Life-Saving Surgery for Joe Castillo

On August 21, 2023 our lives were flipped upside down. My love went from going in for a simple CT scan to rule out possible appendicitis to being told that he needed to come in immediately for a follow up appointment with his family care doctor to being referred to an oncologist where he was told that further testing was needed to rule out possible adrenal carcinoma. On September 8th a PET-CT Scan was performed to compare to his CT scan and the diagnosis that the radiologist gave remained the same as before. The mass that my love has is not one that any general surgeon can perform, this mass is rare and due to its nature requires a special surgeon to perform the surgery. What we have been told at this time is that there is a chance that it may be a pheochromocytoma, and if it is the surgery alone could kill him if the surgeon is inexperienced with this type of mass. A pheochromocytoma if not removed correctly will release excessive amounts of adrenaline into the body which will cause an extreme rise in blood pressure and can lead to death.

Fortunately we have found a doctor who has over 20 years of experience in adrenal gland removal. We have been in contact with Dr. Tobias Carling's office out of Tampa, Fl and he is willing to perform the surgery that my love needs, the only thing holding up the surgery is coming up with the financial means to travel to and from Florida as well as the expense to cover the surgical fees and offset some of the wages that he will lose while he is out of work. We have been told by several physicians from the oncologist, PCP, as well as a family friend who is a physician as well that the mass needs to be removed immediately. We are hoping to have raised enough by the end of this month so that we can have this mass removed before our son's 12th birthday which will be on October 24th. Any donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!