#FightJackieFight#

Our mother. Our Hero. Our Fighter

Please take a moment of your  time to read the story of Mrs. Jacqueline Elaine Palmer. 

Our mother is a beautiful, strong, courageous lady with an infectious smile. Her smile has always drew everyone's attention. She has always put her children first. Matter of fact, she puts the needs of her grandchildren before ours. 

She was the Assistant Director of a daycare. She was loved by all the parents and the children she took care of. She has formed such close relationships with some of these families that we have called them our family as well.

Things seemed to be going great until my dad passed away from MS in 2011. Little did we know, our mother was sick as well. She just hid it from us. She was losing weight but she exercised so much that we thought it came from her exercising. She started to lose eyesight in her eye and was diagnosed with optic neuritis. She then started to have trouble walking. She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2012. In 2013, she had no choice but to stop working as she could barely walk. She was started on steroids and medicines that are used for MS patients, which did nothing for her.

In August of 2013, she went septic. We rushed her to the hospital. We almost lost her. But, she fought back. She stayed in the hospital for about a month. She went through psychotic episodes (hallucinations, aggressiveness, unawareness) and was placed on almost every anti-psychotic medicine known to man until they finally found one that worked. She went home in September 2013. She was wheelchair bound and still having off and on psychotic episodes. At the end of 2013, we changed her neurologist as she was not getting better. 

In January/Feb of 2014, we rushed her to the hospital as she was having a psychotic episode that would not end. They couldn't treat her psychosis so they transferred her to another hospital where her new neurologist works at. He did a brain biopsy and found she has neurosarcoidosis, an illness that creates lesions on the brain that affects your brain and motor skills. Neurosarcoidosis is a rare form of the common illness sarcoidosis. Only about 5-15% of people get this illness and there is no cure.

So after finding out she was misdiagnosed with MS for 2 years, her neurologist right away put her on a treatment regimen to manage her illness. It involved high doses of steroids and chemo medicines. This combination of medications helped to bring her back to herself. She was still wheelchair bound, but her mind was back.

Now, neurosarcoidosis is an unknown illness. There isn't that much research on the matter. Basically, the treatment is high steroid dosage to combat the inflammation and chemotherapy to keep her white blood cells low, which in turn makes her vulnerable for infections. Every year, she has a flare up where we take her to the hospital, normally beginning with a UTI and then again with high steroid dosages and then changing her chemo drug. 

This January of 2019, she made it a year without going to the hospital. Finally, a treatment plan was working, keeping her illness at bay. She was working hard on her physical therapy and taking steps. I believe March of 2019, her neurologist said she was in remission. She was uber happy. So were we. Things were looking up.

Mothers Day 2019 arrives. She felt a pain in her stomach. She thought she pulled a muscle. The pain came and went. She went to the doctor a week before Memorial day. The doctor couldn't feel anything wrong. On Memorial Day 2019 we rushed her to the hospital as she was having what I thought was a flareup from her illness.  She went into septic shock, which is worse than sepsis. She was put on life support. It was found that the pain she had in her stomach was appendicitis that went gangrene and spilled into her abdominal cavity. They did the emergency surgery. The septic shock also tore through her body leaving big blisters over her body which opened up, causing her skin to come off. The doctors told us in so many words she wouldn't make it through the night.

Well. They were wrong. She fought her way through. They put her on the strongest antibiotics known to man and on blood pressure medication that normally people don't live through. She was also put on dialysis as well. She was surprising the doctors as they didn't expect her to make it. They transferred her to the hospital where her neurologist works. They continued the care there. She developed a sacral wound and an infection. She was on the ventilator which caused part of her lung to collapse. She had numerous blood transfusions as her blood count kept decreasing. The cut from her appendicitis surgery became necrotic, so they had to cut half her stomach out and put a wound vac on to start the healing process. They found multiple abscesses in her abdominal area so they had to put a drainage in to drain the abscesses. The shingles she acquired 3 years ago resurfaced so she had to fight that as well.

Going into septic shock, appendicitis, flesh wounds, abdominal abcesses, shingles, collasped lung, and being on life support...none of the doctors, even her own doctor, didn't think she would make it. It is now August. She has beat the infections. She is off life support. She has a trach and is slowly talking with it. The wound on her stomach and the wounds on her legs are healing. She is slowly getting back to health.

However, she still has a long way to go. She developed a sacral wound that is unstageable. She is on a feeding tube as her muscles for swallowing have to be re-developed before she can eat solid food. She has lost all her muscles. She can move her upper extremities but cannot move her lower extremities. She still needs to be weaned off the trach. Her psychotic episodes have came back with a vengeance since she has been off her meds for so long.  She is in a long term care acute facility, but her time is almost up and they want to put her in a nursing home. To make matters worse, they are slow to treat her neurosarcoidosis because it requires high steroid dosages and chemo. With the current state that her body is in, they can't treat her illness the way it needs to be treated until she gets stronger, which they don't believe she will, which is why her stay is coming to an end soon. 

We are desperately trying to avoid placing her in a nursing home as they do not have the capability to treat her illness nor her current medical conditions. Her current insurance will not pay for a home nurse which is what she would need to remain at home and she doesn't qualify for medicaid. Taking her to a nursing home would be the equivalence as giving her a death sentence.  

My mother will kill us for doing this as our family doesn't ever ask for help. We normally give the help, so you can imagine how hard this is to ask for help. All she needs is time. Her body needs time to heal. As long as her body continues to heal and get stronger, then she can go back on her treatment regimen and beat this. The one hospital that could give her the time she needs is on its way to letting her go. We have researched ways to get help, but have hit road blocks. Why is there no help for those who desperately need it? There is always something blocking the help.

We are asking for financial support to pay for a nurse and supplies that her insurance will not pay for to be able to take care of our mother at home while I'm at work. She just needs one on one time to get well. I can't see myself placing her in a nursing home when she has made it this far. Please help to bring that infectious smile back home. She has fought this far and we will continue the fight as I believe she will win this battle. We just need your help to do it. 

Forever Grateful,

The Chambers Kids