Jenn's Journey

9 years ago on July 24 Sean and Jenn were happily married.  They began their lives together planning and living  their dream of a life together. All was well….and then…..

A week after Jennifer Haldeman’s 33rd birthday, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She was in her third trimester of pregnancy with her third child.  Doctors were unable  to determine how extensive the cancer was, as CT or bone scans could compromise the pregnancy.  Jen started chemo treatments and labor was induced early   She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl!  Chemo was continued. The bone and CT scans showed stage 4 metastasized breast cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes and bones. Doctors advised she had 18 months to live.  The chemo continued, and Jen was in a fight for her literal life. Jen’s husband Sean and their 3 children began the roller coaster ride that no family should ever have to endure-helping keep mom alive.  The first good news came when the cancer was receptive to the chemo and had subsided along with its presence in the lymph nodes. Sean gives all the credit to his lovely wife Jenn because of her strong will and fighting spirit!  However, they were told the cancer would never “go away’, that it would stay dormant and most likely reoccur at a later time.   The family adjusted as well as they could, growing their own organic vegetables, and raising their own farm animals to harvest meat and eggs to give Jenn the healthiest options, because steroids and hormones in meat and eggs from the stores would only complicate her issues.    In February 2018 Jenn went in for follow up scans-they looked good with no sign of new growth!  They made it by the 18th month milestone.  Jenn homeschooled and cared lovingly for the 3 children.  Sean, a journeyman plumber took his job seriously and worked tirelessly to support his family, and do what he could to financially make a dent in the mounting doctor and hospital bill debt.  They loved and they lived.  They were happy.  The children thrived.  Sean and Jenn were able to breathe a bit and hope for a future.  On May 3, 2018 the world came to a halt when Sean was just returning home from a 3 week stint at his job in northern Alaska.   The kids witnessed their mom have a seizure and started crying and screaming for daddy to save their mommy.  She had stopped breathing and Sean followed instructions while on 911 and brought her back to life after 8 minutes without a discernible heart beat.  Paramedics transported her to a hospital and tests were run- Jenn now had a brain tumor above the left side of her ear. A very rapid chemo/surgery plan was born. Jenn endured 5 treatments of brain knife radiation and then brain tumor removal surgery.  The surgeon explained after surgery that the tumor was larger than expected and some good brain tissue had to be removed with it during surgery.  The tumor is fully removed, and Sean has taken on the full time job of caring for his beautiful wife while tending to his 3 young children (ages 2, 5 and 7).  Jenn is in recovery and fighting like the champ she is!  She needs speech, occupational and physical therapy 5 days a week.  She is improving!  We are asking for financial help for this family.  The leftover debt from the initial breast cancer is over $79,000.  Sean makes payments of approximately $800 per month to make a dent in that.  Though Jenn is covered by insurance, many procedures are not covered, so the current debt is growing quickly.  We are hoping to raise $100-$150 K to make a substantial dent in the increasing medical costs. We hope to help assist this precious family so that they can afford the basic necessities in life due to loss of income while Sean is on leave from work taking care of his wife and three kids full time and help provide the means to continue to receive the medical care for Jenn that is needed. We hope to relive them of this growing financial burden of medical debt so that they can focus on what is truly important; Jenn’s recovery, living & loving and taking care of one another.