Jessica's HOPE
Donation protected
Hi friends! This page has been designed to raise money for Jessica Hope Howard. She is my sister and my very best friend! Anyone who knows me knows how precious she is to me and that I would do anything for her. My HOPE is to raise some funds to allow my sister to travel to her dream location, Kangaroo Island, Australia. She dreams of sitting in a field surrounded by kangaroos, experiencing the warmth of the sun and forgetting, for even a brief moment, the reality of her situation. If my sister's story tugs at your heartstrings and you want to do something to help, here is your opportunity to inspire her to dream, encourage her to HOPE for a future and allow her to experience a glimpse of the life she always thought she would live. Please read Jessica's story below. (it's lengthy)
Jessica's story:
In 2013 Jessica was a senior in high school. She was planning to attend college and major in early childhood education, and she was planning to go on her very first mission trip to the Dominican Republic with her big sis!
Jessica started having recurrent pain in her abdomen and spent many days lying in a hospital bed with pancreatitis while she was poked and prodded, and underwent test after test. Unfortunately, a reason for her constant pancreatitis could not be found, and time after time she was sent home frustrated. In the spring things went downhill. Jessica ended up in the hospital yet again, but this time it was different. She had trouble seeing, had horrible headaches, and after a barrage of tests, she was found to have type 1 diabetes! Again, no answers as to why as an 18 year old girl she was all of a sudden receiving this diagnosis, but she accepted it and began learning how to handle her severely insulin-dependent diabetes.
Jessica handled this new diagnosis like a champ, and a few months later she graduated high school and had big plans for her future. Unfortunately, only weeks after graduation she was dealt an unimaginable blow- pancreatic cancer! It seemed impossible that an 18 year old girl would have such a terrible illness, but as we would quickly learn, she did, and it would impact the rest of her life!
After the initial shock of the diagnosis, we began looking at the best treatment options and facilities for Jessica, which led us to John Hopkins in Maryland. Jessica was scheduled for a Whipple procedure in August 2013.
Meanwhile, life took some turns, including canceling her mission trip and deciding not to go to college. There were too many issues involving her medical care for her to safely travel to a remote area in the D.R., and she would be unable to attend school in the fall because she would have months and months of recovery from surgery.
Well, August came and the day for surgery arrived. Jessica's entourage of support traveled to Maryland to be with her, and wrestled with the uncertainty of what would be. As we said our goodbyes before surgery we made sure to make Jess laugh and we even got scolded from a nurse for being too jovial at a time like this! As she received her cocktail and began to fall off to sleep, we held our breath and prayed!
A few hours into her procedure the doctor came out and pulled my parents aside. We couldn't breathe. He told them that they had to take her entire pancreas, her gall bladder, spleen, part of the stomach and part of the intestines. The goal was to only take the diseased portion and save part of the pancreas. However, when they put her tissue under the microscope, every slice showed pre-cancerous cells in the last stage before stage 1. They considered this stage 0. In order to ensure the best possible outcome, the entire pancreas was removed. The doctors told us that because it was not in the surrounding tissue and because it was stage 0, she was considered cancer free and would never have to worry about recurrence!
Jessica made it through surgery and spent a long recovery in the ICU. It was so hard to watch as she was unable to eat, lost and incredible amount of weight and was in constant pain. Through it all she was an inspiration to everyone she met! You saw her, she smiled. She brought hope to all of us and we all believed she would recover and live a long life doing all the things she dreamed of, like finding love, getting married and most importantly, having beautiful little babies!
Life with a chronic disease proved to be way harder than any of us could have ever imagined, and she had more unexplained medical issues than one person should ever have! Internal bleeding, passing out, horrible pain, elevated liver enzymes, etc. Through all the hospital visits, doctor appointments and tests, she showed maturity, bravery and an immense amount of endurance.
Along the way there were a few doctors that refused to stop trying to figure all of this out. I'm forever grateful for those doctors that cared enough about my sister to keep trying when everyone else just passed her off to the next doctor.
This summer, 2016, after yet another episode of incredible abdominal pain, Jessica was sent for an ultrasound of her liver. The ultrasound revealed many "cysts" on her liver. We held our breath and prayed that it wasn't what we thought. Many scans and a biopsy later and our worst fear came to fruition when she was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma in the liver! I know it felt like my world was crashing. I cannot even begin to imagine what my 21 year old sister felt!
If you know anything about cancer, you most likely know that pancreatic cancer is bad. Like really bad. Metastatic pancreatic cancer is way worse. No cure. Very, very poor prognosis. Not a lot of time.
As we tried to even begin to process this, Jessica was already having to make life and death decisions and decide how and where to treat this thing. Too much stress, too many decisions, way too much for any one person to handle, let alone a 21 year old girl.
Again, Jessica went to work, finding a way to save her eggs and dreaming of still having babies in the future. She found a clinical study, and she began experimental treatments at John Hopkins. Week after week she traveled to Maryland and went through test after test, took pill after pill and met with countless doctors, nurses and staff. Unfortunately, about 2 months into treatment she was having severe pain. They did more scans, which revealed that her cancer had grown by 50%. They stopped treatment and sent her to Lancaster to try chemo, which was basically her last resort.
For the last 8 weeks my sister has undergone chemo treatments. She has lost a lot of hair, been very tired and losing weight. However, she has found strength in God and has been a beautiful light to those she meets! We have been in constant prayer for God to do something miraculous in her life and heal and restore her body. We believe in His power and know He loves Jessica and we are believing that he wants to heal her. However, today she was dealt yet another blow. Her follow-up scans revealed her cancer has grown another 25% while on chemo. Tomorrow she will begin a different kind of chemo, and they will re-scan in 8 weeks. If there is growth, chemo will be discontinued and Jessica can choose to try another experimental drug, or live whatever life she has left. Either way, she will be covered in prayer, surrounded by love and we will enjoy every moment we can of this precious life!!
