Shawn's Medical Expenses

Hi, all!
I wanted to post one more update before Shawn's scan tomorrow. He's doing really well, thankfully! We are both very ready for him to come out of isolation tomorrow! It's been a loooonnnggg week, ha! Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers. It wasn't clear whether we'll get the results tomorrow or not, but we're hopeful that he'll be in remission and not need another round of radiation! I don't know if we could do another week of isolation, lol.
Thank you so much to everyone who's supported us by either donating (money or food, etc.) or sending encouraging messages. It's been a tough summer, but we're looking forward to a cancer free holiday season!
If you have anything to give, even $5, please consider donating. We were able to pay off a lot of bills, but not all of them, so we're looking at a $400/month medical bill....even after attempting to negotiate...which is MUCH more than we can afford.
Thank you!

Hi, all! Radiation is underway!
We went last Friday, and he's been tucked away ever since. I've had very limited contact with him since the beginning, because the first few days are when he's the most radioactive. So, other than walking in the room to set food down for him, all of our interactions have been through phone call or text. We originally thought he would only have to continue the iodine deficient diet for 24hrs post treatment, but it was actually 72hrs. Last night was the first time in a week and a half that he was able to eat a real dinner that wasn't all veggies and quinoa. No sooner did he eat, did he get sick. I guess we should've seen that one coming after eating a whole lot of nothing but vegetables for the past week. I think the hardest part of all of this is that our cats, Oliver and Ronan, don't understand what's going on, and they've been consistently crying outside of the bedroom door, hoping that he'll open it. I've been sleeping on our sofa this week, and they've both been sleeping right next to me - or in Oliver's case, on top of my head, because he wants my pillow. Ronan is usually really snuggly with me, but this is pretty unusual for Oliver (he's definitely a daddy's cat, lol). We have Shawn's full body scan on Friday, which they said will take a few hours, so we'll spend all afternoon into the evening at the hospital. They weren't clear on whether we'd have the results on the same day or not, but we're hoping for the word remission to come out of the radiologists mouth.
Please continue to keep Shawn in your thoughts and prayers until we know if we're on the other side of this. Please continue to send encouraging messages this week as well as sitting in a room alone has already started to take a toll on him.

1 more day till radiation!
We've been doing Shawn's iodine deficient diet since Friday (which is like being vegan on steroids! No meat, no dairy/dairy alternatives, no bread - but a limited amount of grain, only black coffee/tea, the list goes on!), and we are ready to eat normally again, haha! On the first day, I think I only cried twice while trying to figure out how/what to cook for him, lol. He keeps talking about Mexican food, so that's his celebratory meal when he can eat normally again on Saturday!
He went in for his 1st TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) shot today, and he has the 2nd tomorrow. Apparently, just getting that hormone shot into you can make you pretty nauseous, so if he experiences that, we hav e to call them ASAP to get an anti-nausea medication. If he's pukey come Friday, he can't do his radiation treatment. Becuase it's an internal dose, not external, if he starts throwing up, he'll be puking radioactive mess....so let's pray no nausea! He is dealing with a pretty bad migraine tonight after the shot, so that's sucky.
We cleared space in our room for his computer to go, and we're getting the borrowed mini fridge tomorrow. All that's left is for me to get my clothes out and put them in our 2nd bedroom....I'm sure you can understand how that got left for last.... After his appointment on Friday, he'll be quarantined in our bedroom for 7 days while he's radioactive. He can have very limited exposure to me, but none at all to our cats.
Thank you to the person who's letting us borrow a french press!!! Since Shawn could only drink black coffee this week, he opted for tea instead, and the french press makes a perfect about of coffee for just me! Thank you, thank you!
If you'd like to donate any snacks to him at all while he's kept away, fruit and anything with protein (like the pre-made shakes or protein bars) would be appreciated! We've got enough water and Gatorade/Powerade now - thank you to those who donated a case of that! Lots of encouragement will also be appreciated next week as we manuever being in the same house but not being able to see each other. He is my rock and my rest after a hard day, so I'm praying for all the strength I can get this week!
Thank you!

