Jessica Zeigler’s Medical Journey

As some of you know, and I know many of you don’t, Jessica suffers from multiple blood disorders and vascular irregularities. Trust me, if you don’t know, it’s intentional.

My wife is probably the strongest person that I’ve ever met. She has been dealing with this since she was 18 years old. The blood disorders have caused hundreds of superficial clots over the last 20 years, and 30 or more deep vein thrombosis (DVT’s), which are potentially life threatening; i.e. stroke, pulmonary embolism, heart attack, etc. These clots have damaged her left leg to the point that the valves that pump the blood back up out of her leg are unable to do so, causing severe severe pain, swelling, and increases the chances of continued clotting. She goes about her days with dignity and grace, and unrelenting spirit to care for myself and the boys, and without fail, always accomplishes this task. She doesn’t let anyone including the boys be privy to the excruciating pain that she is in on a daily basis, she holds it together and soldiers on like a warrior.

That being said, over that last 2 years, multiple surgeries, and hospital stays, her problems had gotten bad enough that her doctors in Cincy basically threw up their hands, and advised us to see the vascular specialists at Cleveland Clinic. We have been back and forth to Cleveland multiple times over the past 12 months seeing multiple doctors, and she underwent one surgery that ended up unsuccessful. The surgeon explained that the chronic (old) clots and scar tissue were so bad he couldn’t even get the device through her veins to try the procedure because it was like trying to push the device through concrete. Now, here we are again, as the doctors at Cleveland Clinic have no other options available, and have referred us to the vascular team at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota as they have access to more technology and procedures on trial for her type of vascular issues.

As you can imagine, this has taken a toll on her, mentally, physically, emotionally, and now has taken a toll on us financially. The medical bills, even with decent insurance have racked up over the past 2 years, and now adding the potential of traveling to and from Minnesota, it’s become more than we can handle and left us having to make medical decisions based on what we can afford and not based on what’s best for my wife’s health. 

We’ve never been one to ask for help, and the decision to do this GoFundMe has been heavy on my mind for a long time, but I’ve decided to put my pride aside, because my wife deserves to live a life free of the daily pain she so selflessly endures. 

If you find yourself in a spot to help, please know that it is appreciated more than you could imagine, and if you aren’t in a place to help, please know we completely understand. We believe that even just your thoughts and prayers will help us through this difficult time.