Corey's Cancer Fund
For those of you who don’t know, Corey is 23 years old, a son, a brother, a boyfriend, a nephew, a cousin, and a friend to many. We have been dealing a lot with Corey’s health over the last few months. Originally back in October, Corey was having severe chest tightness and shortness of breath. After getting multiple X-Rays done of his heart, they showed no indication of any issues. The doctor told him it was most likely due to stress. A few weeks later, Corey developed a deep/horse cough and could no longer preform his daily activities such as work (delivering kegs and cases of beer), nor was he physically able to even help carry on simple activities like walking to the car to carry groceries into the house. We knew something more was wrong. Making another trip to the doctor, they listened to his breathing and diagnosed him with Pneumonia. He was given a 7 day antibiotic to cure it. As that week went on, Corey didn’t show any signs of progressing positively in any way. His coughing and breathing was worse, his chest always ached, and he was unable to keep any food down. Going back to the doctor a third time now, Corey had lost about 10-15 pounds since the previous time he was there, they began with X-Rays of his chest and discovered a lot of fluid in his lungs. Over 70% of his left lung and about 40-50% of his right lung were full of fluid. The doctor gave us two options, one being that he gets hospitalized, or send us home with a stronger antibiotic. We chose to take Corey into the hospital being that he was no longer able to keep food or liquids down on his own, we thought it was best.
Tuesday, November 28th, was our first day at the hospital. The first procedure they did was a thoracentesis, which is basically just draining the fluid inside his lungs. They first performed this on just his left lung, removing 1 and 1/2 liters of fluid. Shortly after that, Corey said he could breathe a little better, but then he suddenly had a stinging pain in the opposite lung for about 45 seconds. They drew blood and notified us the next day that the blood was abnormal and unusual tissue was found outside of Corey’s lungs. A small part of that tissue was removed from Corey’s body and sent to the Mayo Clinic for further testing. What we hoped was that it was left over scar tissue from his Pneumonia, but on December 1st, doctors believed that Corey had Lymphoma (a cancer of the lymphatic system, involving cells of the immune system). But couldn’t “guarantee” it because the sample they got contained a lot of dead cells. They decided to send him home because his breathing was better and his heart rate was normal. He was told to return to the cancer center here in St. Cloud, next Thursday.
On December 8th, Corey and I went to the cancer center but Corey was feeling extremely sick again. Very short of breath, weak, and in a lot of pain. The doctor admitted him back into the St. Cloud hospital right away. There they told him he would need to have an open surgery to get a better sample of his mass to determine what it is exactly. They transferred Corey down to the University of Minnesota in order to get his surgery done faster, so we can begin treatment. His lungs were full of fluid again, so they inserted two tubes into his back, to constantly drain and keep his lungs clear of fluid. Monday, December 11th, Corey had his surgery. Everything went well and he was placed in recovery. Today they told us Corey is unfortunately diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, essentially, blood and bone marrow cancer.
Corey is one of the strongest, funniest, most outgoing people I have ever known. And if you know Corey, you know he is always goofing around and making other people laugh. He’s always cared about other people’s happiness above his own. Corey has so many great friends and an amazing family supporting him through this difficult time, I know he’ll get through it.
Any and all donations are extremely appreciated. All donations will go towards Corey, being that he will be out of work and needs to maintain current bills, along with Corey’s chemotherapy treatment and hospital/medical bills. If you’re unable to make a donation, all I ask is that you please help spread the word and share this page to get Corey’s story out there. I will be posting updates on here as frequently as I can to keep you all posted on Corey’s recovery! Corey’s friends, family and I will be there every step of the way, and are here to answer any questions you may have. Again, thank you to each and everyone of you who took the time to read Corey’s story. Your support means the world to all of us.
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