Help the Jensens pay for medical and moving expenses

Marielle has been dealing with a chronic condition called Gastroparesis since March of 2021. Gastroparesis is a neuro-gastric disorder that essentially paralyzes the stomach. For the majority of people with gastroparesis, it is related to diabetes. Marielle is not diabetic and though there is no way to know for sure, her doctors believe that her Gastroparesis is a presentation of long covid. Gastroparesis hits in flairs that can last from days to weeks. Between March 2021 and August 2024, Marielle was hospitalized 7 different times for about a week each time. While in a flair, it becomes impossible to stay hydrated so she has also had countless ER visits in addition to the longer hospitalizations. For a while, Marielle seemed to bounce back to a relatively “normal” health condition in between flair-ups.

In August 2024, Marielle had another 7 day hospital stay and discussed treatment options with her doctors. She returned to work as a high school teacher but was limited to only a few foods and a mostly liquid diet. This flair was different in that it didn't seem to improve in the time frame that flairs had resolved in the past. Marielle was still able to work but that was pretty much it. She would rally every morning through the pain and nausea, go to work all day, and come home with just enough energy to sit with a heating pad. Eventually enjoyable tasks and hobbies became impossible due to the lack of energy. Marielle has seen multiple gastroenterologists and other specialists and failed each medical treatment option.

On December 13, Marielle found herself in the Emergency Department again for intractable nausea and vomiting. She was admitted due to being dangerously dehydrated and her blood work was starting to show signs of malnutrition. Marielle remained in the hospital from Dec 13 to Jan 7. She was actually discharged twice during this time but forced to return to the hospital when her condition did not improve as expected at home. During this stay, doctors attempted a procedure to open the pyloric valve between the stomach and the small intestine in order to improve gastric emptying. The procedure is only effective in 50% of cases and was unfortunately ineffective for Marielle.

On Jan 2, the doctors finally decided to place an NJ feeding tube to provide nutrition and hydration. This tube leads from the nose, past the stomach, and into the jejunum (in the small intestine). Many people who have gastroparesis are better able to absorb nutrients and avoid nausea when their food bypasses the stomach. The NJ tube was extremely uncomfortable for Marielle but it did allow her to receive consistent nutrition and help her get stable enough to go home.

During this time, Marielle had to take unpaid medical leave from her position as a high school teacher, effectively cutting their household income in half. She was able to rest at home for the next few weeks. By utilizing the feeding tube she was able to maintain her health but wasn't necessarily getting better. In January, she met with more specialists and consultants and found a frustrating lack of answers and treatment options. Marielle has tried every medicine on the market for gastroparesis with no success and is not a good candidate for surgical options.

Marielle was admitted to LDS Hospital on January 30 because, despite the NJ tube providing nutrition, she was still unable to maintain her hydration without being severely ill. The doctors at LDS Hospital agreed to place a GJ tube on January 6. A gastro-jejunal tube goes through the abdomen, into the stomach and then extends to end in the jejunum. This tube was meant to be more permanent than the NJ tube and though it is a more invasive procedure to place, doctors hoped it would ultimately improve Marielle’s quality of life by providing nutrition and hydration but also allowing her to eat normally when able.

The GJ tube placement is considered a low risk procedure and is normally performed outpatient. Marielle knew she would need to stay in the hospital for a few days following the procedure because she was not super stable to begin with, but what happened next quickly turned into a nightmare. After being back in her hospital room for a couple hours post surgery, Marielle began vomiting large volumes of blood. The first time, the doctors said it was nothing to worry about. When she vomited again an hour later, the doctors took it more seriously. She was rushed back into an endoscopy where the medical team drained another liter of blood from her stomach. She was taken to the ICU afterwards where her new GJ tube was used to drain the rest of the blood. In total, she lost 3 liters of blood and needed 3 blood transfusions.

Marielle was in intolerable pain for many days following the procedure. The pain management team believe that when the doctors hit an artery during the tube placement, they also hit a bundle of nerves. Blood was also trapped outside the stomach which was extremely painful. There is a posibility that the nerve pain will be permanent and need to be treated as a chronic pain condition.

After a few days, Marielle was graduated from the ICU and moved back to the medical floor. After just a day or two of using the new GJ tube for nutrition, the end of the tube migrated out of the jejunum and back into the stomach. This made the tube unusable for nutrition and medication until it was fixed. It took two more endoscopies for the tube to be fixed.

A couple days later, the same thing happened and the tube flipped out of position again. At this point doctors decided the tube would need to be replaced surgically, but informed they would wait 5 weeks for the original insertion site to heal due to the complications from the first procedure.

It took another week for the medical team to decide if they would try to put the tube back in its place again or if they would send her home with a central line and IV nutrition.

Eventually, the GI doctors did a 6th and final endoscopy to put the end back in the jejunum and thankfully, it worked. While waiting for this procedure, Marielle did receive a PICC line (permanent IV) to be given IV nutrition in the hospital. While placing the PICC, they stumbled across a blood clot or deep vein thrombosis in Marielle’s upper arm which they may not have discovered otherwise. Marielle will be on blood thinners twice daily for the next 3 months which comes with it's own set of risks as she is severely anemic and just had a serious stomach bleed where the exact source was never found or cauterized.

Because of the many endoscopies and other procedures that required Marielle to fast for a day leading up to them, combined with losing nutritional access every time the tube was displaced and mixed with a moderate amount of medical neglect on the part of doctors - Marielle only received full nutrition for 8 of the 26 days that she spent at LDS Hospital. She left the hospital ten pounds lighter than when she was admitted and she was already malnourished when admitted.

The hope was for the GJ tube to stay in its place until the site was healed enough to place a new tube surgically. With the surgical approach the end of the tube can actually be sutured to the inside of Marielle’s small intestine wall - making it nearly impossible to displace on its own.

Today (March 6th) Marielle went to the ER where it was discovered that the tube had again fallen out of place. There is currently no word on what the Doctors will try next.

At this point, Marielle has spent 47+ days in the hospital since December. It has been extremely taxing for the whole family - mentally, physically, and financially. Once Marielle is stable enough to continue care at home, she will still need home health services to manage the feeding tube and central line for weekly IV hydration and medication. It will take time and a lot of work to get her back to a healthy weight and gain back muscles that have atrophied. Besides astronomical hospital bills, Marielle and her family are also in need of financial assistance for home health services, expensive tube feeding formula and equipment, physical therapy, and other medical bills. There will also be more visits with specialists to search for an underlying cause for all these issues and a hunt for diagnoses of comorbidities that are suspected along side GP but have never been officially confirmed. This would open up more treatment options.

Marielle was bringing home half of their household income but is unable to return to work indefinitely because it is too risky for her to catch any viruses and her physically demanding job is not compatible with her current health status. Because of this, Marielle, husband David, and Junie (5) have made the difficult decision to move to Colorado and live with Marielle’s mom for the foreseeable future in order to feasibly live off of just David's income. They need help paying for moving expenses and to offset the months where Marielle has been unable to work.

This has been an enormously difficult time for Marielle, David and the whole family. They have felt so many people's love and appreciate the help that has been given and offered. Contributing to this GoFundMe and/or sharing it is the best way to support them as they set up their new life in Colorado and continue Marielle’s current medical treatment and seek out other treatment options. If you are unable to donate but can share, it is so greatly appreciated.