Changing a Life With Holli

I started my company (which began as E Designs) 6 years ago after I lost my mom (also my best friend) to Lymphoma.  A progressive percentage of income each year from the company, has been donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help support the research to end this horrendous illness.  Please feel free to enter the site and read  my beginning mission.

Because my life has undergone such a transformation over the last year and a half, I have decided to help individual female patients, and their families, who are in need, in their battle with Lymphoma.

I began by walking into my local office of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on August 5th to see if they could introduce me to some patients who were in need of a “hand up” to help them either with treatment expenses, money to fly a loved one to be closer, pay some bills…etc.  They do not deal in “grass roots” efforts but were able to refer me to a remarkable man named Eddie Dutton  who is the Executive Director and founder of the South Florida Cancer Association.   He began the association after his illness and couldn’t find the help he needed.  Eddie immediately started researching whom I could assist first.

Jeannie in the Middle

Jeannie and I first connected by phone on August 9th.  Although our conversation was initially delayed as a result of her last treatment, when we finally did speak, you would have thought Jeannie had just come from having her hair done, shopping and having lunch with the girls. Hearing how positive and full of life she was, I couldn’t help but like her immediately.

Born and raised in Key West, Florida, her family has recently looked for a fresh start in North Florida  after spending three years in Panama. Little did she know of the disaster that was about to befall her. After fighting off a virus, turned pneumonia, turned acute bronchitis over Nov., Dec., and Jan., she was diagnosed  Feb. 9, 2010 with a slow “B cell Lymphoma” which she was told was incurable but could be maintained. This would require 6- 8 treatments, then maintenance for 4 months, then 4 more treatments and then the  cycle repeats – maintenance for 4 months, 4 treatments...  She cried for weeks because she felt guilty that she was going to have to put her wonderful husband through this.

Her life was now radically different. Once a very energetic woman, she was now barely able to get from her bed to her couch after a chemo treatment. Additionally, because of the harsh nature of her chemo, she developed diabetes, a UTI, and an upper respiratory infection that left her with asthma.   “I feel good 5 days before my next treatment and then I have to start all over again."

“Nobody understands the hugeness of this illness and treatment” she told me.  The medicine, treatments, incidentals…  What upset me the most was that she was made to feel humiliated and degraded because she was “turned away” from 3 hospitals because of her insurance coverage.  She says compassion and humanity are totally lacking.

Jeannie is stuck in the middle because she is in between having the government and pharmaceutical companies pay her bills ($1000 away from the level needed), her insurance, and her ability to pay. Their gross income is $30,000. She is living on credit cards and worried about how she is going to pay for her water and electricity.

Facts

Each Shot - Neulasta - costs $10,000 – of which she is required to pay $2000 (or hope for grant or insurance coverage).   The shot prevents infection by helping bone marrow keep the white blood cell count high (chemo brings the white blood cell count down drastically and leaves the patient very susceptible to infection). The shot works for 21 days.

R-chop is the treatment of choice for most non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients, and it involves several drugs:

Rituximab (Rituxan) - $10,000 a bag – then reduced by insurance, hospitals, and  pharmaceutical companies  help to a cost of $6000

• Cyclophosphamide
• Hydroxydaunorubicin (doxorubicin)
• Oncovin (Vincristine)
• Prednisone / Benadryl

All of these meds are priced separately, as are the administration costs and supplies.

Jeannie’s prognosis is good because she is responding to the treatment and she is grateful to take one day at a time. “Everything will get better,” she told me

 PLEASE JOIN ME  in helping Jeannie, a lover of life and a fighter, regain her dignity and only have to worry about fighting her cancer and not the system!

$50 from each Crystal Confetti sale  will be donated to helping Jeannie fight her cancer.