It took months of trying, but I finally convinced Jake and Crystal to let their community come together to help them. If you have ever had the privilege of meeting this family, you would know that they exude love and kindness. For nearly a decade I have had a front row seat to the struggle that they are enduring. Crystal works two jobs, and Jake continues to climb roofs with an open wound that would cripple most of us. Still, they walk through life with gratitude and a positive outlook. I am in constant awe of them. They always insist on doing things on their own, but this is a burden too big for them to carry alone. They need a village.
After this major surgery, Jake will start radiation. He is looking at about 6 months of treatments.
This money will be used to help them keep their home while Jake is going through the next rounds of his cancer therapy.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.
This note is from Crystal...
After a decade of battling cancer, our family is preparing for the hardest chapter we have ever had to walk through. Jake was diagnosed with the most aggressive form of advanced basal cell carcinoma doctors have ever seen, which has mutated to basosquamous carcinoma. It has caused unspeakable damage, deformation, and pain over the years. He is missing the majority of the left side of his cheek and ear, while continuing to lose more each minute as the cancer eats away at his tissue. He can no longer open his mouth to eat, or close his left eye. Every medical treatment has failed so far, and there's not much time left to lose.
After everything he has already endured, he is now facing a major, all-day cancer surgery that will involve four surgeons working together to remove the banner they can reach and reconstruct what they can, followed by several months of radiation to the area.
During this surgery, they will be removing as much cancer as possible, his ear, placing a weight in his eyelid to help protect his eye, and taking a large flap of thigh tissue to close the wound on his face. Because of how much tissue they need to take, they may not be able to close his thigh afterward without additional surgeries and skin grafts. This is not a simple procedure or a quick recovery; it is a life-altering surgery, and Jake is expected to be out of work for around six months while he heals and goes through daily radiation.
Jake has been an asset to his roofing teams, and being unable to work for this long will put a huge financial strain on our family, leaving us facing homelessness without help from our lives ones. We are trying to prepare for medical costs, travel, wound care supplies, household bills, lost income, and the many unexpected expenses that come with cancer treatment and recovery. It is incredibly difficult to ask for help, but we are at a point where we truly need support from the people around us.
**WARNING PICTURES IS GRAPHIC***
If you are able to donate, share, pray, send encouragement, or simply help us carry this in any way, it would mean more than we can possibly explain. Every bit of support helps take some pressure off Jake so he can focus on surviving this surgery, healing his body, and getting through the long recovery ahead. Thank you for loving him, supporting our family, and helping us feel less alone in this.
With all our love, Thank you.
***UPDATE***
Jake is doing well, but is feeling super miserable from the pain, wounds, tubes, and protocols. He just learned that we'll be in the ICU for a few days longer than anticipated, before being moved to another care wing for more days, and he will be on a feeding tube for a week. He won't be up for visitors for a couple of days at least, he is really upset about not being able to eat and wants to eat before he people-s (he's feeling pretty brutal and just wants to rest). I'll update again if and when he is up for company as he heals!
UPDATE
Jake finished with surgery pretty late last night, and he's doing well. The cancer had spread much further and deeper than they'd believed, and it cost him more than they'd planned to take. The cancer had gone into the bone (which they hadn't expected after his scans) and that bone needed to be removed from his skull, as well as most of his ear. They removed his ear completely and stitched back on the outside cartilage that was left.
A gram of weight was put in his eye lid, and you guys!!! HE CAN USE HIS EYE AGAIN! His mom watched him blink for the first time in years as they wheeled him to the ICU, and we cried happy tears!!
His leg is causing him some misery now, they took so much more from it than I imagined, but they were successfully able to close his face! They check it every hour to make sure the veins and nerves are still connected, so far so good.
He is totally exhausted, and it's still difficult for him to speak, but the first thing he did when I came back to see him was cry and told the nurses, "look how beautiful my wife is" with awe. I asked them how high those drugs are making him, they looked at each other and said, "we haven't given him meds yet.." 🥹 Then he grabbed my chest and feel asleep, so I think he's gonna be just fine ✨️😅
He isn't going to look the same as you remember him anymore, and i imagine getting used to his new face will take time for him to adjust to his reflection. This is a very surreal experience and it still feels like I'm going to wake up any moment and find this was all a bad dream.
My perfect, wonderful, gorgeous man. I'm so proud of him for going through this, but I'm so sorry he had to. They said the cancer was spreading through his whole head and into his mouth, which we didn't know before. If they hadn't done this procedure yesterday, I can't imagine what would have happened. The lead surgeon called me after she was finished, completely exhausted, and said he's definitely needing radiation to make sure this doesn't come back. It's still gonna be a long year, but we've got this. 💪
