Fathers Cancer Battle Medical Burial Expenses
Donation protected
My brother, myself, family and friends would like to thank everyone for all of the support helping us throughout this journey. We do not know where to even begin thanking everyone. This is much more than we imagined, but we know how much our father was loved.
Our Father's services are being done at Joseph A Ward Funeral Home Inc located at 1459 Market St. Linwood, PA 19061; Phone: (610)-485-2425 or Email: [email redacted]
Anyone interested is welcome to contact the funeral home or Mr. Chris Ward directly for any contributions you would like to send. All funds we be contributed to the burial, future memorial, and services. Due to the pandemic, we will be delaying any memorials services at this time. We will keep this page open to repost, along with memorial details once we are able to safely make arrangements. Although we would prefer to hold services right now, we know Dad would not want anyone to risk their safety or any others to do so.
We are creating this page as a family to help support our father in the same way he has always done for us and anyone else he knew. I will openly say that asking for help from anyone goes completely against everything he is (or was), especially if it was directly for him. When it comes to us, his kids, his grandson, family, or friends he would always do whatever he could or had to in order to help or be there as best he could. No matter what was going on in his own life. Like most fathers, coming to his children to ask for help was not in his grain.
Right now we as a family are asking for support to give him his final resting services, as we know he would do for us. I have explained his story very briefly below if you have the desire to read further. I only wrote this section, because I wanted anyone who knew him to see how I did how proud I am of him. Like I say below, myself, my brother, close family and friends were with him through everything, and as much as we could, or he would allow us. He was stubborn and proud, to do what he could on his own without help. I give him so much credit for being as strong as he was not just physically to go through all of this, but mostly mentally. We always knew how strong he was, but this whole process really shows who someone truly is. He was always positive, outgoing, and never easily to give up. Keeping up with his day to day life, still moving forward, never dwelling on what he was going through. It was still always about everyone else around him. He loved so much. He always wanted to put a smile on everyone else's face. He remained active in every part of his grandsons activities, still managed to help me and Barry Jr with any advice we needed or support with whatever we were dealing with. I can only hope that my own son will look at me the same way I looked up to him.
Sadly, November 19, 2020 his fight with Multiple Myeloma ended after the most recent two year battle. He was originally diagnosed in November 2016 at 63 yrs old, after pre op lab results came back showing decreased platelet counts. It was fortunate at the time that he was physically strong and healthy enough to go through the needed management to manage the growth of cancers cells to a degree where he could go through his initial stem cell treatment. After his initial stem cell treatment in late 2017, he was happily clear of any Myeloma Cells up until fall of 2018. 
Unfortunately, gradually the Myeloma Cells slowly returned and required him to go back into needed chemo treatments, IV platelet and Blood Transfusions. At this point since the reoccurrence, he was transferred to Jefferson Hospital under the care of Oncology Doctor Wagner , which my father absolutely adored. Of course, during this time, he still did not want to inconvenience anyone asking for help, insisting he would do everything on his own. Starting early 2019, the daily treatments at Jefferson Hospital started in order to keep his blood level, and immune system up on a daily basis. Luckily through the American Cancer Society , his care managers with the Oncology Dept. arranged for him to be transported everyday to and from his outpatient treatments. While I could get into the details of the side effects, the exhaustion and frustration of dealing with all of this on his own, I'll try not to. Only because I know my father is NEVER the type to complain, or want anyone to feel bad for him especially through this. I know in some ways him doing this himself, helped keep him going, kept him busy and focused, which he really needed.
At times we were able to go with him for check up appointments with Dr. Wagner, or other tests needed to monitor his overall health. Most families who have been through this know the extent of strain the treatments can put on the rest of the body. Thank goodness, even at this point, late 2019 going into 2020, he had minor side effects. Finally, in early 2020, after multiple changes of medicines to help control the cell growth, his body was at a point to start discussing a second stem cell treatment. After a few months of more pre op, tests, procedures, and biopsies the Dr. Wagner finally got authorization for an outside donor to be setup for the stem cell transplant.
