Help Rayna with medical expenses

With Synovial Sarcoma in the lungs, metastasis to the brain, five surgeries, the birth of our twins during chemo, over 18 months, Rayna says to me “I’m having tumor pain again”. We messaged Rayna’s oncology team and they told us to go straight to the ER. 8 hours later the scan results showed yet another mass in her right lung. It isn’t like we didn’t know but it’s just impossible to understand what those words sound like on the receiving end. You are never prepared; you are never ready and it is never ok. It’s devastating. There’s got to be another way. Chemo, surgery, rinse and repeat….there has got to be a different type of treatment. There is! And we need your help.

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We began our 3-week CHIPSA medical journey on Oct 30, 2022. Rayna’s regular protocol consisted of High dose vitamin C infusions, ozone therapy, hyperbaric treatments, Coley’s toxins, Dendritic cell therapy, and insulin potentiation therapy. The best part of our 3-week journey was spending each night on the phone face timing with our twins and our teenage son back home. Love, smiles, tears, squeals, and laughter filled those nightly phone calls and gave us hope that we are doing everything that we can to extend Rayna’s life so that she (we as a family) can see the kids grow up.

As you can imagine, the medical expenses have been significant, so we are asking for help. Please help us by donating anything that you can towards Rayna’s ongoing medical costs and please help us with your positive thoughts so that we can walk this journey together.

Thank you.

THE BACK STORY

It’s amazing how life can be changed forever in an instant. This story is long, but it is a story of a love that is so fierce. It’s a story of life’s unplanned interruptions, of unwavering perseverance and most importantly of a family loving each other so intensely that they will do whatever it takes. It’s the story of Rayna and Joey and the Williamson party of 5...

We had been married for a year when we decided to grow our family (which existed of Rayna, me and our teenage son Connor). We were unsuccessful at getting pregnant on our own, so we attempted the adoption route but had two adoptions pulled from us with the last adoption falling apart while we were in the hospital waiting room in Florida. When we got back to Clarksville TN, we decided to attempt IUI through a clinic in Nashville which unfortunately did not work for us. Our last attempt was to do IFV

using a fertility clinic in Columbus GA. Several months (March 21) before we had our embryo transplant, Rayna started presenting with difficulties breathing. The doctors diagnosed her with pleurisy which is an inflammation of the lungs. She was given steroids and sent back home. Life and our plans continued to advance. On May 31, 2021, we did our embryo (2) transplants. Due to both our ages, we were told that

we had a 60% chance of either embryo taking and only 20% of that 60% that they both would take. We made the long drive back home to Clarksville and continue to live our life hoping that our family would get bigger.

On June 2, 2021, our life changed forever in an instant. Rayna was concerned about the tightness in her chest thinking that pleurisy had come back so off we went to our local hospital to have it looked at. A CT scan was performed, and the doctor came in to deliver the news that you never expect to hear, “you have a mass in your right lung”. We were devastated. Rayna was scheduled for a bronchoscopy on June 10th. While getting ready to wheel her from pre-op to the operating room the nurse asked us if we

had received the test results back yet. We weren’t sure what she was referring to and then we heard the words that we had been waiting to hear for 4 years “congratulations, you guys are pregnant with twins!

Our beautiful news that our family was about to grow was mixed with the devastating news that the mass that was in her right lung was cancer. The results were sent to the Mayo Clinic and a few excruciating weeks later we were told that Rayna had a very rare and aggressive cancer called Synovial Sarcoma. Surgery was necessary to remove the mass but we needed to ensure the safety of those beautiful twins growing inside of her so surgery was done at 13 weeks to remove the two tumors. The outcome was that Rayna lost the lower and middle lobe of her right lung but the twins handled the surgery like champs. Rayna came home to heal but a week later she spiked a fever, began to feel very nauseous and had lost 7lbs in 7 days. Test results showed that she had Covid so she was readmitted to the hospital for treatment. Another hurdle to get through but we did get through it. Rayna was healing, living life and enjoying the thoughts of the future with our babies.

Fast forward to Oct 29, 2021, and Rayna started having confusion, and trouble writing and putting her thoughts together. At first, we wrote it off to the pregnancy brain which she was happy to celebrate having but things seemed to change as she started running into chairs, grocery store displays and a post in our house. On Oct 31 st we had a visit with our OB who did a CT scan of her head. Once again devastation hit, tears flowed and a plan had to be put into place as the doctor delivered the news “Rayna, you have a brain tumor and you are now a stage 4 cancer patient”. With the amazing help of our OB at St. Thomas, we were transferred to Vanderbilt in Nashville and put with the Sarcoma team of doctors. Every decision which not only affected Rayna but also affected our babies was made with our OB and with the Vanderbilt Sarcoma team.

