About two months ago, I experienced a severe and seemingly random pain in my right leg. I went to my doctor the next day and after some tests, nothing was found. 

The pain spread and continued  over the next few weeks and we started to think I had kidney stones (my dad had had them a few times, and they're often passed down through family members). 

Eventually, my doctor was able to order an ultrasound to get a better sense of what was going on. The ultrasound didn't find any stones, but instead found a concerning mass in my pelvis. I was ordered an emergency CT scan the next day, which also showed the mass. The composition of the mass was still unknown, so I underwent a biospy. During this whole time, the pain kept getting worse and worse. 

The Monday after my biopsy (9/19), I experienced the most agonizing pain I had ever been in, despite taking the pain medicine shortly before it started. It was unbearable and I ended up in the ER, where I was eventually admitted to the hospital. 

A few days after being admitted, the biopsy results showed that I have a rare but benign (desmoid) tumor in my pelvis which has been causing all of my pain. 

I spent two long weeks in the hospital getting my pain controlled and waiting for next steps to be figured out. After much back and forth between doctors at Yale and Harvard, the doctors finally have a chemotherapy regimen planned to reduce the size of the tumor until it is safe enough to operate on and remove. I am seeing Doctors in Boston this Wednesday (10/5). 

As you might imagine, all of this extended physical pain and uncertainty has caused a lot of stress on my family and I. As an unempoyed, undocumented, uninsured person this has been especially difficult to wrap our head around this financially. 

I don't qualify for any insurance because of my status, but we've been filing paper work with the hospital's emergency fund which sometimes assists uninsured people. Regardless, we've already had a laundy list of expenses from seeing my doctor and specialists to getting all of the medicine from before I was in the hospital, which have added up to a few hundred dollars.

During my two weeks at the hospital, my mom took most of those days off from work to spend with me and slept over almost every night (quick shoutout to Malcolm for allowing me to give her a break those nights you slept over). 

After coming from the hospital yestesday, we had to purchace the medicine I was on in the hospital, which was almost $500.  

I can't imagine the financial strain this is causing on my family and it is frustrating that both because of the upcoming chemotherapy I'll be under and because I'm waiting on my work permit renewal to go through, I won't be able to contribute significantly to all of the costs that are continuing to add up. 

Folks have already beeen incredibly generous with their visits and well wishes. All of this has meant so much.

I was hesitant to make one of these, but was pushed by a few folks to put it out there, especially since this is something I'm in for the long haul (each round of chemo take about a month and it may be 2-7 rounds before they can operate).

All of the funds from this will go directly to hospital bills, medicine, and specialist bills. 

Thank you for all of your support, in all of the forms that it has come. 

Danilo