Cancer Sucks

Last August my dad was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (aka kidney cancer). At that point there was a single tumor on his kidney, and so it was removed. He has had continued follow ups since, and all was well. In the beginning of June we found out the cancer was back and it had metastasized. They discovered he had a mass in his brain. He had a craniotomy to remove the tumor. They then confirmed that the renal cell carcinoma had spread elsewhere. Since then the treatment plan has been changing on a daily basis as the doctors discover where else the cancer has metastasized. After many scans and tests, there is somewhat of a plan in place. Wednesday he had gamma knife radiation to the brain (very painful, long and bad day). Thursday he had an ablation to the blood supply to the tumor in his hip bone to prepare for today's surgery. Today is the hip surgery to repair and add support to the bone which has been severely weakened and damaged due to the rapidly growing tumor in that bone. He will also need chemo and radiation once he has healed and the doctors are comfortable beginning that phase of treatment.

I wanted to set this up to get some extra help for my parents. My dad is obviously currently not able to work (or drive for that matter), and my mom has had to limit her working to care for my dad and attend 3-4 appointments a week (and each appointment turns into multiple appointments which turns into a whole day excursion at Froedtert). Any little bit helps take a dent out of the bills that are starting to pour in and allow them to rest a little easier instead of stressing about finances and focus on battling this beast. Thanks for all the prayers and keep sending more our way. And thank you for your help!