Tammy, a cancer survivor, in tough COVID battle

Tammy, a 25-year cancer survivor, now has a tougher fight with COVID.

For the past 25 years, Tammy has been fighting Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and Thyroid cancers, and is by anyone’s definition, a cancer survivor SUPERHERO. She is a proven fighter having persevered through multiple surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, mono-clonal antibodies therapies and most recently in 2019, CAR T-cell therapy (reengineered T cells to attack her specific cancer). Unfortunately, she is currently in a tougher fight for her life, with multiple complications from COVID. Tammy’s family (Nick, Alex & Nicholas) are asking you to PLEASE read on, support Team Tammy in her fight and help us bring our fighter home!!!

On June 19th, 2022, one of our biggest fears came true. We had confirmation that Tammy contracted the COVID-19 virus. Her immune system has consistently been extremely low from the multiple years of cancer treatments, and because of that, the virus hit her extremely hard. She was admitted in the hospital on July 11th with severe shortness of breath, low blood oxygen, and was given a very low prognosis for recovery. Tammy has been in the hospital ever since, is bed ridden, and has spent 10 weeks (so far) in the Intensive Care Unit.

She was intubated (put on a ventilator) for severe pulmonary issues such as pulmonary edema (liquid buildup in the lungs), pneumothorax (air between the lungs and the chest wall, causing lung collapse) and pneumonia. All these conditions caused respiratory failure and made her ventilator dependent on her breathing. After having the ventilator tube in her throat for 15 days, her pulmonary doctor performed a tracheostomy, which is a surgical procedure that consists of making an incision in the trachea for a direct airway. The tracheostomy is the next logical step in helping her continue the fight to get off the ventilator and breathe on her own.

During her hospital stay, Tammy had many life-threatening episodes such as extreme tachycardia (irregular heart rhythms), bradycardia (heart beats fewer than 60 times a minute) and atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat which can cause strokes). Most recently she’s also had an accumulation of excess fluid in her lungs, and one of her lungs collapsed. These conditions severely interfered with her body’s ability to eliminate c02 and facilitated the need to set her oxygen to maximum settings. However, over the last week, she has been MAKING STEADY IMPROVEMENTS and is requiring less oxygen from the ventilator.

Tammy has a long road to recovery, but WE KNOW she can do it. On her way to full recovery, she will have to undergo pulmonary / respiratory therapy, physical and occupational therapy, speech therapy and learning to eat / swallow regular food again. She WILL RECOVER, is a cancer survivor SUPERHERO, having fought cancer and WON, for over 25 years.

Our family has been trying to make sure she gets the best care possible. A family member, Alex, is with her during the day, and another, Nick, is with her during the night. As you can imagine, even with health insurance, there are growing medical bills and related expenses. Also, the primary care giver (Nick, her husband) is on Family Leave (FMLA) which is unpaid, and there is a remote possibility of job loss, depending on how Tammy’s Road to recovery goes.

BTW, the nurses and respiratory techs at Advent Health, are OUTSTANDING, and are a huge reason why Tammy is still in this fight.

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Any funds raised will strictly be used for medical bills, related expenses, replace FMLA income loss, and in the unlikely event of job loss. PLEASE support Team Tammy in her fight and help us bring our fighter home!!!

Thank you, Tammy’s Family (Nick, Alex & Nicholas)