June Bee's Medical Costs

First, thank you for caring so much about June Bee and our family. This situation has felt isolating, terrifying and surreal. But seeing supportive messages and the generosity from our friends and family has truly made an impact on us.

This GoFundMe originally started in December 2021 when June was first diagnosed with what we thought was a benign ganglioneuroma (essentially, a mature type of neuroblastoma). A year later, after she'd been increasingly showing signs that the tumor might not be totally benign, she underwent surgery to remove it and it was discovered she actually had ganglioneuroblastoma, nodular subtype - a far more malignant form of the cancer. It was also discovered that she had metastatic neuroblastoma present in her lymph nodes as well as in more than 95% of her bone marrow. Based on these new results, her classification was updated to stage 4, high risk, unfavorable pathology due to age.

We are now in a totally new scenario with her disease.  She is currently undergoing the "high risk" treatment protocol which involves high dose chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy. All spread out, it will be a year or more of treatment at minimum. There are other possible treatments that may fall within that outline that will be decided as we progress and see how her cancer is responding.

For now, we are being treated at Doernbecher Children's Hospital. However, we have also reached out to Memorial Sloan Kettering, located in New York, for a second opinion. MSK is considered one of the best, if not THE best, hospitals for treatment of neuroblastoma. Because this cancer is rare, most doctors have very limited experience with treating it. MSK specializes in treating neuroblastoma and sees hundreds of cases each year making them an incredibly valuable resource for June's situation. Unfortunately, our current insurance (Kaiser) has already denied our first request to cover a second opinion with MSK. We are currently appealing that denial and hope to eventually get the request covered. We feel quite strongly that we need as many experienced eyes on our daughter's treatment plan as possible so intend to pay for continued consultation out of pocket, if necessary.

As you might imagine, this diagnosis has impacted every aspect of our lives and we are still getting adjusted to our new world. One part that we continue to struggle with is accepting this generosity from our friends and family. Both Kyle and I much prefer to be helping others and accepting help does not come easily to either of us. But it's undeniable that we will need to in order to best support June Bee. So, even while it's a hard position to be in, we are so grateful to accept the help and support being offered to us.

Thank you all for your care, kindness and generosity. We are very lucky to have all of you.

 

-Kyle, Lacey and June Bee