The diet starts on Friday!
We're officially in countdown mode! Shawn starts his iodine free diet on Friday for the 10 days before his radioactive iodine treatment. Y'all, please send me good vibes, prayers, etc. while I maneuver meals for him during this diet! No dairy, no bread, no salt/spices, & the only meat he can have is 6oz of turkey a day - which means black coffee/tea, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, and maybe looking into vegan dairy products...? If you have any recipes or suggestions, please send them our way!
He'll go in for a shot of thyroid stimulating hormone on the 1st & 2nd, and will receive his radioactive iodine dose at 2:30p on the 3rd. From then until the 10th, he'll be tucked away from the cats and I in our bedroom due to being radioactive. I'm hoping to be able to find a storm door or something to replace our bedroom door with temporarily while he's stuck in there so we can still see each other and talk to each other. If you have any advice on where to go to find that, I would appreciate it!!
On the bright side, Shawn goes to pick up his C-Pap machine tomorrow afternoon!! Hallelujah, the Jewells are gonna get some sleep! He's a little hesitant about wearing it, and more nervous that it will deter sleep instead of help. Please send us good vibes for that too, because he really does need a good night's sleep!
We will keep you posted on how it's going!

We had our consultation with the endocronologist yesterday! They did an ultrasound of Shawn's neck and said that everything looked REALLY good! Praise Jesus! They put in an order for blood work (then sent us down the hall to have it done, another hallelujah moment), and said once the bloodwork came back, they'd be in touch to get the radioactive treatment ball rolling. Well, bloodwork came back today looking incredible, so our house is pretty relieved tonight! We'll hear from the nurse probably before the end of the week with instructions on how to go about his 10 day iodine free diet before the treatment. On the 9th and 10th day of the diet, Shawn will go in and get a shot of TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) to shock his systom into trying to suck up any iodine it can. On the 11th day, he'll go to the nuclear medicine office and they'll give him his capsule that will make him radioactive. He'll have to quarantine away in our bedroom for 6 days and then go in for a scan to see where the radioactive iodine is centralized. If it lights up any more cancerous masses, they'll give him a second and higher dosage to irradiate what's remaining, and we start the process all over again. If there isn't anything, then they will officially announce him in remission!! The unfortunate part is that he will have to go back to the endocronoligist every 6 months for check ups to make sure he doesn't have a reoccurance. The rate of reoccurance is higher within the first 5 years, so we're looking at a long 5 years worth of doctors appointments and bloodwork ahead of us, but least we'll be pro's by the time it's done???
Since we announed our matching donor for the next $1,500, we've received $400 IN DONATIONS!!!!! That means $800 total to pay off some of Shawn's medical bills!!! Thank you so much!!! We still have a matching donor for the next $1,100 donated! If you have anything to spare, even $5 helps! If you're able to donate snacks or water or gatorade for while he's tucked away and recuperating from being radioactive, we would be SO appreciative! There's a chance that the treatment could make him feel pretty sick, so we're trying to get our bases covered with keeping him hydrated! If you have a small coffee pot that we could borrow, or a french press, we'd appreciate that as well so he's not caffeine deprived while also radioactive....talk about a caffeine withdrawal...
Thank you again to everyone who has donated to us! We appreciate you more than you know! Please pray that by October, the only thing we'll hear from the doctor is "remission"!

