Ben's Fight against Cancer

This is probably one of the most challenging and hardest things for me to do.  Over the past 3 years, cancer has been a part of our family.  But that's just the beginning.  You see, Ben's cancer is here for the rest of his life.  While treatable, Multiple Myeloma is not curable.  There will not be a last day of chemo, there will not be an end to scans or doctor's appointments, there will not be a time when we can look back and say, "Remember when...?", except for the "Remember when you didn't have cancer?"

It has changed our lives forever.  Me?  I can deal with it.  Ben?  He is fighting with every ounce of his being.  But the kids?  This has changed their lives forever.  Altered their childhood, even stripped them of having one at times.  Zoe doesn't know what life is like without cancer, and the boys have had it looming over them in their most formidable years.  We are all at the point of screaming "ENOUGH!"  But we can't.  We continue on with cancer being a household word.  Ben needs continuous monitoring and care in order to manage his cancer.  He has gone through over 65 rounds of chemotherapy, taking up to sometimes almost 50 pills a day.  He has had injections, IVs, biopsies, MRIs, CAT Scans, full skeletal x-rays, infusions, and a multitide of horrendous side effects, including 2 cases of pneumonia,  4 pulmonary emboli, 3 fractured vertebrae, high blood sugar.... the list goes on.

Ben is amazing.  There are days where I don't even know how he can get up and go to work, the pain is so bad.  But he's not the type to sit home.  Ben puts on his game face every day, and goes to work.  And it takes a toll on him, and the rest of the family.  We miss out on a lot because at the end of the day, he isn't able to get out of bed, and the kids and I would rather stay home with him, together as a family.  He misses days of work for treatments, tests, doctor appointments, and the medical fees are unreal.  3 years of this with no end in sight - we just can't make ends meet and the stress of trying to get by is really getting intense.

We reached out to friends and family in the very beginning, but that was 3 years ago.  We have utilized all available resources, but they are limited as most types of cancer have a remission stage or a cancer-free stage.  Multiple myeloma does not have that luxury.  It is with a heavy and humbled heart, and a feeling of defeat that we reach out again.  Any funds raised here will hopefully help us get back on our feet and return us to a sense of "normalcy".  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.