Strength through Unity: Help Support the Persse Family

Thank you for visiting the Go Fund Me page for Derek and Julie. My name is Melanie, and Julie and I have been friends going on 40 years now. I have known Derek since he and Julie met in high school.

If you haven’t been following along with the Caring Bridge updates, please know that the below is my attempt to catch everyone up. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being willing to help my friends. Derek is self employed and has not been able to work much since the beginning of the year. I’m trying to raise funds to help out with the incoming heap of medical bills that will no doubt be insurmountable. From chemo to a complete stomach removal, to weeks of hospital stays, to a Medevac helicopter transport this week from Syracuse to Baltimore, it’s unimaginable what expenses lay ahead for this family.

Thank you also for your continued prayers for Derek and Julie, for their boys, and for Julie’s mom and dad. Please help in whatever capacity you feel led. ❤️ Thank you to EVERYONE who continues to support them, it means the world.

—————

Derek was diagnosed with esophageal/upper stomach cancer just before Christmas this past year. He initially received a J-tube (jejunostomy tube to help food go directly into his small intestine, bypassing his stomach) and he had a port placed to create direct access to his veins.

Julie & Derek met with an oncologist immediately & he had a PET scan to see if the cancer had spread. They consulted with an oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC. The PET scan showed that cancer had not spread & Derek could fight it with chemo & surgery.

Derek began chemo on 1/18 and had a 6-hour infusion. They used chemo drugs referred to as "FLOT." This method is one of the most toxic chemo regimes out there. But using this method was strategic in hitting him hard since this is a VERY aggressive cancer with generally not the best outcome. BUT doing so also helped to avoid radiation, which was good. The first plan was to complete the initial rounds of chemo, followed by surgery at Sloan Kettering, followed by 2 more months of chemo after that. Sounded like a pretty solid plan.

After the second opinion with medical oncology telemedicine- the doctor felt strongly that this was gastric (stomach) cancer that had spread to the esophagus-rather than originating in the esophagus, as previously believed. As it turns out, Derek’s cancer is a rare form of stomach cancer because of certain cells called signet cells, occurring in about 1% of people.

In the midst of this overwhelming news and situation with Derek, Julie’s dad, Charlie, had triple bypass surgery on 1/12/24 at St Joseph’s Hospital. The surgery went well, and he has been recovering at home. Charlie sustained a fall that was a result of his heart and his atrial fibrillation. To add to even more concern, Julie’s mom, Sandy, had been re-diagnosed on 1/25 with cancer that had recurred at stage 4 in her lung. This is her 4th bout with cancer, including breast and brain. It really couldn’t get any more complicated or frightening.

Derek met with a vascular doctor to set up an angiogram to make sure his colon (vessels) would be healthy enough to be used to reconstruct his stomach and attach to the esophagus upon surgery, unless they decided to use his small intestine.

As you can imagine, or if you have been keeping up with the Caring Bridge for Derek, you know that this has been an ongoing battle with set-back after set-back. There were chemo appointments canceled due to low blood counts, leaking from his J-tube, malnourishment, it was more than frustrating for Derek, Julie and the boys.

On 2/8, he had his angiogram and all went well. This meant that he could have the surgery to reconstruct a stomach using his small intestine and attach it to his esophagus. At that point, he got news his blood was back to normal level and chemo could resume on 2/21.

After doing a TON of research, talking to the doctors at St. Joseph’s Hospital, and the team at Sloan Kettering, they found a surgeon at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore MD who spent a lot of time explaining his surgery method, and how he could make Derek’s small intestine into a “pouch” stomach that would function and be as effective as possible, considering the enormity of the situation.

On March 28th Derek underwent the surgery to remove his stomach. Since this was a stomach cancer, they needed to remove the entire stomach, the surrounding tissue and lymph nodes and arteries that fed into that. The surgeon used the small intestine to create a pouch as a stomach and they removed his J-tube. He was on IV fluids for a while, until he could tolerate soft foods.

On 3/31 Derek experienced some complications and landed in the ICU at JH. He became septic and experienced rigors. A leak was discovered at the anastomosis, the connection where the esophagus was tied to the small intestine that was created for the new “pouch” stomach.

4/2 was Derek’s birthday and he was able to get moved from the ICU back to the surgical floor. He was monitored constantly, but remained in a ton of pain and lacked sleep. The good news at this point in time was *the pathology report came back that the cancer was completely in the stomach, which they got out!* BUT the Dr still wanted to give him 4 more rounds of chemo after his release and recovery, to ensure that the cancer would be eradicated on a cellular level that can’t be seen.

Despite the good news, he still had an infection of abdominal fluid, and an area of his incision as well, was infected. There were more steps taken to treat this.

4/9 just when the team at JH was starting to feel confident that Derek could be released, Derek felt a “pop” followed by profuse bleeding out of his incision. It was determined that this was a small artery that was weakened by the infection in his abdomen. Interventional Radiology did a angio embolization to stop the bleeding with a coil. On top of this, Derek developed delirium due to sleep deprivation.

On 4/12 he was finally released from Johns Hopkins and was happy to be home, despite not having felt well for about 10 days. Derek was still in pain from the ruptured artery and had little to no appetite to sustain him. It was decided that he needed to be admitted again, to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse. They found that the culture indicated he still had the pseudomonas, which was the infection that grew back at Johns Hopkins. There were more drains, more CTs, more complications, 2 more weeks in the hospital passed.

On 5/7 it was decided that Derek needed to be seen by his surgeon in Baltimore. Derek had been experiencing severe pain and cramping. He was throwing up with attempts to swallow, and a barium swallow test showed that his barium and food was getting backed up from his new pouch into his esophagus. He is at risk of aspiration and due to his now unique anatomy, he will be under the care of his surgeon and the team at Johns Hopkins Bayview in Baltimore. He was flown out yesterday 5/8, from Syracuse via Medevac transport helicopter to Baltimore.

—————

Please continue to pray for Derek’s healing and for the hands of the surgical team in Baltimore. Also, please continue to pray for Julie and the boys, as the uncertainty of this situation from day to day has been completely overwhelming for all of them.❤️ 

If for some reason you would prefer not to use this platform, but still would like to send the Persse family some help, Julie’s Venmo is: 

@Julie-Persse