Shawn's sleep study was last week., and it went.....not very well, ha! He fell asleep pretty quickly, but only slept for about 45 minutes before he woke up and was up for the rest of the night. He was really uncomfortable with that equipment strapped to him. He actually took the contraption off at 2a, but still never went back to sleep. We took the test machine back to the doctor's office the next morning, and they had us stay to wait for the data to be uploaded. Apparently, he was sleeping, even though he felt like he wasn't. There was enough data to determine that he has sleep apnea. We heard from the sleep doctor again today. He said that the minimum sleep disturbances needed to be diagnosed is 5 in an hour, with the worst being 30 in an hour. Shawn had 28 disturbances an hour....
We should hear by the end of next week when to go and pick up his C-Pap machine! Hopefully, that brings us some restful sleep, because we are in desperate need of it!!!
We're getting closer and closer to our consultation to start his radioactive iodine therapy as well! If anyone is willing to donate bottles of water, Gatorade, or disposable dishes and cutlery, please let me know! We also have an incredibly generous donor who has offered to MATCH any donations going forward UP TO $1500!!! Since the final bills are coming in for just the diagnosis and surgery, we're staring down $6,000 in medical debt already, NOT including the radioactive treatment. And once we start the treatment, I'll still be able to work, but Shawn will have to use up any remaining vacation time since he's unable to go back out on medical leave so quickly. That could mean that he will have to go unpaid, depending on how long he's quarantined and how sick the treatment makes him. Please consider donating while your donation will be doubled!!
Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us either via donation, a meal, or encouraging messages!! We appreciate you all more than you know!

We have a date for Shawn's sleep study and his consultation for the radioactive iodine treatment!
Shawn's sleep study will be on Tuesday - thankfully! He's struggling to fall asleep AND stay asleep, so he's dealing with exhaustion on top of everything else. They do the sleep studies at home now, did you know that?? It's really nice that he won't have to go sleep in an observation room somewhere! We'll go and pick up his home kit on Tuesday, 7/27!! He has a strict bedtime of 10:30p that night, and has to get at least 6 hours of sleep for the study to count...which is the obstacle we're facing now - how do we get him to fall asleep and stay asleep for 6 hours straight. After that, he'll bring the kit back with the recorded data, and they'll get him set up with a C-Pap machine based on the results of the study!
We meet with the endocronologist on 8/17 for our initial consultation for the radioactive iodine treatment. All we know as of now is that he'll have to have an iodine deficient diet for the 10 days leading up to the treatment, and once he's ingested the radioactive iodine solution, he'll have to quarantine for roughly a week in our bedroom - keeping away from myself and the cats - due to being radioactive. We are thankful that my job has an extra mini fridge to let us borrow during that time for him to keep drinks and snacks in since he won't be able to come out into the apartment to get food or anything to drink. He'll be able to open the door for the split second it takes for him to grab his dinner from in front of the door, but that's it.
For the moment, he's recovering incredibly well from the surgery. His incision is already fading and only noticeable on the right side of his neck where they had to open him up further to get way back into his neck and down into his shoulder. His voice is also doing really well! While he still gets tired after having a conversation, there hasn't been any changes in his tone and very little raspiness, so we are thankful for that as well!
We did get the bill for his surgery. In total, it was a $37,000 surgery, but we are - thankfully - only responsible for $3,000 of that! Even then, that's $3,000 that we don't have after paying on other medical bills. If you have anything that you could spare, we would so appreciate you! Even if it's still just a meal or a grocery order or if you want to buy a case of bottled water, Gatorade, etc. for him while he's cooped up and alone - you would be helping SO much!
Thank you again to everyone who has supported us thus far! We will never be able to express our love and gratitude for you! We'll send another update after the sleep study!
Love,
Shawn and Andii

