As many of you know, my brother-in-law Jared Wertenberger has been ill for well over a year. In November of 2024, they decided to seek treatment at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. After many trips to Mayo, several different specialists, imaging, labs, biopsies, and even surgery, they officially have a diagnosis of Multicentric Castleman disease. MCD is a very rare disease that causes abnormal growth of lymph nodes. The usual treatment is to remove the affected lymph node(s), but in Jared’s case, they are unable to because the lymph node is wrapped around the gastric artery. The course of treatment the doctor has recommended is infusions of monoclonal antibodies. These are to be done at Mayo Clinic every 3 weeks.
Unfortunately, Jared has not been able to work since November. He exhausted his short-term disability shortly after the first of this year. As of May 31st, he is officially unemployed, and therefore his health insurance also ended on 5/31. He has been approved for medical disability through social security but is not eligible for Medicare for 2 years. Mayo will not start the infusions until he has insurance or they can pay up front for them. As you can imagine, they are very costly. They also currently have a balance of $45,000+ with Mayo. They are trying to figure out if he will qualify for medically needy Medicaid, but that is going to take a while, and in the meantime, Jared’s health is rapidly declining.
Thank you in advance for your donations, prayers, and/or thoughts. They have a long road ahead of them, but they have a village behind them holding them up. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions… Amy and Jared are pretty overwhelmed with all of this.