Brain surgery took place on November 2nd to remove a tumor that was the size of a racquetball. The surgery was successful, and those beautiful babies held steadfast in Rayna’s womb. My superhero wife and her sidekick babies hit the ground running and were on the road to recovery. 10 days after surgery we celebrated life with a baby shower. Rayna looked radiant at her baby shower despite having 30 staples in her head. The recovery from the brain surgery was rough. The pain was difficult, and Rayna

had to work through occupational and speech therapy to get past some deficiencies that came from surgery. With the determination that she has always had, she put her head down, got the work done and got herself better. The doctors had recommended Chemo this time around to ensure that they could clean up any bits and pieces of the tumors that might have been missed or broken off from the resections. So, on November 29, 2021, the first of 6 rounds of chemo began. The effects of chemo

chipped away at Rayna gradually at first but quickly added up. Nausea, fatigue, mouth sores, lack of appetite, general malaise and then hair loss. While all this is happening, Rayna is becoming very pregnant with our twins. Babies are due February 13 2022 or so we thought.

On December 23, 2021, we arrived at a routine MFM appointment to get the babies measured. They had been tracking on the smaller size throughout the pregnancy which to some extent is to be expected with twins. The scan was complete and the results showed that our little boy Caleb had not gained half of the weight they were hoping for. We were told to head directly to the hospital. That everything and everyone was going to be fine, but that the babies were going to be delivered today by an emergency C-

section. We became the Williamson Party of 5 at 4:27 pm on December 23, 2021. Caleb Robert and Kendall Diane came into this world at the exact same time holding hands. Caleb was 2lbs 3oz and Kendall was 2lbs 11oz. The celebration was quick as the babies needed to get to the NICU and it was determined that Rayna had tested positive for her 2 nd round of Covid. Isolation policies ensued and would be another 10 days before Rayna was able to give her babies a proper hug and tell them both how much she loved them. Caleb and Kendall remained in the NICU for 4 weeks and then the day of celebration…bringing them home.

Life was full of happiness, fear, uncertainty, elation and certainly a lack of sleep. Rayna had finished up on her chemo and had started radiation to clear up anything that was laying in wait around the surgery site. The journey of healing and parenting continued.

On Feb 28, 2022, a regular scan showed a 2nd tumor in her right lung. Will it ever stop? We had our heads down and hands full taking care of the babies and now we were about to fold in several rounds of chemo before our 2nd lung surgery took place on May 11, 2022. The surgery was successful, and Rayna was home within a few days to get back to being a mom. Our life was beginning to settle, finding the rhythm of being the Williamson Party of 5.

Fast forward to September 6th 2022 and Rayna says to me “I’m having tumor pain again”. We messaged Rayna’s oncology team and they told us to go straight to the ER. 8 hours later the scan results showed yet another mass in her right lung. It isn’t like we didn’t know but it’s just impossible to understand what those words sound like on the receiving end. You are never prepared; you are never ready and it is never ok. It’s devastating. There’s got to be another way. Chemo, surgery, rinse and repeat….there has got to be a different type of treatment. We agreed to two more rounds of chemo but we would also research alternatives. This decision comes a bit easier when you are told that you have only 18 months to live. Hours turned into days of research, reading, and consulting with others and we finally decided that we would travel to Mexico for a 3 week's stay at CHIPSA. It was impossible to be away from our babies who by this time had thrived into 10-month-old characters. We began our 3-week CHIPSA medical journey on Oct 30, 2022. Rayna’s regular protocol consisted of High dose vitamin C infusions, ozone therapy, hyperbaric treatments, Coley’s toxins, Dendritic cell therapy, and insulin potentiation therapy. The best part of our 3 week journey was spending each night on the phone face timing with our twins and our teenage son back home. Love, smiles, tears, squeals and laughter filled those nightly phone calls and gave us hope that we are doing everything that we can to extend Rayna’s life so that she (we as a family) can see the kids grow up.

The latest chapter in our family’s story is that we celebrated Rayna’s 40th birthday, Connor’s 17th birthday and the twin's 1st birthday. Dreams for the future abound. Rayna had surgery on December 31 2022 to remove the latest tumor in her lung. Her journey will continue, we will be battling this cancer until it stops. Our hearts are huge with gratitude towards our doctors, our friends and our family for everything that has been done and the support that we have received. Rayna is a good soul, a wonderful mother and a very special wife and is determined to survive this cancer to see her kids live their lives to the fullest.