Support Jessica in Her Battle Against Leukemia
Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Jessica is an amazing friend, sister, & dedicated wife and mother to a beautiful 7 yr old boy, who on October 31st received the terrible diagnosis of AML(Acute Myeloid Leukemia.) Because of how aggressive and quickly it can spread, she was immediately admitted to Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center & started on chemotherapy. She will remain there for 4-6 weeks. The current treatment she’s receiving is a 24/7 Chemo drip for 7 days. If after the first 7 days of treatment, it shows that the chemo is working, they’ll start another 7 days of the same treatment. With the family reduced to one income what little savings they may have will be quickly depleted. Her disability insurance pays some (40%) which is better than nothing, but it is no where close to what is needed, just to be able keep their head above water. Especially with the holidays quickly approaching. We have extended all the love our hearts can hold and will continue to but financially we are short-handed. So we are reaching out to you-our family, friends, and community to help us give this family a ray of hope. Anything no matter how small would be greatly appreciated along with prayers.
Hello to all Friends, Family, and Anyone who is willing to open their heart to help us support Jessica in her fight against Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). After a week of really bad headaches and fatigue, Jessica finally went to her Dr and had some routine bloodwork done. She then went back to her normal duties as a mom & wife. Shortly afterward she was contacted by her Dr and was told she needed to go the the ER immediately. Once there and a couple tests later they informed her that she needed to be taken by ambulance to Wake Forest Baptist hospital. Once she arrived she was admitted. On Thursday October 31st, in addition to numerous tests, she also received two blood transfusions as well as taking a sample of Jessica’s bone marrow to perform a biopsy on, hoping it could give us some answers. The next day, the morning of Friday, November 1st, the doctors confirmed our worst fear: at only 31 years old with so much life left to live- Jessica has leukemia. 
Treatment of AML- an aggressive form of leukemia- varies from person to person, although the usual protocol is an induction phase of heavy chemotherapy for a couple of months to knock out the majority of cancer cells. Jessica's chemo will be customized via genetic tests as well as her age, which will allow the treatments to be much more targeted.
Once Jessica is finished with chemotherapy, which will not only destroy the mutated leukemic blast cells, but her healthy, cancer-free cells as well, she’ll need to restore those healthy cells. To wipe out the remaining cancerous cells and restore those healthy cells within Jessica’s body- her bone marrow in particular- she may require an bone marrow/stem cell transplant. As you can imagine, this is all incredibly expensive. We want Jessica to receive the best care available from the most qualified nurses, doctors, oncologists, and specialists.
Jessica’s sister-in-law will be acting as the executor of funds and will ensure that in addition to funding Jess’s treatment and subsequent recovery, money donated will help to cover a myriad of expenses including the loss of wages that encompass a diagnosis of this magnitude, of which we expect Jess to be out of work for at least a couple months. Any funds that are received will be used to pay regular household bills, provide food, as well as funding the almost 100 mile round trip to and from their home to the Cancer Center. It also well help with being able to give Jacob, her 7 year old son, whom she loves more than anything in this world, the love of her life as normal of a Christmas as she possibly can. She’ll be spending Thanksgiving in the Cancer Center. Jessica’s initial chemotherapy treatment began Friday, November 1st and they are expected to last a week.. 24 hours a day for 7 days. She will remain in the hospital from 4-6 weeks if everything goes as planned. That puts her at best getting out a week to ten days before Christmas.
Please help Jessica a generous, spirited and loving, compassionate, young woman, by contributing, whether in a modest or momentous way. Some funds will go toward her cancer treatment and related costs. Other funds will go towards her family's living expenses so that Jess can focus on healing. Please feel free use the guestbook on this page to write a message of love, hope, and encouragement to Jess. Jess is remaining positive and optimistic, and looking forward to moving past this and kicking Leukemia’s butt!