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Meet the Family: Jarrod(38), Angie(35), Dylan(12), Alyssa(9), and little Luke(2). Angie was recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer typically found in 70-80 year old men and this family could really use your support to help cover the cost of medical expenses and household bills while Angie is out of work receiving treatment. Here's their story:

The Fight for a Family: At 35 years old, Angie has already had to deal with far more medical issues than most people. The first of which made itself known when she and Jarrod tried to have their first child. They tried for years with no success and when they consulted a doctor they received the unfortunate news that Angie had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome making it much more difficult for her to get pregnant. So they began using fertility drugs and eventually had their first child, Dylan. Alyssa was a miracle baby that came without the aid of any fertility drugs but when they decided to have one more they needed the fertility drugs again to have little Luke. Since she was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary she has dealt with many related health issues caused by the associated hormonal imbalances that go along with the disease. Which may have played a role in the battle she wages now.

The Misdiagnosis and Multiple Surgeries: Her most recent health concerns began a few months ago when she noticed that her urine looked a bit like coffee. She went to her family doctor’s office and was told it was probably just dehydration and that she should drink more fluids. Then one day she woke up to find that she was severely jaundiced, her skin and eyes extremely yellowed. She went to the hospital and they performed an MRI which showed a mass in her bile duct. The doctor at the hospital told her it was good news, that it wasn’t a tumor, it was just a stone from her gall bladder and that she would need to have her gall bladder removed. They removed her gall bladder on September 10th and we all hoped that this would be the end of it. That she would get better and we wouldn’t need to worry. But unfortunately that wasn’t the case. She remained jaundiced and didn’t appear to improve at all. Removing her gall bladder had done nothing to help her. They suspected that perhaps the stone was lodged and hadn’t been flushed out as it should have from the surgery so they sent her to a hospital in Indianapolis, two and a half hours away, to have an ERCP done. They went in endoscopically to try and alleviate the problem only to discover that the stone was not a stone but was in fact a tumor, as the first doctor had assured her it wasn’t. They put in a stint, took a few samples to biopsy, and scheduled her for a Whipple procedure to remove the tumor and surrounding tissues. The initial biopsy showed that the tumor was benign, but the doctor told her there was still a chance that there was cancer, either around the tumor or within it, in placed they couldn’t reach. She went in for the Whipple on October 16th and it went extremely well. They were able to get all of the tumor out and the surrounding tissues were very healthy. The secondary biopsies of the tumor they removed showed that it was in fact cancerous. The doctor explained that is was Ampullary Cancer, a rare disease typically found in 70-80 year old men, not 35 year old women. Despite the fact that they were able to remove everything cleanly, because of her age the doctor recommended her to an oncologist for chemotherapy because this particular type of cancer has a nasty habit of re-emerging, and they want to increase her chances of that not happening.

An Ongoing Struggle: Chemo can’t begin until she heals from the Whipple, which generally takes 6-8 weeks. After that she will be undergoing chemotherapy once a week three weeks out of the month for six months. Because of the initial misdiagnosis, she has already been out of work for two months. She hasn't started receiving her disability yet, and even when she does she only gets around $60 a week after they take out the money for her health insurance. This family of five is living off of a single income when they have always relied on two and it just isn’t working. Their bills are falling behind and they are barely able to keep up with disconnection notices. They haven’t even started receiving bills for the surgeries she has had to endure yet, but they have begun to receive bills for the various tests, echocardiograms, MRI’s, and an onslaught of bloodwork, that she had to undergo. This family could really use your help to keep their head above water while Angie undergoes treatment and recovery. Anything you can do to help is appreciated. If you can’t afford to donate then please at this click a button and share this with as many people as you can.