Jessica Chapman

Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time when it matters most.as of March 2016 Jessica was diagnosed with breast cancer in late November of 2015.  Initially, Jess’s breast cancer treatment plan included 5 months of chemotherapy followed by a lumpectomy/possible mastectomy and radiation.  She began her fight on Jan 4th 2016 with her first round of chemo treatments.  Unfortunately that plan was diverted when Jess ended up in the hospital with a life threatening reaction to that first round of chemo. She underwent emergency surgery, which kept her in the hospital for almost 3 weeks, most of which was spent in ICU and under heavy anesthesia.  During her hospital stay she was experiencing extreme pain and discomfort in her lower back.  After some tests, it was determined that she had spinal stenosis.  Although unrelated to her cancer, the problem was exacerbated by all her body was going through, resulting in another surgery on her back on February 3rd.  After a couple more days in the hospital Jess headed home to continue her recovery and get stronger so she could get back to fighting the breast cancer which started all of this in the first place.   Unfortunately on Feb 10th, Jess was re-admitted to the hospital following several days of feeling very ill.  She had very low hemoglobin levels and dehydration.  It was determined that she was fighting a virus, very scary for someone in her depleted condition.  After IV fluids and a blood transfusion Jess headed home to again try and recover and get stronger.  This all happened in the first 6 weeks of the plan, and none of it was part of the plan!  As if this wasn’t enough, the family received more devastating news; On Feb 16th Jess’s sister Tracey was also diagnosed with breast cancer.  Tracey has been by Jess’s side during all of this, starting with spending the entire day at the first session of chemo to sleeping at the hospital nearly every night Jess was there, so as you can imagine this was an emotional and unthinkable revelation for Jess and the family.  In addition to this, Manny, Jess and Juan’s 2 year old son broke his femur in Dec.  Manny has a condition called congenital femoral deficiency.  Due to this condition, the femur was not able to heal on its own and he had to undergo aright femoral osteotomy with internal fixation surgery on Feb 23rd.  This surgery was planned to happen at some point in the next year to prepare his leg for future lengthening procedures, but again, the plan didn’t go quite as expected and he had to have the surgery much earlier.  (Manny is doing great! What a tough little dude!)  Obviously the plan as originally outlined has changed quite a bit.  Jess underwent a lumpectomy in early March, which will be followed by up to 12 weeks of weekly chemotherapy treatments and then 30+ days of radiation.  Tracey will also had a lumpectomy in March, followed by potential chemotherapy and radiation.  This family has been through so much in the last couple of months.  Many of you have asked how you can help – well here it is!  We will be hosting a benefit for them on Saturday, May 21st.  More details to follow, but mark your calendar!  Lets rally around Jess, Juan and Family and show them our support and help with the financial burden as Jess continues her journey!