My longtime friend Jill Brenneman is in dire need of financial help due a terminal medical condition. I’ve mentioned Jill on here now and again. She was part of SWOP-East and has an unusual history. Part of that history can be read at Sex Workers Without Borders, part of that over at Bound, not Gagged and part of it over at Maggie McNeill’s blog.
Jill has made the incredible journey from sex trafficking victim, to anti-prostitution activist, to sex worker rights activist. She is responsible for bringing many sex workers into activism (including me). She’s a living example of the harm our current laws cause to both trafficking victims and sex workers. She’s had a long speaking career, engaging and challenging her audiences, often opening minds.
Now she is slowly dying and needs our help. Her needs are simple but necessary. We’ve started a fundraising campaign for her at Indiegogo. Anything you can contribute helps. Any way you can pass this along to others helps. Anything that can be done to ease her suffering helps. The fund-raising goal is modest and if we can exceed it, so much the better. It goes to making what’s rest of her life that much easier.
In her own words, below, she fully explains her medical condition. There is no cure. Though she has Medicare, they take every opportunity to deny her coverage and she has co-pays for all of her health care, which is extensive right now. Obviously, she cannot work in any capacity. She can barely stand up and walk.
I’ve been watching her degrade since April and in mid-May she received her terminal diagnosis. I’ve done what I can to help her but I’m one person and live far from her. Thank you in advance for helping my friend.
I’m Jill Brenneman. I am a long time activist for sex worker human rights. Unfortunately, today I am asking for your help due to catastrophic medical issues.
Just before Easter 2014 I began experiencing sharp back pain. The pain ultimately was related to a chronic health issue. Since 2007, I have been prone to Deep Vein Thrombosis, DVTs in the legs from long flights. In 2007 the first DVT that I suffered traveled to my lung and became lodged there. Once a blood clot reaches the lungs it becomes a Pulmonary Embolism which is highly life-threatening. It is treated with blood thinners.
In 2010 a much larger Pulmonary embolism formed that left me hospitalized in critical condition for days. To protect me from further risk doctors inserted a filter in the Inferior Vena Cava Vein to catch the clots before they get to the lungs. The filter was intended to be temporary but my health insurance expired before it could be removed. I was supposed to stay on blood thinners for life after 2010 but again lack of health insurance made that impossible.
Just before Easter 2014 I developed acute back pain and went to a local hospital ER. I was also constantly fainting and had acute pain in my thigh. I assumed the pain was perhaps causing the fainting. I was admitted to the hospital on Easter of 2014 but the admitting physician was obviously misogynist and biased. He noticed on my prescription profile that I am on anti depressants for depression. I could tell by the line of questioning this was a problem for him. He ordered tests be run to determine if I had another DVT. Those tests came back positive for a DVT and the medication was administered immediately. I was also hooked up to IV. The protocol for a DVT is a short term large quantity of IV be injected to try to break up the clot. The biased doctor had other ideas though. He was very focused on the fact that I am on psych meds and that he feels that women are over reliant on medications because we don’t have men’s threshold for pain.
For the next three days psychiatrists were sent to my room. They asked me questions from the Minnesota MultiPhasic Inventory Test. They were fixated on whether I had a problem with wanting to start fires as the topic kept being brought up. They ignored that I am afraid of fire and barely light candles. They also ignored my pleas to stop the IV. I was bloating to an extreme to the point that it was more painful than my back, which remained unaddressed. My complaints were dismissed as something the MD would have to review and at that time my care was being handled by Psychiatrists.
Finally after 3.5 days I was discharged abruptly. The discharging MD told me that I had been misinformed and did not have a blood clot. I challenged her as to why I would have been given an injection of medication for blood clots literally five minutes before she came in to discharge me but she blew off the question. I showed her how bloated I was but she ignored that as well and quickly disappeared. I was discharged with no medication and no diagnosis.
I got home very weak, in excruciating pain, with no answer to my back pain and found that I had gained 38 lbs in 3.5 days. I assumed it was water weight and would quickly be excreted by my urinary system. Except it wasn’t. I was no longer able to walk and barely capable of sitting up. I was extremely short of breath and a few days later weighed 48lbs more since admission. I had an ambulance take me to a different hospital.
The new hospital ran tests and quickly determined that the previous hospital had flooded me with so much fluid and kept me entirely confined to bed to the point that the fluid weight crushed my circulatory system and shut down the veins bringing blood back from my feet to my heart. Those veins were entirely blocked as the blood had literally dried in the veins and turned into enormous clots stretching from both feet to the filter in my chest. I learned in that hospital visit that the cause of my back pain was that a piece of the titanium filter had broken off and was lodged in my spine and thus the filter was very weak.