Mid July 2020, the he went to Jefferson Hospital for an estimated stay of approximately 6-12 weeks. He went in optimistically expecting similar results like the first. This transplant being different from the first, because now this is an outside donor where the first was done with his own cells. The process once started, initially depletes the immune system down to zero, then with supported blood and platelet transfusions builds all the blood levels back up, as close to, a normal functioning level. Then, monitoring and management is done to determine if his body is holding the levels on it's own. This is a very strenuous process with many side effects and secondary infectious possibilities. Luckily, again, overall he still managed to recovery fairly well considering the sever consequences that may have occurred during the process.
Around mid August he was able to be sent home, with help from friends. But already being so immune suppressed form the transplant he began a fever only a few hours after being home. Due to the fever we had to bring him back to Jefferson so they could manage the fever. With immune suppression, any fever is detrimental and is imperative the source be found and managed. After tests and antibiotics, they thought the issue of the fever was well enough to be managed as outpatient, plus he just wanted to be home.
He was released two more times after this, but again the fever reoccurred and he was readmitted twice more. So, from mid July until Sept he was only home for a total of three days, then was readmitted. It didn't help that during all of this the Co-Vid pandemic limited contact, initially from July until the last admittance in September no visitors were allowed at all. Under his circumstances they eventually started to allow immediate family to visit him with scheduled visits.
During the last stay they had found the source of the fever, a common virus. Most people carry this in their blood, with a healthy immune system don't ever have side effects of it being present . But being immune suppressed, it internally attacks the organs causing additional medications to treat with of course even more side effects on top of the transplant he just went through. These side effects attack everything his body just fought to try to rebuild. This went on from early September until November. As usual he made steady progress and kept doing everything he physically could to help keep himself up and going. With unfortunate luck, he had a few set backs with side effects from the medications. In addition to the long term effects of the past few years, the recovery progress slowed.
We were fortunate enough to be with him the past few weeks, days and hours of his stay. To see the smile on his face, the love you could see in his eyes knowing that we would always support him.
Our Father's services are being done at Joseph A Ward Funeral Home Inc located at 1459 Market St. Linwood, PA 19061; Phone: (610)-485-2425 or Email: [email redacted]
Anyone interested is welcome to contact the funeral home or Mr. Chris Ward directly for any contributions you would like to send. All funds we be contributed to the burial, future memorial, and services. Due to the pandemic, we will be delaying any memorials services at this time. We will keep this page open to repost, along with memorial details once we are able to safely make arrangements. Although we would prefer to hold services right now, we know Dad would not want anyone to risk their safety or any others to do so.
We are creating this page as a family to help support our father in the same way he has always done for us and anyone else he knew. I will openly say that asking for help from anyone goes completely against everything he is (or was), especially if it was directly for him. When it comes to us, his kids, his grandson, family, or friends he would always do whatever he could or had to in order to help or be there as best he could. No matter what was going on in his own life. Like most fathers, coming to his children to ask for help was not in his grain.
Right now we as a family are asking for support to give him his final resting services, as we know he would do for us. I have explained his story very briefly below if you have the desire to read further. I only wrote this section, because I wanted anyone who knew him to see how I did how proud I am of him. Like I say below, myself, my brother, close family and friends were with him through everything, and as much as we could, or he would allow us. He was stubborn and proud, to do what he could on his own without help. I give him so much credit for being as strong as he was not just physically to go through all of this, but mostly mentally. We always knew how strong he was, but this whole process really shows who someone truly is. He was always positive, outgoing, and never easily to give up. Keeping up with his day to day life, still moving forward, never dwelling on what he was going through. It was still always about everyone else around him. He loved so much. He always wanted to put a smile on everyone else's face. He remained active in every part of his grandsons activities, still managed to help me and Barry Jr with any advice we needed or support with whatever we were dealing with. I can only hope that my own son will look at me the same way I looked up to him.
