I met Jana when we both lived in Santa Fe, we worked in ICU together & became fast friends- her bubbly, goofy spirit is infectious & we went on many adventures together. She is a nurse, a mother, a furbaby mom, friend, sister, avid outdoors girl, & believer in good vs evil.
She has some medical issues that she has been fighting- a few auto-immune disorders she discovered over the last few years and now she started loosing vision in one eye, went & had an MRI and, damn it, she has an extensive left optic sheath meningioma with intracranial extension… meaning she has a tumor wrapped around her optic nerve behind her eye causing vision loss & will probably lead to blindness in that eye. It is large at 4cm… 4cm!!! Surgery is not an option & often has increased mortality- so radiation it is. Which starts on Monday. They are concerned it could grow & affect her right eye, so they need to jump on this. These tumors are rare & benign, but they could cause many issues if not dealt with swiftly for people that are experiencing symptoms, which obviously she is.
Update 5/1/25- She just called me last night to tell me that the little nodules on her thyroid that they have been watching for years has turned into 11 cancerous nodules! So after she is done with her radiation treatments she will have to undergo surgery to get her thyroid removed along with the cancerous lesions. What the heck is going on!
I can’t believe she is dealing with this now- she has gone through so much! Lost both her parents to cancer, her mom a few years ago. Jana has always… always been proactive in her health! She tested positive for one of the cancer genes her mom had, so she took steps to ensure she didn’t get her moms cancer, (we won’t go into that). She is passionate about health & wellness & practices what she preaches… always eats healthy, works out, hikes, bikes, camps… the list goes on & on.
Jana is already dealing with having pretty serious auto-immune stuff and now this… she will be out of work for awhile (she works in an auto-immune clinic treating patients), so she will need some help with, well, life crap- normal bills, hospital bills, medicines, etc.
update 5/21/25 She has gained vision back in her eye! It’s not perfect, but she can see!!! They told her the treatments weren’t for gaining vision, as that rarely happens, but it’s working! Her spirit is good- she’s still the same goofy Jana we know & love… others would be down & defeated- I know the love of her friends, family & her awesome furbabies will keep her going!
I hope to make her life a little easier by starting this campaign- stress causes other medical issues & makes things worse, so I’m hoping to ease her stress & worry with help from the community. I thank you so much in advance. Let’s help our little lightening bug get back to being Banana Jana!