⬆️ Ali’s 30th Birthday 12/18/2023 (the day didn’t start like this 😑)
⬆️ A week later- 12/26/2023
Many of you know my sister, Ali. She was initially diagnosed with small cell carcinoma right after her 21st birthday in 2014. This type of cancer is both rare and has a terribly low survival rate. Ali braved through rigorous radiation and chemotherapy treatment as part of a clinical trial at Mass General Hospital. After a few relapses, thankfully, she has been in remission for 8 years. While she was able to show cancer who’s boss, the extreme radiation she endured came with its own host of issues. From dealing with the inability to keep food down or be able to absorb nutrients to stave away malnutrition, to damage to her kidneys along the way, Ali has been nothing but courageous in her fight to heal and persevere.
Without going into too much detail, Ali had a “final” surgery on November 20, 2023. She walked into Hackensack Medical Center healthy and had been in the gym 5 days/week. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned and she hasn’t been home since. The surgery had to be repeated numerous times and since she was in bed for so long, she developed pneumonia and eventually a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in her lung.) She was put into a drug induced coma while the doctors and nurses worked tirelessly to try to keep her alive when her body was shutting down. My mother and I were told that she may not make it through the night, which turned into weeks. She had been deprived on oxygen for about 30 minutes, leading to hypoxia and possible brain damage. Her oxygen was at 40-50% for days. She was given MANY blood transfusions- Donate Blood! She was on a ventilator for months (eventually leading to a tracheostomy), dialysis, and many other machines and procedures working to keep her alive. By the power of prayer and a miracle, Ali was woken from her almost 2 month long coma and eventually became able to breathe on her own without the assistance of a ventilator. She beat the odds once again. This time, the odds were 95% against her - but she’s clearly one of the 5%. During those months, she lost a large amount of her body weight and had to re-learn how to walk. She has been in a long term rehab ever since she was medically cleared to leave the hospital. She’s had more than a few bouts of pneumonia which required hospitalization, but has bounced back like the survivALIst that she is.
Ali was supposed to finally come home from the rehab at the beginning of the month, but those plans were thwarted by another bout of pneumonia, extremely high blood pressure and kidney failure landing her back in the hospital in the ICU. One of her kidneys is no longer functioning. At this point though, Ali is no longer insured by Medicare because at 30 years old, she had met the lifetime maximum. On top of that, our mom drives over an hour each way to see her almost daily… while the AC in her car is broken during this heat wave. She doesn’t have the ability to leave her car at a shop to be fixed since she needs to be able to get to Ali at any given moment. She has been Ali’s primary support since the beginning (while dealing with her own health issues), but that has been compounded since our father passed away on November 4th, 2021.
At this point, we ask that you;
1. Please PRAY for our girl, because she needs to heal and be able to continue her life. She plans to go back to Boston to study towards her Master’s degree and eventually her Doctorate in psychology. (Did I mention that she graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in 2016, with a 4.0, in the National Honors Society- and many other accolades- while fighting cancer?! That is a true testament to her dedication and strength.) &
2. If you are able to spare a few dollars to go towards her ever surmounting medical bills and all of the other expenses that come along with long term illness, we would be beyond grateful. I hope that together, we can try to lessen the burden on Ali & my mom.
If you read all of that, I appreciate you more than you know. Let’s bring Ali back home once & for all!
