Therese Johnson Emergency Fund

All (apologies in advance for the long post)-

I wish I was writing this gofundme under better circumstances, but unfortunately life didn't have the same goals for our family. You all know my mother, Therese Johnson, and what an amazing, sweet, caring, and strong person she is. Unfortunately, she has been in a daily battle with Stage IV Breast cancer (after having been in remission for 10 years) for the past 2+ years and has suffered another series of setbacks over the past few months. As this tyrant has been raging in her body, she has been fighting to stay strong and supportive of everyone around her while still working and being who she is - someone who would do anything for anyone within her power. 

You may or may not know she had colon surgery in February to remove a cancerous tumor that was causing severe pain and restricting her ability to eat and properly process food. They removed a good portion of it and sent her home to rest and recoup. As she recuperated things started getting worse again 6 weeks ago. After another battery of tests, 2 weeks ago another mass was identified near the base of the stomach and further tests scheduled, yet again restricting her ability to eat much of anything without severe pain and other digestive issues.

My mother, being the strong woman she is, decided that she wanted to complete her goal of taking the last of her grandkids to Disney in Orlando for their birthday; they left on 4/30. By Wednesday, my Dad had to return to DFW for work the rest of the week while she continued on with my sister and family and had planned to stay until Saturday. Thursday evening, the pain was unbearable and she needed to be admitted to the ER. Working with my sister and my grandmother who are currently down there, we got her into UF Health Leesburg. She was immediately admitted, intubated with an NG tube, and put on an IV drip. After pumping 2.5 liters of fluid from her stomach and performing an upper endoscopy, they found the duodenum was completely blocked by another tumor pressing against the walls. She is unable to process any foods or fluids at this point and requires another emergency surgery to remove the tumor and release the pressure against the walls of the duodenum to allow food to hopefully process more freely.

We were hoping to get her stabilized so she could catch her scheduled Saturday flight home and get her admitted to the hospital here immediately upon landing, however after 2 days of calls and doctor conferences between Florida and Texas, this is no longer possible as she must stay intubated and supplied with IV fluids for sustenance and pain relief while being constantly supported by a nursing staff.

We need to get Mom back to Texas to have any hope of being able to properly support her and my Dad emotionally and financially while they are going through this, as well as having her normal team of doctors here to support her with her full history. Both of my parents being out of commission in Florida for up to 6-8 weeks until she would be stable and strong enough for a flight is unfortunately not an option we have at this time. 

All of this is to say, they are unfortunately in need of some financial support to help them get through this very trying time. After exploring multiple options and reaching out to some charities, we were unable to find any low cost options to get her home quickly for this surgery nor any support from her insurance carrier. We were finally able to secure an air ambulance flight at the most reasonable cost possible, however, as you know - these things aren't cheap. Just the flight, medic and RN for the bed to bed flight From Leesburg, FL to Grapevine, TX cost $17,000 out of pocket with no insurance reimbursement possible; however the true cost for this round of surgeries and treatments is yet unknown. Between an ER visit, two hospital stays with multiple procedures and significant time-off work for Mom and Dad, the expenditures are going to be large. Unfortunately I'm still out of work so I didn't have much in the way of funds to offer, however I am hoping to offset some of these costs with being able to provide day-to-day support of Mom in the near-term so Dad can resume work as soon as possible, and Jessie dug deep into savings to support the flight.

I apologize for the long winded nature of this post as it's not easy for us to ask for help, however if you decide to help I wanted to ensure you knew why we are asking for everyones support. Any funds received from this gofundme are going directly to paying down the ambulance flight, medical bills, and supporting Mom and Dad where possible. We are a proud, hard working family who is just stuck in a very bad position, and would be very appreciative and grateful of anything you could donate to help support as we go through this. I know it's not an easy time for a lot of folks, with COVID destroying many more families and livelihoods than ours, so even $5 makes a huge difference. If you can't donate we fully understand that as well, just keep Mom in your thoughts. I can't say it enough to everyone - THANK YOU!

Thank you to everyone who made it this far, and to all of our friends and family - We miss you, we love you, and and we wish you nothing but health and happiness. I will try and post regular updates to this page, so keep an eye out. The current plan is to have her admitted to Baylor Grapevine by tomorrow afternoon with more information to come.

With Love and much gratitude,

Therese, Dave, Steve and Jessica