Sadly, November 19, 2020 his fight with Multiple Myeloma ended after the most recent two year battle. He was originally diagnosed in November 2016 at 63 yrs old, after pre op lab results came back showing decreased platelet counts. It was fortunate at the time that he was physically strong and healthy enough to go through the needed management to manage the growth of cancers cells to a degree where he could go through his initial stem cell treatment. After his initial stem cell treatment in late 2017, he was happily clear of any Myeloma Cells up until fall of 2018.
Unfortunately, gradually the Myeloma Cells slowly returned and required him to go back into needed chemo treatments, IV platelet and Blood Transfusions. At this point since the reoccurrence, he was transferred to Jefferson Hospital under the care of Oncology Doctor Wagner , which my father absolutely adored. Of course, during this time, he still did not want to inconvenience anyone asking for help, insisting he would do everything on his own. Starting early 2019, the daily treatments at Jefferson Hospital started in order to keep his blood level, and immune system up on a daily basis. Luckily through the American Cancer Society , his care managers with the Oncology Dept. arranged for him to be transported everyday to and from his outpatient treatments. While I could get into the details of the side effects, the exhaustion and frustration of dealing with all of this on his own, I'll try not to. Only because I know my father is NEVER the type to complain, or want anyone to feel bad for him especially through this. I know in some ways him doing this himself, helped keep him going, kept him busy and focused, which he really needed.At times we were able to go with him for check up appointments with Dr. Wagner, or other tests needed to monitor his overall health. Most families who have been through this know the extent of strain the treatments can put on the rest of the body. Thank goodness, even at this point, late 2019 going into 2020, he had minor side effects. Finally, in early 2020, after multiple changes of medicines to help control the cell growth, his body was at a point to start discussing a second stem cell treatment. After a few months of more pre op, tests, procedures, and biopsies the Dr. Wagner finally got authorization for an outside donor to be setup for the stem cell transplant.
Mid July 2020, the he went to Jefferson Hospital for an estimated stay of approximately 6-12 weeks. He went in optimistically expecting similar results like the first. This transplant being different from the first, because now this is an outside donor where the first was done with his own cells. The process once started, initially depletes the immune system down to zero, then with supported blood and platelet transfusions builds all the blood levels back up, as close to, a normal functioning level. Then, monitoring and management is done to determine if his body is holding the levels on it's own. This is a very strenuous process with many side effects and secondary infectious possibilities. Luckily, again, overall he still managed to recovery fairly well considering the sever consequences that may have occurred during the process.
Around mid August he was able to be sent home, with help from friends. But already being so immune suppressed form the transplant he began a fever only a few hours after being home. Due to the fever we had to bring him back to Jefferson so they could manage the fever. With immune suppression, any fever is detrimental and is imperative the source be found and managed. After tests and antibiotics, they thought the issue of the fever was well enough to be managed as outpatient, plus he just wanted to be home.
He was released two more times after this, but again the fever reoccurred and he was readmitted twice more. So, from mid July until Sept he was only home for a total of three days, then was readmitted. It didn't help that during all of this the Co-Vid pandemic limited contact, initially from July until the last admittance in September no visitors were allowed at all. Under his circumstances they eventually started to allow immediate family to visit him with scheduled visits.
During the last stay they had found the source of the fever, a common virus. Most people carry this in their blood, with a healthy immune system don't ever have side effects of it being present . But being immune suppressed, it internally attacks the organs causing additional medications to treat with of course even more side effects on top of the transplant he just went through. These side effects attack everything his body just fought to try to rebuild. This went on from early September until November. As usual he made steady progress and kept doing everything he physically could to help keep himself up and going. With unfortunate luck, he had a few set backs with side effects from the medications. In addition to the long term effects of the past few years, the recovery progress slowed.
We were fortunate enough to be with him the past few weeks, days and hours of his stay. To see the smile on his face, the love you could see in his eyes knowing that we would always support him.
Organiser
Austin Family
Organiser
Boothwyn, PA