Just look at those sweet faces... how can you say no?!
I would like to nominate my daughter, Jamie Jacobson and her family to win this prize. Jamie and her husband Ron married straight out of high school as they wanted to be able to bless his parents with grandchildren before they passed away, as they were both terminally ill with cancer. Unfortunately, Jamie had a miscarriage on Christmas day and lost their little girl, 4 months before Ron's father passed away, to be followed by his mother a couple of years later, both passing before Ron was 21 years old.
Following the death of Ron's father they learned that they were expecting a son, Colin, who was born almost 2 months early, and in spite of many set backs and complications, Colin was a fighter and grew out of the frequent seizures that would strike him without warning. Two years later Jamie became pregnant with their second son but the entire pregnancy was filled with complications, hospitalizations and finally Tucker was delivered 2 months early in order to save his life and that of Jamie as well. While Tucker was in the NICU fighting for his life, a standard test revealed that he had been born with Cystic Fibrosis. Tucker soon showed that he too was a fighter and he pulled through and although there were many challenges and hospital stays, especially during the first year, he has been a shining light in the family.
Unfortunately, the stress that the difficult pregnancy and resulting complications caused Jamie to develop a condition called Psuedo Tumor Cerebri, which mimics brain tumors forming and the result has been Jamie loosing almost all of her vision in her right eye as well as a great deal of the vision in her left eye, the "tumors" which were actually pressure lesions resulting from excessively high levels of fluid building up in her brain, also caused her to loose her balance and blackout frequently, which resulted in many sprained and broken bones. Jamie also found she was loosing her memory and was having difficulty speaking at times.
The treatment for this condition was Jamie having spinal taps monthly to lower the pressure building on her brain. During most of the past 5 years that this family has been dealing with this condition Jamie has been without medical insurance which resulted in overwhelming debt that they are still struggling to overcome. Jamie was informed by her doctors this summer that they were not going to be able to do many more spinal taps and a specialist in Seattle was located who was willing to attempt to perform an extremely dangerous surgery that if it was successful, could reverse most of the symptoms that Jamie deals with daily. Just weeks before Jamie was scheduled to go to Seattle to meet with the surgeon Jamie and Ron's youngest son Tucker broke his arm and experienced a life threatening complication to the medications which resulted in him being hospitalized for 21 days and he had to undergo surgery in which part of his intestines were removed.
During his son's hospitalization Ron continued working during the day and going to the hospital to stay with Tucker and give Jamie time to sleep and rest at night as she was dealing with her condition being much worse as she was unable to get at spinal tap to lower the pressure on her brain as she was needed at Tucker's bedside. Finally, Tucker recovered and was able to go home and start kindergarten, 21 days behind his classmates and Jamie was able to follow through with the surgery which had finally been approved by her insurance and would hopefully stop the progression of the blindness which was setting into both eyes.
On Nov. 17th Jamie's surgical team was successfully able to place a device which is supposed to prevent the fluid from building up and causing scarring in her brain. They are not able to remove the existing scar tissue, but as long as the device continues to function properly, she should not experience further damage. The joy came quickly as Jamie discovered that she was regaining her sight within the first 24 hours after surgery. Unfortunately she did experience a few complications which extended their stay in the hospital and increased the time Ron had to be off work, but Jamie returned to Seattle for her post-op appointment last week to be told by her surgeon that she was progressing far better than hoped and she was even released to resume driving.
The family was celebrating the health of both Tucker and Jamie and looking forward to things finally getting better for them. They knew that they were not going to have a Christmas with many gifts as they were struggling to cover basic expenses due to Ron having to be off work throughout part of Tucker's illness and surgeries and Jamie's frequent trips to Seattle to meet with surgeons and going through the actual surgery. The family was optimistic that things were finally turning around and that life was going to start going their way.
Until yesterday.... Jamie had just left their home on Mt. Spokane to go pick Tucker up from school when a deer jumped out in front of her and when she swerved to miss the deer and avoid going down over the steep enbankment she lost control and her SUV spun out of control, flipping over on it's roof and landing down in the ditch up against the hillside. Although Jamie received serious injuries it appears she will be able to make a complete recovery. The SUV was not as fortunate. The damage is extensive, and due to the families extensive medical bills, they did not have a comprehensive insurance policy to cover repairs or replacement of the vehicle.
The family is currently staying with me in town, sleeping on floors and sofas as this was the vehicle that was used to get Jamie and Tucker to their frequent medical appointments, school, etc. This family cannot afford to take on another payment as they are still working to get caught up from their extensive medical and related bills. Being the recipient of this wonderful prize would give them not only Christmas gifts for the 2 boys and food to celebrate the holiday but also a dependable vehicle to get back and forth to medical appointments, work, school, etc.
Thank you in advance for voting for this family who have been through so much, who really need to catch a break for a change and finally be allowed to just live a "normal" life and care for their ill son."
Please #VOTE for my husband's cousin. Her family could really use a Christmas Miracle...
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205331163548435&set=o.315044301957583&type=1&pnref=story
Please, as you go to vote for your choice to win this contest, you MUST "LIKE" and/or "SHARE" the story for your votes to count. You can do this at the bottom of this story.
Thank you and Merry Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment