John's Journey

My Son, MY Hero John a young man of only 25 years is a healthy, happy newlywed living his best life. When he’s not working, he and his beautiful wife Macey like to work out at the gym together. John LOVES power lifting. They also like to fish together, even though Macey always catches the big ones. They were married in September of 2018 and are now enjoying life as Mr. & Mrs. Since the day they married, all John has talked about is how excited he is to be a dad. They decided that it was finally time for them to start working on adding to their family. They picked July as the month to get the ball (no pun intended) rolling. Needless to say, I was one excited momma to hear that, and it is not a secret I am more than ready for Grandbabies. In May John realized something wasn’t quite right with one of his testicles and after a little while, he finally decided to seek treatment. The Doctor first thought it was just an infection in his tubes so he was put on an antibiotic, but it never went away. After returning to the doctor’s office, the Doctor ordered an ultrasound and had him follow up with a Urologist. On the morning of July 16th John was told by his Urologist that he most likely had Testicular Cancer and they needed to do an Orchiectomy (removal of testicle & tube) right away. That was the moment the world stood still. The evening of the 16th, merely hours after finding out, John went to the hospital and had the procedure done. Now we had to wait a few days for the pathology report to come back. THIS WAS THE LONGEST FEW DAYS EVER. John didn’t heal quite as quickly as we had hoped. He was in a lot of pain due to a large hematoma that formed under his incision. That made for some long nights for him and Macey. Finally, the phone rang, and it was Dr. Adey; John’s Urologist, and most amazing doctor ever, to let him know the following…John has Stage llA Embryonal Carcinoma Testicular Cancer. John needed to get an x-ray of his lungs and CT-scan of his abdomen right away to see if the Cancer had spread. WE WAITED – AGAIN. Dr. Adey finally called, and it wasn’t the news we hoped for. John’s Cancer has progressed to his Lymph Nodes (N1). He would now need to seek further treatment. That brings us to Dr. Thomas, John’s Oncologist. He talked us through the process and answered a lot of questions. We left there knowing a few key points…John would do (4) cycles of chemo, his Cancer is 95% curable and the road ahead while bumpy, is very doable. John will start treatment on Monday August 19th. John has been out of work since his surgery, and will not be able to return to work until after he has completed his treatment. This means that he is out of work for 4-5 months, which is going to put a HUGE strain on him and Macey. Thankfully he has health insurance, but even with that, they are finding out very quickly that the insurance company DOES NOT cover everything, and fighting this will continue to be extremely expensive. The months ahead will be long and grueling, and the last thing we want this young couple to do is worry about how they are going to pay for his treatments. What he truly needs now is financial assistance. The bills are overwhelming, with everything from household expenses, to out of pocket medical bills. While this diagnosis is a heavy burden both physically and emotionally, we are hoping to be able to lighten the financial burden that they are currently, and will continue to face. If we are able to lighten the financial burden, John can more fully concentrate on the priority of getting healthy and fighting this disease. It is not always easy to ask for help, but with friends and family like ours we know it will be flooding our direction no matter what. If you are able to donate to help towards medical bills, medication, treatment, food, and anything else that comes up during this process, we are incredibly grateful for your support. As many of you know medical bills start to quickly add up along with other expenses that come along with this journey. Any amount will help and we are very appreciative for your donation.