Jimmy’s Journey Chapter 2

Thank you all for your donations thus far. This begins Chapter 2.

Hi my name is Bridgette Acheson. I am raising funds to help with Jimmy’s medical and living expenses while he is going through a rare form of cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, which has now metastasized to his liver. His first round of treatment started in 2022, diagnosed Christmas Day of 2021, which consisted of having a Whipple surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Jimmy did everything the doctor’s asked and we were told by his surgeon, “This was caught early so you should have at least 45 more years to live.” His last radiation treatment was in September of 2022. 4 months pass and everything is looking good. All of a sudden Jimmy feels like he is going to vomit…out of nowhere. We chalk it up to food poisoning or a “bug” going around. His lower back begins to hurt so we take him to a chiropractor. No luck. A couple of days pass and the pain he has is more than unbearable and he cannot even eat. We go to the ER to find out what is going on. Jimmy’s liver enzymes are elevated and the GI team said they cannot find any blockages and cannot get past the new curvatures from the Whipple surgery, so they send him home. The pain comes back so we shampoo, rinse repeat…twice. The abdominal pain Jimmy has is progressively becoming worse to the point he cannot eat or even sleep, so Jimmy admits himself to the Northwestern in Chicago. Since February my husband has spent more than 70 days hospitalized, received 7 ERCP’s, at least 10 MRI’s, numerous MRCP’s, had cysts on his liver, drained the cysts, sepsis amongst many other ailments. Jaundice has been just awful along with his extreme weight loss. To watch the most wonderful man go through something like this does not only break my heart but shatters it.

After 2 weeks being home from the third hospital stay and having to admit himself back to the ER due to not being able to get the proper pain medications, we find out the cancer has metastasized to the liver. It is not one tumor, but many. His biliary count was recently up to 32 (normally should be 1) and we finally got it down to 25 by the miracle of prayer and positive thinking. We were at a crossroads last week and did not know if the doctors were going to continue or stop treatment. We ARE moving forward. We are ACHESONS and we do not give up.

With all of this said, I have had to miss multiple days of work and Jimmy’s disability will not kick in until the end of September and he has not worked since February. Our gratitude for the amount of donations that came through previously reaches beyond the edges of the universe.

As we prepare for tomorrow’s surgery, I am asking for help, and asking for help is extremely difficult for me to do, but I will swallow my pride to ease the burden on our family so we can do what is needed and important in these difficult times.

If you cannot donate, please share, so I can possibly help another person or family going through this type of cancer as we need to learn more about it and spread knowledge of it, so nobody else has to go through what Jimmy is. It has been hard on all of us.

Thank you all again for your kindness and outpouring amounts of love.