Roxanne Kania Slotnick

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Roxanne was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April of 2023. Since that time, she has endured over 25 surgeries (including two BIGGIES: an aortic heart valve replacement, and the Whipple surgery), chemotherapy, multiple hospital stays, tube placements and exchanges. Thru all this, she still works when she can, but with daily doctor appts and treatments plus the side effects, this has not been easy. Thru this fundraiser, the family and friends of Roxanne Kania-Slotnick are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with Catastrophic Illness.

Roxanne has chosen to fundraise for Help Hope Live in part because Help Hope Live assures fiscal accountability of funds raised and tax deductibility for contributors. Contributors can be sure donations will be used to pay or reimburse medical and related expenses. To make a tax-deductible donation to this fundraising campaign, click on the Give button. * For the full medical story, see below.

For more information, please contact Help Hope Live at 800.642.8399.

Thank you for your support!

Full medical story: In July of 2022, Roxanne was diagnosed with pancreatitis. After a short hospitalization, she was still not well and was readmitted in Sept. At that time, they were unable to do a biopsy, but saw no cancer present in the CT scan. In November ‘22, she developed intense itching with no rash present, after bloodwork they found her liver enzymes extremely elevated, and she was hospitalized again. In the hospital, they discovered a blocked bile duct and a sac of “sludge.” After 3 weeks in the hospital and 6 more surgeries, they still said they did not see evidence of cancer. They inserted a tube into the bile duct requiring surgery to replace it every 14 days. The hope was that by increasing the size of the tube they would unblock the bile duct. In January, after months of complications, Roxanne requested a biopsy. Two scrape biopsies came back negative, giving the family much needed relief from worry. In the meantime, Roxanne’s aortic heart valve from a birth defect was supposed to be replaced in December 2022. Due to the bile duct issues, and numerous complications, they were unable to perform the heart valve replacement, and because they couldn’t replace the valve, they were unable to perform future surgeries under anesthesia. So all surgeries were done under local anesthesia and wide awake. At the end of March 2023, Roxanne’s gastro doctor called to say they were worried cancer was present or forming. She went in for surgery to remove some calcification in her heart, so they could do a formal needle biopsy under anesthesia. In April, the biopsy showed cancer in her pancreas. Her heart wouldn’t make it thru chemo, so within days, she underwent a heart valve replacement, and started chemo on April 20, 2023. The first round of chemo lasted 14 weeks, during this time, and trying to avoid losing her hair, she manually and machine “cold capped” applying a -32° Celsius ice cap to her head. Good news! The cold capping worked, and although her hair thinned, she did not lose it. At this time, she was approved for the BIG surgery; the Whipple surgery is the biggest, most serious surgery that U of M performs. It entails the removal of portions of various organs, including the head of the pancreas, bile duct, gall bladder, liver, 30 lymph nodes, portions of the stomach/duodenum and small intestine. On September 13, she went in for the Whipple surgery. After 10 hours, she came out with a few less organs, was staged at a 2BN1, and started a 6-month recovery before starting a 2nd, more aggressive, chemo regime. The 2nd chemo treatment turned out to be much harder on her. She was weaker and sicker than she had ever been. In December she got very ill and they found a serious abscess in her liver, requiring more surgeries, a lengthy hospital stay, and placement of a tube draining from her stomach and another from her ribs in her back. With a little luck and persuading the doctors, she was able to get a day pass to attend Connor’s University graduation and was able to come home for Christmas but would be required to go to the hospital every single day for antibiotic infusions. So here we are, in the hospital again, getting another infusion for the infection… 2 weeks to go, and hopefully finishing up right before the spaghetti dinner. Please, please consider a donation. Donations are tax deductible, and all donations received go toward medical expenses not covered by insurance. (Insurance is paying, but with a $9000 yearly deductible, starting over 1/1/24.)