After consulting with multiple physicians, surgeons, vascular specialists, internists and primary care, I learned that there is no treatment for the catastrophically devastated veins. They are totally blocked and will be for life. There is no treatment for this because it is so massive in size effecting 1/2 my body. There is no surgery and no medication treatment to repair this. Blood is minimally flowing through peripheral veins but those are clotting too and extremely painful. There is no longer anything prohibiting clots from getting to my lungs. Each clot in the lungs has a 1 in 3 fatality risk. All that can be done is take blood thinners to try to prevent new clots and pain killers.
After meeting with all of the doctors the consensus is that this is terminal, aka fatal. I have not been given any particular time limit. The broken filter could give way and allow the whole process into my lungs at any time and be immediately fatal, or my body could slowly shut down over a period of weeks to a few months. Or I could get absurdly lucky with a perfect case allowing for perhaps a year.
However, since learning this in mid-May my condition has continued to worsen. The feared recurrence of blood clots in my lungs has now happened as a new clot has formed. I learned this week that the cause of my constant passing out and acute chest pain is a clot in my heart. Because of the blood clot in my lungs they can not send me into emergency surgery to clear the clot in my heart. Perhaps that can be done in a month if the clot in my lungs breaks up and assuming nothing else goes wrong.
My family is not supportive, my income is a small amount of Social Security Disability and partial Medicare coverage. While I qualify for full Medicaid coverage they have put up every possible roadblock to accessing my benefits and revoke my coverage every time I’m admitted to the hospital. At this point my health is very fragile and degrading quickly. My friends live a significant distance from me. If I become well enough to travel I can stay with them but right now can not travel. With a terminal prognosis and badly degrading condition I am in dire straights.
Thus I am asking you, if you can please donate any amount, no matter how small, it would help me afford to pay the large co-pays for doctor’s visits, medications, food, shelter, rides from taxi services rather than taking the high risk of driving. While I have never been one to easily ask for help I desperately could use any donation, no matter how small at this point. While my condition is terminal and I am not expected to live much longer any help that can be given is help that can perhaps give me a bit more time or assist with my burial costs once I pass. If you can help me at this time of need, I would be very grateful.
Sincerely
Jill Brenneman
Photo of Jill and me at the post office after we mailed condoms to Chile for “Pledging Action”, 2011.
This post “help an activist” by Amanda Brooks is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://texasgoldengirl.com/help-jill-brenneman/.
Dear Ms. Brooks:
In edition to the contributions for Jill, I was wondering if some of your colleagues that are in the activism world would have a party for her and maybe give her the proceeds so she could address her medical concerns? Also could they have an additional get together at say the Desiree Alliance? I know that would be a stretch but at least she could get a whole hunk of money at one time to address her needs.
Lionel — Her needs are immediate and I don’t think there is a DA conference this year. A fundraising party is an excellent idea but she isn’t close to any particular activist chapter right now, figuratively or geographically. It would be so wonderful if someone did that for her but I’m not betting on it.
Done! Good luck Jill! Amanda, thanks for helping.
SR — Thank you!!
My heart ,prayers and donation are with you Jill! xoxoxox
Thank you everyone for the support, kindness and compassion you have shown me. Your support and friendship means a great deal to me.
xoxo
Thank you for this important post. My sincere wish for Jill, of course for her health care needs to be met but more importantly I do hope she can explore meditation. Our minds are capable of so much more than we realize. Regardless of spiritual or religious belief, I always thought it important to believe in a spirit of or creator who has a benevolent and complete love for us in the capacity of a saving grace for which we can return to someday above all suffering taking place in our human form. I realize many do not believe in an afterlife or for that matter a refuge of everlasting peace. For me, I find it nonsensical that we only have this one life and nothing more.
I have been practicing meditation and it is a wonderful mental way of transcendence. Sometimes breakthroughs happen and it’s like a spiritual answer of truth. Jill strikes me a such a gentle soul and so soft spoken. The opposite of what has happened to her in her life. I have known of some who have encountered the opposite of what they have put out in this life and it boggles my mind. I recently read that “Faith is believing when something has been taken away”. In other words, never giving up hope. I am so sorry for what Jill Brenneman has had to endure. Her life has had an impact on us and I am touched by the friendship you share. We women in this escorting world are often more angelic than other people realize. Thank you for posting this.
It sounds like Karma has caught up with this Jill. She was such a bad child her parents couldn’t allow her to live with them any longer. A man took her in and probably was much kinder than Jill makes it out to be. He gave her a place to live, food, clothing and love and the first second she got the chance to dump him she did. She turned on her feminist friends that trusted her. She has made terrible lifestyle choices and I believe this is karma. She brought this on herself with her lifestyle and lack of character. I hope it’s painful and slow Jill. You deserve what you get.
Sam’s comment is not deleted at Jill’s request.
