Please Support Gianna's Battle Against Cancer

** Follow Gianna's journey on Instagram - "gianna.cericola" - for updates **

On Wednesday 10/16, Gianna woke me up from my sleep at 3:00 AM saying she didn’t feel well. After a few minutes of trying to calm her down and figure out what was wrong, she collapsed in my arms. She was alert and coherent roughly 30 seconds later but she was very confused, scared, and did not remember fainting. I told her I was taking her to the hospital. We arrived at Bryn Mawr Hospital’s ER and they took her vitals, did some bloodwork, and sent her for an ultrasound of her abdomen - she had been having pain in the area for a couple of days. They noticed a mass in her abdomen but her levels were fine so they sent us home with a follow-up appointment scheduled a week later.

The next day, G was a shell of her normal self. The pain in her stomach had worsened, she could barely walk, and she had no energy or appetite. She spent most of the day sleeping on the couch. Around 5:00 PM, I noticed she was in our master bathroom standing at the sink when I walked into our bedroom. G walked out of the bathroom with her head down, came right over to me, and put her arms around my waist. A moment later, she collapsed in my arms again. I immediately called her mom and told her she needed to come over - we needed to take her back to the hospital. G was alert again, but she was so lethargic. She needed my help just to walk down the hall to the couch to wait for her mom. Her mom arrived and before we could even get Gianna ready to go to the hospital, she collapsed a third time - this time on our couch. I called 911 and the ambulance arrived very quickly to take her back to the hospital.

Back at Bryn Mawr Hospital, they immediately hooked her to an IV, gave her another infusion, and did more bloodwork. This time, her hemoglobin level was at a level nearly half of what it should be. They ordered a CT scan which showed she had 2 liters of blood sitting in her abdomen - indicative of internal bleeding. She was severely anemic and needed blood. They gave her a blood transfusion, which combined with the other things, helped her levels stabilize. We were thrilled she was feeling better - but what the hell was causing this? A restless day and a half at the hospital later, the doctors determined they needed to go in to remove the mass and clean out the blood in her abdomen.

Saturday night, the surgeon came out of the Operating Room to let Gianna’s mom, dad, and me know that the surgery went well and G did great. She was able to remove the mass and stop the internal bleeding. But she continued on with news that absolutely no one - doctors included - saw coming. Gianna very likely had cancer. She went on to explain that the blood in G’s abdomen made it extremely difficult to read the various scans to pinpoint exactly what was causing the issue. When she was in there operating, she noticed troublesome signs on and around the omentum, the part of the body where the mass was. She sent out biopsies of the mass and the surrounding troublesome areas for pathology (of which we are still waiting for final results) but she was extremely worried about the possibility of cancer. The preliminary results from pathology and the opinions of cancer doctors at multiple locations point to Gianna facing a form of Sarcoma.

It has obviously been a heartbreaking and terrifying few weeks for everyone involved, but especially for Gianna - the 27 year old workout warrior in better shape than 99% of the people I know. Cancer sure doesn’t discriminate. It makes no sense for her to be in this position. She’s scared, confused, and trying to absorb information from seemingly endless amounts of appointments. But she’s a fighter. The toughest and strongest girl I know. And she’s got an army of supporters by her side ready to help her in this journey. We’ve been SO appreciative of all the well wishes, flowers, gifts, etc. that people have been sending ever since hearing she was hospitalized. The support has been overwhelming. Many of you have reached out asking how you can help. This is the answer. We don’t yet know exactly what we are facing and this is just the beginning of the fight. The good news is that her recent PET scan showed the cancer has not spread to other areas outside of her abdomen.

How this money will be used: What we do know is that Gianna will require additional tests and will follow a yet-to-be-determined treatment plan to address the cancer. Prior to that, she’ll need to undergo fertility treatments to preserve her ability to have children since cancer treatments like chemo or radiation can impact reproduction. Not to mention the various hospital and medical bills she has already accumulated to date. All donation money will be used toward current and future medical bills related to Gianna’s unforeseen medical journey.

If you are able to donate, share her story, or even just pass this link around to people to raise awareness, it would be GREATLY appreciated. We love you and thank you all just for your consideration.

My girl’s got so much life left to live. Please help G make it happen.