Abraham's 2nd Cancer Journey

Abraham's Mom here, we are starting the cancer journey again for a second time with Abraham. This campaign will help fund travel and medical expenses associated with his recent diagnosis. This will also help get Abraham a prosthetic eye. So far we have been to Memphis Tennessee, Urbana Illinois and now we are in Chicago Illinois consulting with specialists and scheduling necessary tests and scans. In 1999, Abraham was four years old when he was diagnosed with Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) in his abdomen. He went through 62 weeks of surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation. During those 62 weeks he spent 149 days in the hospital in Peoria, Illinois under the care of the St. Jude Midwest Affiliate. Just shy of celebrating 18 years in remission Abraham has been diagnosed with Choroidal Melanoma (Ocular Melanoma) in the right eye. The mass is over 90% of the total volume of the eye. Due to the size and rapid growth since mid-June enucleation (eye removal) is the only option. We have consulted with Ocular Oncologists at the University of Tennessee and Northwestern Memorial. Abraham is 23 now and has a young family to support. Due to his vision loss he is currently unable to work. Two of our biggest struggles we have faced so far are finding ocular specialists familiar with Choroidal Melanoma (due to the rarity of this type of cancer) and finding specialists that will accept Medicaid. This journey was difficult the first time for Abraham, with lots of surgical complications and several long term side effects he deals with on a daily basis. If you have met Abraham personally, you know he has very few complaints in life and always answers with "I am good, how are you". His response when he was told about the cancer in his eye was, "I am not surprised, I have always known I would get cancer again, I just never expected it to be in the eye". Please help us make this journey less stressful for Abraham and our family by saying prayers and offset travel and medical expenses while we get Abraham to his appointments.