self-employed contractor but you can’t take on new clients or construction jobs, there are few options for providing that necessary financial support for a family of four.
That’s why we – Brian and Jennifer’s immediate family – are asking that anyone who knows them reach deep into their hearts and their pockets. But more, we hope to share their story with anyone who works or has worked as an educator and who knows how significant and rare a good teacher can be. Anyone who is self-employed and knows the struggle of performing a skilled trade and how tight the times can be between paying jobs. Anyone who has watched a loved one suffer from cancer without a possibility of hope for an actual cure.
Any amount you can give, whether $5 or $50 or $500 will go directly to Brian and Jennifer to help offset their costs. The money will be used to provide housing, long-term, if needed; to buy food; to pay for the daily needs of two pre-teenage girls.
Every dollar counts and every donation will help lessen the burden and worry and allow Brian and Jennifer to focus on the one thing that truly matters right now – beating this cancer once and for all and giving Brian and his wife the best chance to continue their love affair for many, many years to come.
Family Website:
www.HelpJennChenoweth.com
Organizer
Malissa Rhea Pierce
Organizer
Pinellas Park, FL