Medical expense

My name is Jacquelyn Downs and I’m a 54-year-old native of Savannah.

When they say you never know what you will go through or where you will be from day to day; this has been a true story for me these past 5 months.

On May 26th of this year, I was diagnosed with Nodular Lymphocyte Predominant Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The name alone scared the wits out of me, but as the team of doctors that was appointed to me shared exactly what I was up against and what treatment I would receive it eased my mind somewhat but just knowing that I had cancer was a whoop all by itself. I had to take 20 rounds of radiation treatments and follow-ups during the process and on I got to ring the bell on July 25th of being cancer free! I was able to be a testimony for someone to tell what I went through to help the next person.

In the beginning of October, I started having some gum issues with them being irritated and bleeding and thinking that maybe it’s something minor I went to go see my dentist. I thought it would be a routine check-up and possibly stating to me that I may need to floss a little more regularly, but he stated that I had excessive gum growth, and I was referred to an oral surgeon so that they could look more closely at my gums.

The oral surgeon did the exam and he stated that he thought this would come from taking a specific blood pressure medication, but he decided to cut a piece of my gum off and send it off to the lab for a biopsy that returned within two weeks, which was the call that abruptly changed my life again as I was

told that I now have Squamous Cell Carcinoma in my gums. “Totally not what I was expecting to hear on the other end of the phone.” I immediately asked the oral surgeon “How do you and how did I get this?” The answer just blew me away which was “Bad Luck”. None of the ways that this could be contracted was nothing that I did or do currently in my life so he’s right it was “Bad Luck” as my first diagnosis that I had was rare; now this diagnosis was rare for me being in the .9 percentile of getting it.

The process is moving very rapidly, and I was told that I would be having surgery within two weeks but as of Monday 10/30/23 I got a phone call and was told that surgery will be on Tuesday November 7th which is a few days away. The process that was explained to me for them to remove the cancerous cells

would be to remove almost the entire left side of my teeth starting from the front to the back. As I’m being told this my heart and eyes are just shattering and filling with tears because those who knows me knows that I love to smile! I will have to have a piece of bone removed from my arm to place in my frontal gums for support so that healing in this area can have something to support the gums in healing strong.

When they said take a piece of bone from my arm the first thing I said was “wait a minute; this is my bowling arm” the doctor smiled and said we can do the other arm.

The reconstructive process for this will be significant and I’m asking for donations to assist with the medical expenses and some of the deductibles I will be facing during this time. The doctor will share more details of my options, starting the reconstructive process and I will update everyone as we go

through it!

I want to come out smiling “Bright Like a Diamond” and knowing that God will bring me through this.

Thank you for hearing my story and contributing in any way that you can; and I ask that you share my story if it touched you in any way as this will help me reach my goal; but most of all please continue to pray for me during and after this process!

God Bless

Jacquelyn Downs