Kerry Libby's Pancreas Surgery fund

Kerry was born with a congenital defect of her pancreas and has been battling chronic pancreatitis for eight years. She has managed to find a way to live with the pain, but has reached the point where surgery is the only way forward. Kerry just had surgery to implant a feeding tube to strengthen her body for the removal of her pancreas in May. Depending upon her success in gaining nourishment, she will have to travel seven hours to attend counseling /educational sessions to prepare her for the surgery and for a life without a pancreas. The surgical procedure is called Total Pancreatectomy with Isalet Auto-Transplant (TP IAT). Post surgery,  she will be confined to the hospital for 6-9 weeks and must have a friend or relative with her during her stay.

Kerry has  medical insurance but doesn't have disability insurance or short term home healthcare insurance and must pay for these types of living and healthcare expenses out of pocket. With post-operative morbidity rates for TP IAT of 36-39%, home healthcare after surgery is vital.  Without it her chances of morbidity occurring are increased drastically.  For example, if any suture ruptures, toxicity can take her life within six hours.

Kerry is the Institute Director at the Standing Rock Institute of Natural History but will not be able to partake in any dinosaur digs this summer, or the excavation of her magnificent find last summer, which is devastating for her. She lives a very active lifestyle but is now grounded until she recovers from the surgery which could take over one year. Kerry has been an athlete all of her life and once played semi and pro-soccer for the Hampton Roads Piranhas in Virginia as a midfielder and backup goal keeper. She still enjoys playing softball in Mobridge, SD, hunting, golfing, photography, painting pictures, travel and horseback riding. Kerry is a 44 year old mother to two young men, Spencer and Dominick, and is paying to put her youngest through college at SUNY Delhi, a State Universtity in upstate Delhi, New York. 

Ms. Libby will endure this very crucial surgery to remove her pancreas, then have the islet (eye-let) cells from her deteriorating pancreas transplanted back into her own liver, which will then attempt to act as a host and begin to produce insulin in due time. She will become an immediate diabetic and will have to consume enzyme pills for the remainder of her life to digest food.

Please help Kerry with her medical expenses (40% coinsurance, deductibles, medical home infusion costs, home healthcare) for the next year so she can get back to her old active self.
The following website for the University of Minnesota Medical Center where the surgery will be performed, explains Total Pancreatectomy and Iselt Auto-Transplant: (https://www.mhealth.org/Care/Treatments/Total-Pancreatectomy-and-Islet-Auto-transplant-Adult)