#Merebearstrong

In 2016 Meredith was attending college at the University of South Florida and playing softball. Her humor, kindness and strong work ethic made her beloved by her teammates and coaches.



Unfortunately her life was interrupted. Meredith was diagnosed with a sacral tumor. She received treatment and surgery from the best team of doctors in Boston at Mass General and was then followed by the team at Duke Hospital in Durham, NC.

https://www.espn.com/espnw/culture/the-buzz/story//id/15481713/usf-softball-teams-country-

Fast forward to 2020. Meredith was doing great. She was working as a nurse tech at two area hospitals and attending college in NC to become a Registered Nurse. She had just been accepted to the highly competitive accelerated nursing program at Duke.




(Meredith with her Mom, Marlene)

On October 24, 2020 Meredith was taken to Duke ER with a headache that would not resolve. After a couple days of testing to try to determine the cause, Meredith became dangerously ill and was admitted to the Neuro ICU. Meredith would remain in the ICU, fighting for her life, until January 9th.

Meredith was diagnosed with an extremely rare (no cases in literature) presentation of an Enterothecal Fistula.

Many pages could be filled with details of all the complications, procedures and surgeries Meredith had to endure. Six brain surgeries, abdominal surgery, two back surgeries and countless procedures had Meredith fighting every moment for her life.

She was weak and exhausted but she never gave up. Her loving and supportive family, friends and coworkers became prayer warriors, lifting her up, begging for strength and healing. They were answered. Meredith is a living miracle.

On January 14th Meredith was admitted to Acute Rehab where she continues at this time. Her family reports she is doing “amazing” there. Building strength, endurance and dealing with all the emotions of losing nearly four months of her busy life.

Meredith is determined to get back to her active life and attend nursing school next year. Mountains still need to be moved but we are confident Meredith will Rise Like the Sun.

By purchasing a shirt you can help offset some medical expenses for Meredith. She will most likely need another surgery and will need to travel to Boston for that.

Thank you for taking time to learn about Meredith and thank you for your support. Together we can make a difference and lighten the load of the Bissette family.

God bless you!



Featured in Tampa Bay Times article <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/sports/bulls/2021/04/21/medical-battles-persist-for-usf-softball-alumnus-meredith-bissette/" rel="nofollow" target="blank">here.