Ramona Millers Family Fund, RIP ❤️
Donation protected
On Friday 11/24/23 at 9:30pm Ramona Marie Miller joined her first born baby Jackson in the arms of Jesus. She fought hard against cancer and wanted to have as much time as she could with her daughter Zoe. Please pray.
** This go fund me has been keeping Ramona afloat while disability kicked in, and has been making up the difference in her monthly income and bills. She also has been paying for medical not covered, and travel expenses for her mom to come with her to St Louis.
With this sternectomy her stay is looking to be longer than expected.
*They originally said she would have surgery Wed and then go home the next Tuesday.
after surgery they have made a couple of comments about expected release dates- it went from maybe Tuesday around lunch to Friday and now a nurse just said the chart says next Friday- that will be about 17 maybe more nights in a hotel for her mom and sister or whatever family is there. This is unexpected. Between food and hotel, Ramona had been using some of the go fund me to make sure this wasn’t a burden on her family as she was fighting cancer.
This is going to be depleting that amount, and she won’t have what is needed to make up the difference for monthly bills.
please pray and consider helping.
This is an attempt to keep monthly bills paid until disability starts paying.
I am sure everyone knows most of the back story. For those that don’t know, Ramona was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in June 2019. That summer was spent with one appointment after another, confirmed 6/10/19 and first chemo was 17 days later. Chemo ended on 10/3/19. She had her first breast removal 11/5/19 and radiation started 12/26/19 until 2/6/20. She had her hysterectomy 6/1/20, and 7/7/20 they did reconstructive surgery and added expanders. By Dec 6, 2020 they did surgery to put in the implants. She was always having some kind of issues after that surgery. Was always told by the doctor “You need to get use to them.”
It wasn’t until around September 2022 when she was having severe pain in her chest, her left breast was larger than the right, doubling in size, that she sought out a second option and pleaded with the surgeon to remove her implants.
When he saw her he sent her to the breast clinic and they removed so much fluid off her chest, and by the next day it was back. So that alerted the surgeon there was something going on he needed to act quickly.
That surgery was 10/14/22.
Since then there has been infection after infection, they could see her sternum was black from radiation, they have said she has radio necrosis.
Since 10/14, she’s has had 2 surgeries and now being hospitalized a 2nd time to try and clean out the infection.
The CT report came back and it showed a large amount of fluid and they had to go back and clean it out.
in December 2022 after being hospitalized again, another surgery to clean out the wound, the surgeon did a biopsy of the bone that was suspected of being radio necrosis. It came back as cancer. Same kind as before.
they started chemo and immunotherapy 1/2023, it hasn’t been easy. There are a lot of side effects with these drugs. It doesn’t help that she’s had an open wound on her chest since October 2022. The tumor keeps creeping out, and the surgeon has resected it a couple times.
She has now been referred to Barnes in STL….
Ramona has been waiting for things to even out, get better, but now we see another CT Scan showing a new mass that has grown in a short time and determined to be cancer.
The big surgery to remove the tumor in the sternum is scheduled for 8/24 at Barnes in St Louis. This is a huge operation and will require a team of at least 3 surgeons. At least one week in the hospital in St Louis, which brings new financial worries. Making sure her family has a hotel room, gas & food for the week.
As we know Ramona went ahead and quit her job, between the cysts in her knees (yes left one has it now too), doctors appointments, losing her vision for a short while, trips out of town for consults, being admitted to the hospital for infections….. it was time to apply for disability.
This is not going to be easy, it won’t be like getting a full weeks check that she’s used to, but at least it’s something, and she doesn’t have the stress of trying to make it to the office, feeling like she’s letting her coworkers down.
the paperwork is being filed, she was going to do more work on it last week, but Zoe’s surgery ended up taking a bigger toll on them both than they expected.
As things calmed down she then was admitted to the hospital again with an infection, last Monday 7/17, and is still there today, Fri 7/22. During this stay is when they have found the mass in the right side of her chest and the biopsy came back as cancer.
So, we know it’s a lot, but anything to help until disability comes through would be an absolute blessing.
Ramona has said over and over that she can’t believe the outpouring of love, prayer and support she has received, even with the first diagnosis.
I know it’s because she has always tried to help others when they were in need.
thank you for reading.
7/22/23- Ramona is home from the hospital, resting at home with Zoe. Unfortunately her left knee is swollen more, and she will have to go to Cox Ortho Clinic Monday.
Organizer and beneficiary
Tiffany Whittington
Organizer
Ozark, MO
Billy Miller
Beneficiary