Yes, I did request it. While most people have been very supportive and have been wonderful, there has also been an undercurrent of a few who dislike me feeling that I deserve what I get. They should get the spotlight they want.
A few questions. “This Jill”? Umm, Sam is there another Jill Brenneman who you are trying to differentiate me from?
You have met my parents and know me from childhood? You are speaking as though you do.
You met Bruce and know the nature of the “relationship” he and I had?
As for “turning on my feminist friends”. Shrug. I prioritized lives and health of real women over politics . That wasn’t popular with a certain group of activists. Perhaps you are someone who preferred I prioritize politics over actual constructive activism?
If my parents, Bruce and some hardline radical feminists, along with yourself, “Sam” feel I deserve what I get.. I guess my answer is so the fuck what although I do have to ask something. What does wishing someone with a catastrophic illness a slow painful death do to your Karma?
For clarification. I am saying I did request that Amanda not delete Sam’s post. The world is filled with haters and sam can feel how he, or she feels and express it. I really couldn’t care less what a hater like Sam feels.
Wow! I can’t believe someone would post what “this” Sam posted. 🙁 What kind of a human being thinks like that? Maybe Sam is in desperate need of some love and affection.
Jill, I love you and miss you!! I’m so glad the fundraiser was successful. I keep you in my thoughts and send positive vibes! My number is still the same if you ever want to chat. Same goes for you, Amanda! I’ve been feeling nostalgic. 🙂
xoxo
Susan — My thoughts exactly.
I’ll call you for sure! Would love to say hi. Miss you too! I’ll pass Jill your number.
Wow, Sam. One ugly soul. Yikes. My prayers, best wishes and heartfelt love to Jill. May God’s light and love shine upon you and give you the strength, hope and peace you need and deserve. You did not deserve anything horrible that has happened to you and I pray that your life be blessed. And I pray that Sam finds God and learns to mercy.
If Sam truly believed in Karma, which I don’t believe she understands the concept of or she would not have harbored and stated such a sadistic, heinous thought, lest she bring bad karma unto herself. I personally do not believe in Karma myself, and I am a victim of childhood predators and parental neglect. If Karma was real, how would you explain what took place at Sandyhook elementary?
There is a wonderful old book called “When Bad Things Happen To Good People”. It is a commentary to the randomness of the universe and our place in it and how we are loved by our creator despite our circumstances and how we are not alone in our sorrow. We are not victimized by others as “punishment” as Sam seems to mistakenly believe.
Actually, I would venture to guess that Sam somehow feels a victim in her own life and is simply seeking a perceived easy target for revenge speak. She is too weak and shallow to address a more potent perceived enemy and temporarily felt herself stronger by lashing out at someone in need of help. A truly brave person seeks to torment a more formidable opponent, not a gentle and humbler sort of being. David and Goliath would not be so interesting if Goliath was a mouse.
To kick a person when they are down speaks volume of the aggressor. Sam is very weak minded and Jill seeks to grow and learn and love. I guess in a way this is karma at work, for Sam does not have the friends, platform or audience that Jill does. Whatever happened to Sam, she has allowed it to poison her soul with venom.
Sherry — I assume Sam is a man. I’ve never met a woman who sympathizes with sadistic kidnappers like Sam does (which echoes a TON of comments made by men about Ariel Castro). I’m curious why you think Sam is a woman?
I’ve seen a lot of people — both men and women — kick Jill while she’s down, and they revel in it. They sicken me.
After I posted, I was thinking about sadistic behavior and sociopaths and how as escorts and women in general we have to be alert to them. I put on my psychology cap and wondered what would motivate Sam to post something so horrible. Then I realized Sam was not a girl and the only reason why I did not assume it earlier was I mistakenly thought you had referred to her as a her and perhaps you knew of her from some other post.
My dad had sociopath/sadistic tendencies but was very well educated so he always had a dependable job. After abandoning us he married a woman who was a quote unquote “nice sadist”, meaning she would slew insults in a very passive aggressive manner.
I read a book recently that said about 1 in 25 people are sociopaths. That is a truly terrifying number of people who completely lack empathy or consideration or moral scruples.
Sherry — Simple misunderstanding then.
We as women certainly do have to be alert to sociopaths — society encourages us to be “nice” and “give someone a break” when our instincts correctly tell us not to trust or engage the person. Though I’ve run into female sociopaths too — they can be somewhat different than men, a softer touch, more subtle manipulations.
The Internet shows there are a lot of sociopaths out there. So many comments (on various articles) that go beyond just stupid ignorance to disturbing levels of inhumanity. I think 1 in 25 might even be conservative.
Jill, I do understand Your fight with Your health. I’m fighting My own battles. I do offer My Prayers, and best wishes. For now that is all I can do. I will keep You in My thoughts and Prayers.