This past week has felt like it lasted 12 years. We came home last Wednesday, but have barely slept, because Shawn was so uncomfortable. The pain has been manageable with just Tylenol and Ibuprofen, thankfully! But a week of not being able to sleep in your own bed and waking up every 4 hours for either meds or to have your drain emptied takes it's toll. All of that on top of trying to get a schedule down with new daily meds for his thyroid and vitamin D and calcium....to put it simply, we're pooped!
We had our follow-up with the surgeon yesterday where he reiterated that there was more cancer in Shawn's neck than we originally thought. Interestingly, the tumor that everything mestatisized from was less than 1 cm in size, and the largest tumor was 2 cm. He also told us that out of the 20 lymph nodes he removed, 12 of them were cancerous. Doc did say that he's confident that he removed all of the cancer, but because he didn't open up the left side of Shawn's neck, just the right, we are moving forward with the radioactive iodine treatment.
The drain was removed yesterday as well, hallelujah!!! So, we actually got some sleep last night, hallelujah again! We were referred to the Endocronologist to start prepping for the radioactive treatment, and we have a follow-up with Shawn's primary physician on Monday afternoon to discuss doing a sleep study. He spent almost 3 hours in recovery after surgery, and apparently gave the anesthesia team quite a scare when the levels of CO2 in his blood were higher than his oxygen while he was sleeping. They believe he may have sleep apnea, so we're going to try to get that study done to get a C-Pap machine before we start the radioactive therapy. Especially since the nurse in the hospital scared poor Shawn half to death that he's going to die in his sleep in the meantime...which is half the battle with his sleeping issue right now.
Please continue to pray and send Shawn good vibes, etc. while we get ready to quarantine again during his radioactive treatment. And thank you again to everyone who has supported us thus far! Especially to those who prayed hard for him on surgery day, and for those who sent me encouraging messages during surgery! I was a wreck so I/we appreciate you more than you know!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Surgery was a success!!!
The surgeon found more cancer than we knew about, but he took everything out. There was cancer tucked down underneath his collar bone, and the right side of his neck had a lot more growths than the CAT scan and MRI picked up on. It was tucked down by where the nerves that connect to his right arm are, so they ran tests to make sure that he still has function in his arm - he does. They also tested the nerves surrounding his voice box, and they're definitely irritated, but look to be in great condition! He currently has a drain, but they're hoping that will be good to come out by the time he comes home tomorrow. It took him a while to come out of anesthesia, and when he did, he was pretty nauseous. Later tonight, when he's feeling a bit stronger and isn't falling in and out of sleep, we're going to try to go for a short walk with the nurse to get him up and moving!

Thank you so much for all of the encouraging messages we've received today! The past 2 weeks feel like they've lasted 2 years, and this is only half the battle. Please continue to pray for his recovery and for this upcoming radioactive iodine treatment! Thank you, thank you, thank you! ❤️

And he's off!
They came in, started his "relaxation station" meds, and wheeled him off to surgery. Doc said it'll be about a 3 hour surgery to remove as much as he can, then we'll have a 1.5 hour recovery time before I'll meet up with him again in his hospital room where he'll stay the night.
I'll keep you posted on how surgery goes!

Surgery day!
We're checked in and already back in triage!
Thankful for small blessings this morning, like Biggby opening at 5:30a, and this gorgeous view of the cathedral from the surgical waiting room.

Thank you to those who continue to pray for, encourage, and uplift us as we weather this storm! Fingers crossed we'll be mostly cancer free by tonight!

Alright, all! We're on!
Just got our confirmation call from the hospital - we'll report first thing tomorrow morning at 6a!
Please continue to pray for Shawn as he undergoes surgery, but please remember to keep the surgeon and hospital staff in those prayers as well! Pray they have the guidance, knowledge, and strength needed to remove as much of the cancer as they can!
Thank you, again, to everyone who's supported us thus far! Words will never be able to accurately express our gratitude and appreciation for you!

WOW! We are blown away! In a week, we've reached 25% of our goal!!!!
Thank you to those who have donated and helped us thus far! As we spend this next week preparing for surgery, please continue to pray/send good vibes to not just us, but the surgeon who will be removing the cancer and to the nurses that will care for Shawn as he's in the hospital! Meanwhile, we'll continue to pray for you, the people surrounding us with love, because we'll rely on you to be our strength as we sail head first into this storm!
Thank you, again! ❤️

Surgery is set for the 29th!
We are quarantining the week before his surgery, just to be on the safe side. Shawn will have to get a Covid test prior to surgery. They're planning to keep him overnight at least for one night. Should there be any complications, they'll keep him longer. Let's pray there's no complications!
If anyone has any good smoothie recipes, or recipes for anything soft that he'll be able to eat for that first week post surgery, send them my way, please!
Thank you to everyone who has donated to us so far! We can never express our appreciation for you!

Hi, all!
In just one day, we've raised enough to cover all of one of his current bills, and part of another! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated!!!
Thank you to everyone who has offered to come and help me cook/clean as well! I'll be responding to people probably next week!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!