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First Responders

A family of public servants need your help.

First Responders

Catastrophic Loss

Florida

Created November 13th, 2020

I am a Navy Veteran who married another Navy Veteran. Together we are raising a family of daughters who also want to serve our community.

After a 4 year battle with stage 4 breast cancer that almost took my life more than once, I was well enough to support my husband in following his dream of becoming a Police Officer in New Smyrna Beach.

With everything going as planned I became a Patient Care Tech working in the Progressive Care Unit at Advent Health New Smyrna. We were living the dream.

October 2nd as I was working I had a stroke, was coded and sent to the ED of my own hospital. Since then I have learned that I am having uncontrolled seizures every hour. Some are minor and some are full-blown petite mal seizures. My husband has tried his hardest to stay by my side and care for me but as we all know the bills never stop coming.

I hate to have to ask for help, but our simple life is more than the Police department pay can handle. I am hopeful that by the end of the year my doctors will figure out what is happening and get me back to work. But I am terrified that I may be put on permanent disability. I'm a worker and don't know where to turn to cover the gap between now and then.

My husband's brother in arms has afforded us the opportunity to turn to all of you for help. We do so with heavy hearts and a face full of tears. We don't know what the future looks like but we need your help to get there.

As we pay the endless doctor bills and co-pays to keep moving forward with treatment we keep falling further behind and I don't want my husband worried about finances, I want his mind clear to protect the community he swore to protect and be vigilant and keep himself and his shift mates safe.

Our goal for this campaign is just to survive this journey and be able to continue to live. Please find it in your heart to help our blue family and help in any way. We promise to do the same when we are out of our storm. This to shall pass, we believe this with all our heart.

Thank you in advance from the bottom of our hearts.

Updates

December 6th, 2020

Tonya Beatty, Organizer

43? I can't believe it! I never thought that I would be grateful to be this age. But after Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer at 36, countless infections, infinite and continuing reconstructive breast surgeries, a mini stroke which brought out a seizure disorder at 42, while working. So I am overjoyed and blessed to be 43 today. My daughter had to give me a sumatriptan injection for a migraine which almost always leads to a seizure. She is a brave girl and wise beyond her 17 years. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, the continuing love, support and well wishes. I am truly blessed and I could not do this without each of you. Thank you. I truly love and appreciate all of you. Love Tonya❤

December 3rd, 2020

Tonya Beatty, Organizer

Good morning to our beautiful community, family, and friends. It's been a few days since I've given y'all an update. I'm not sure if I told you in my last update about my most recent MRI results, but my neurologist says that the lesions look the same and that nothing has changed with them which is a good thing. I'm now at 150mg of Topamax in conjunction with 3000mg of keppra for my seizure disorder. Next week I will begin 200mg of Topamax which is what my neurologist is thinking will be my max dosage. so far I think I agree. I honestly feel better than I have since before all of this came crashing down on me, October 2nd. I'm thinking a little bit more clearly with each passing day, I'm a bit more stable on my feet, I'm having more complete sentences and praise God, I believe that this is day #5 without any seizures! That's the longest without seizures since this nightmare began. I am hopeful and prayerful that this progress will continue and that we are on the right track with treatment and meds and that hopefully I won't have to go to Mayo clinic. All I'm doing is taking it one day and sometimes 1 hour at a time. I'm still going through breast reconstruction surgeries from cancer and I meet with my amazing surgeon next week to discuss and plan the next surgery. I hope that everyone has a great day. Thank you all for blessing my family in every way imaginable. Lots of love, The Beatty's

November 30th, 2020

Tonya Beatty, Organizer

Here's an update from today's neurology appointment as promised....

I saw my neurologist today. She's happy with the progress that I'm making with the Topamax, but we I am not quite where she needs me to be. I've had 2 seizures since my last appointment. 1 induced by a virtual eye exam and one like the day when things started at work. But her train of thought is because I'm making such good progress with Topamax that once I reach my max dosage of 200mg the week of 12/14 Jessica thinks that I should be ready to come back to work after my next appointment on 12/21. I feel much better each day. although I do have moments of setbacks. some big. some small. I am praying so hard to come back to work after my next appointment it'll be the best Christmas present I could ask for. I'm being cautiously optimistic. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends With love and thanks, Tonya

November 29th, 2020

Tonya Beatty, Organizer

Tomorrow is another follow up appointment with my neurologist. Hopefully they'll have the results from the MRI that I had this past Wednesday and it'll shed some light on things. These appointments make me so nervous and fill me with so much anxiety. it's like when I meet with my oncologist.... the fear never lessens. This neurology journey is quite different. Scarier in a lot of ways. My oncologist put it best at my last 6 month check up "the brain is so unknown It's such a mystery." Maybe that's why it's so scary for me. it's so unknown and every pill, every test is almost like a guessing game to see if it's going to work or what's going to happen. After I have my appointment tomorrow I will post another update Thank you again for all of the prayers and support

November 26th, 2020

Tonya Beatty, Organizer

Happy Thanksgiving to my Fund the First family, beautiful community, family and friends. I began my day by watching Fund the First's segment on CBS at 0840 and learning more in depth about why and how they are able to do so much good for our big first responder family. Thank you to everyone at Fund the First for everything that you do for First responders behind the scenes. With gratitude, love and appreciation The Beatty family ❤

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Donna Zeh donated $250

Praying for you! Steve and Donna

4 years ago

Reply from Tonya Beatty

4 years ago

Thank you for your prayers and generosity Mrs. Donna❤

Tristan Ingram donated $50

4 years ago

Reply from Tonya Beatty

4 years ago

Thank you Tristan. Thank you for sharing. We appreciate you very much.

Anonymous donated $100

4 years ago

Reply from Tonya Beatty

4 years ago

Thank you for your generosity. I am completely overwhelmed with the outpouring of support.

Rick Tauscher donated $1,000

Keep the fight going We are here for you both

4 years ago

Reply from Tonya Beatty

4 years ago

Thank you so much Rick and Michelle. I am completely blown away by your generosity. I can promise you both that once this gets figured out, I plan on finding a way to give back to the community that has so generously given to us.

Reply from Kevin Darcey, Fund the First CMO

4 years ago

🙏🇺🇸