Team Ben's Cancer Journey & Medical Expenses

Hello everyone, and thank you for reading about Ben's cancer journey. Any donations are GREATLY appreciated if you are able to contribute, but please don't feel obligated!

In 2019, Ben had discovered that he had lung cancer in his left lung, and was at stage 2B. He had surgery to remove half of his left lung, and followed the surgery with chemo.

A few years had gone by, and Ben started to develop a pretty bad, persistent cough. In July of 2023, Ben's cancer had returned and was still in his lung but also wrapped around his pulmonary artery. Surgery was not an option at this point, so Ben underwent multiple radiation and chemo treatments through the remainder of 2023 and started immunotherapy treatments at the end of 2023.

We thought we were in a good spot at the end of 2023, but Ben's cough and symptoms continued, as well as development of shortness of breath.

Mom, Dad, Adam, and I went to Barrett Jackson in Scottsdale, AZ (one of Ben's bucket list items), and had a blast. However, it was very evident how difficult it was for Ben to get around due to his breathing/shortness of breath, and he actually ended up passing out at one point during the trip. Pretty scary, but we all knew he was recovering from all of the treatment and didn't know how serious this event actually was.

When Ben returned from Barrett Jackson, within 2 days, he ended up getting lightheaded at home and called his doctor, then Cindy, to go to the ER. While talking to the doctors in the ER, he actually passed out again, and they took him back immediately.

What had happened was due to all the radiation, he had a pericardial effusion, which is significant fluid buildup around the heart that was causing his heart to not be able to circulate blood properly, and with too much fluid, your heart can actually collapse. The fluid was drained immediately, and the typical "bad" range is [phone redacted] ccs, and Ben had 900 ccs drained. Thankfully, we got to the ER in time.

Following this event, Ben was at St. Vincent in Erie for 12 days while the doctors assessed his condition and worked to come up with a treatment plan. Ben had to continuously have the fluid from around his heart drained, and we ended up learning that the fluid around his heart was malignant (cancerous), which was very disheartening as we had thought he was working towards remission.

After 12 days and a procedure to have a drain tube put in to Ben's chest/stomach area directly to his heart (to drain fluid as needed for the near-long term), Ben was released from St. Vincent and onto the next stage of his journey.

As a family and to Ben's desires, we are seeking treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center, the #1 cancer center in the country, in Houston, TX.

At the time of this writing on 2/21/24, Ben is in Austin, TX with Cindy, and Adam is driving them to Houston for his 1:00 appointment to start his assessment and to develop a treatment plan.

We don't know how long they'll be in Houston, possibly 3-5 days at a minimum, but it could be longer. The hope is for the doctors there to come up with a treatment plan that can be carried out closer to home, possibly the Cleveland Clinic / Pittsburgh / or even in Erie, but we shall see.

Again, any donations will go to helping fund all the travel, housing, and normal day-to-day expenses while we get things figured out. It's about $900 for 2 one-way plane tickets for Ben and Cindy, and about $200/night for the apartment they are staying in.

We appreciate everyone's prayers and support to this point, and please continue to keep our family in your thoughts and prayers!