Little DJ

On August 23rd our world was turned upside down. A mass the size of an adult fist was discovered in our 5 year old's head, just on top of and invading his brain stem. On August 24th after 10.5 hours of surgery, 3 blood transfusions, and much difficulty, a large amount of that tumor was removed. Prognosys, cancer. Medulloblastoma to be exact. After this surgery he spent over a week intubated, sedated and strapped down in ICU. When he awoke he could not speak, he could not walk, and was very, very weak. After a month of rigorous physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy, he could walk for about 15 ft. at a time by himself, still had functional problems with his hands, and could not eat or drink anything. After this time at our home hospital, we were finally sent to St. Jude’s Children’s research hospital. This was not only a relief to be at the best place a child with cancer could be at, but also for the fact that they help so much financially. You see at this time  I, Daniel, his father, had been out of work for several years, had just begun a home based business and was going to college full time to help our desperately poor financial situation. Heather, his mother, just began a new teaching job. It made sense that after a short period of time Heather return to California to work and take care of our other children. A short time after this Heather was let go from her job, and we found ourselves in an even worse situation. One that we could not really concentrate on at the time. St. Jude’s has been a blessing to us, giving us this time to concentrate on LDJ, but now with our time growing short here we are forced to face the mounting pile of medical bills from the previous hospital, face the fact that we do not have insurance anymore, and that the insurance we had covered very little. LDJ will need much more physical and occupational therapy for a time not yet determined that will exponentially increase this mountain of debt, even if we do get insurance. Finally we must face the housing and necessities costs that have accrued during this painful time. Until this time we have not asked for much help, our compassion for others that we perceive as having it worse, and our pride has prevented us from doing so, we can no longer afford to be so proud. We regretfully need help. Please find it in your hearts to help LDJ and us, his family through this trying time, even a little bit helps a lot. Thank you!