Jessica's story:
In 2013 Jessica was a senior in high school. She was planning to attend college and major in early childhood education, and she was planning to go on her very first mission trip to the Dominican Republic with her big sis!
Jessica started having recurrent pain in her abdomen and spent many days lying in a hospital bed with pancreatitis while she was poked and prodded, and underwent test after test. Unfortunately, a reason for her constant pancreatitis could not be found, and time after time she was sent home frustrated. In the spring things went downhill. Jessica ended up in the hospital yet again, but this time it was different. She had trouble seeing, had horrible headaches, and after a barrage of tests, she was found to have type 1 diabetes! Again, no answers as to why as an 18 year old girl she was all of a sudden receiving this diagnosis, but she accepted it and began learning how to handle her severely insulin-dependent diabetes.
Jessica handled this new diagnosis like a champ, and a few months later she graduated high school and had big plans for her future. Unfortunately, only weeks after graduation she was dealt an unimaginable blow- pancreatic cancer! It seemed impossible that an 18 year old girl would have such a terrible illness, but as we would quickly learn, she did, and it would impact the rest of her life!
After the initial shock of the diagnosis, we began looking at the best treatment options and facilities for Jessica, which led us to John Hopkins in Maryland. Jessica was scheduled for a Whipple procedure in August 2013.
Meanwhile, life took some turns, including canceling her mission trip and deciding not to go to college. There were too many issues involving her medical care for her to safely travel to a remote area in the D.R., and she would be unable to attend school in the fall because she would have months and months of recovery from surgery.
Well, August came and the day for surgery arrived. Jessica's entourage of support traveled to Maryland to be with her, and wrestled with the uncertainty of what would be. As we said our goodbyes before surgery we made sure to make Jess laugh and we even got scolded from a nurse for being too jovial at a time like this! As she received her cocktail and began to fall off to sleep, we held our breath and prayed!
A few hours into her procedure the doctor came out and pulled my parents aside. We couldn't breathe. He told them that they had to take her entire pancreas, her gall bladder, spleen, part of the stomach and part of the intestines. The goal was to only take the diseased portion and save part of the pancreas. However, when they put her tissue under the microscope, every slice showed pre-cancerous cells in the last stage before stage 1. They considered this stage 0. In order to ensure the best possible outcome, the entire pancreas was removed. The doctors told us that because it was not in the surrounding tissue and because it was stage 0, she was considered cancer free and would never have to worry about recurrence!
Jessica made it through surgery and spent a long recovery in the ICU. It was so hard to watch as she was unable to eat, lost and incredible amount of weight and was in constant pain. Through it all she was an inspiration to everyone she met! You saw her, she smiled. She brought hope to all of us and we all believed she would recover and live a long life doing all the things she dreamed of, like finding love, getting married and most importantly, having beautiful little babies!
Life with a chronic disease proved to be way harder than any of us could have ever imagined, and she had more unexplained medical issues than one person should ever have! Internal bleeding, passing out, horrible pain, elevated liver enzymes, etc. Through all the hospital visits, doctor appointments and tests, she showed maturity, bravery and an immense amount of endurance.
Along the way there were a few doctors that refused to stop trying to figure all of this out. I'm forever grateful for those doctors that cared enough about my sister to keep trying when everyone else just passed her off to the next doctor.
This summer, 2016, after yet another episode of incredible abdominal pain, Jessica was sent for an ultrasound of her liver. The ultrasound revealed many "cysts" on her liver. We held our breath and prayed that it wasn't what we thought. Many scans and a biopsy later and our worst fear came to fruition when she was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma in the liver! I know it felt like my world was crashing. I cannot even begin to imagine what my 21 year old sister felt!
If you know anything about cancer, you most likely know that pancreatic cancer is bad. Like really bad. Metastatic pancreatic cancer is way worse. No cure. Very, very poor prognosis. Not a lot of time.
As we tried to even begin to process this, Jessica was already having to make life and death decisions and decide how and where to treat this thing. Too much stress, too many decisions, way too much for any one person to handle, let alone a 21 year old girl.
Again, Jessica went to work, finding a way to save her eggs and dreaming of still having babies in the future. She found a clinical study, and she began experimental treatments at John Hopkins. Week after week she traveled to Maryland and went through test after test, took pill after pill and met with countless doctors, nurses and staff. Unfortunately, about 2 months into treatment she was having severe pain. They did more scans, which revealed that her cancer had grown by 50%. They stopped treatment and sent her to Lancaster to try chemo, which was basically her last resort.
For the last 8 weeks my sister has undergone chemo treatments. She has lost a lot of hair, been very tired and losing weight. However, she has found strength in God and has been a beautiful light to those she meets! We have been in constant prayer for God to do something miraculous in her life and heal and restore her body. We believe in His power and know He loves Jessica and we are believing that he wants to heal her. However, today she was dealt yet another blow. Her follow-up scans revealed her cancer has grown another 25% while on chemo. Tomorrow she will begin a different kind of chemo, and they will re-scan in 8 weeks. If there is growth, chemo will be discontinued and Jessica can choose to try another experimental drug, or live whatever life she has left. Either way, she will be covered in prayer, surrounded by love and we will enjoy every moment we can of this precious life!!
Organizer
Lisa Howard Liskey
Organizer
Myerstown, PA
