My wife and I decided to do this together. We started this gofundme when I was first diagnosed, but our pride stopped us from ever sharing it. We agreed I'd start it but she'd keep it going.

The Short Version, as told by Victor:

I have stage 4 cancer and I don't want to leave my wife and our two genius, beautiful, crazy, little rough and tumble Princesses with costs they can't afford, funeral or otherwise, because I was too sick to support them or I have passed before I was able to clear all of my debts. It's crazy how quickly it all happened. I went from being able to run around with both of my little girls in each arm to unable to walk and barely able to pick up my cell phone. I can't help my family in any capacity right now but I'm hoping you can. Please share this with anyone who can help.

The Long Version, as told by Arrion:

Dear Readers,

Believe me when I say, nothing will ever make you feel more powerless than having a loved one, who is sick, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. The love of my life, Victor Blanco, whom I've known for more than half my existence, since the tender age of 13, was diagnosed with cancer this past July at the young age of 32.

My husband and I were unemployed due to COVID, without health insurance, and trying to run after our two beautiful daughters who were both still in diapers at the time. We were doing gig economy work to make ends meet, I would work from 6am-12pm and he would take over from 12pm-6pm. Around April, Victor's strength started to decline slowly but surely. Our apartment is on the second floor of his mother's house. Every morning he'd wake up the girls at 9am while I was out making deliveries and carry them down the stairs to go have breakfast with him and their grandmother. Peyton was, and still is, too young to do it but Zoey, our eldest daughter, was trained to walk the stairs on her own but was usually too tired at breakfast to do so, so Victor would happily carry the sleepy girls down. All of a sudden, he couldn't carry them both, he could endure carrying Peyton but he'd started to make Zoey hold his hand while she sleepily walked down for breakfast. Then in May, he started to call his mother to carry Peyton for him while he walked with Zoey. In June, he needed his mom to accompany both children down the stairs because he was unsteady while going down them by himself but he'd do it to spend time with our babies. And finally in July, he stopped going downstairs for breakfast altogether. Because of his fatigue, he had taken a break from gig work in June because a sharp throbbing pain had manifested in his groin when he was lifting a case of water for a customer. On 7/18/22 the pain became unbearable and we rushed him to the ER insurance be damned. They did all sorts of tests, poking, prodding and pictures. Only to keep us in the dark, discharge him with mild painkillers and send us on our way to await an appointment with an Urologist three days later.

His initial diagnosis on 7/21/22 was Stage 2 Testicular Cancer --I've often heard that the longer the name of a cancer, the scarier, more ruthless and aggressive it is-- Within 6 weeks, he was classified as Stage 4 Metastatic Non-Seminoma Testicular Cancer and man oh man, aggressive, ruthless and scary aren't strong enough words to describe the havoc it wreaks on my dear husband's body or on our family. Thank goodness we were able to get insurance on 08/01/22 and they were gracious enough to take pity and retroactively include all medical claims starting 7/18/22.

In the first 4 weeks after his diagnosis, my poor husband had to have 3 emergency surgeries, 08/05/22 a Radical Orchiectomy was performed meaning the removal of his one cancer ridden testicle, the stem of this awful disease. Unfortunately, this only angered his cancer and out of spite for removing its source, it decided to spread.

A short amount of time went by, and a huge malignant tumor began to grow out of control in his abdomen. The abdominal tumor grew so large, it nearly choked the life out of his left kidney by suffocating it with its hefty weight, causing the kidney to shrivel up like a raisin in the sun.

When it was bored of that torture, it attacked his spine limiting the use of his left leg. On 8/16/22, another emergency surgery was carried out to safeguard Victor's ability to walk. A piece of the tumor was cut away and screws were installed in his spine to prevent it from collapsing because the tumor greedily ate 94% of his L3 vertebrae, disabling Victor from putting any weight on his left leg or he'd crumble to the ground.

And as if that wasn't enough, on 8/18/22 a nephrostomy tube was placed into Victor's right ureter because the tumor expanded even more and started its strike his right kidney, blocking the flow to his bladder. The neph tube, as we call it, helps drain the right kidney of toxic waste outside of the body. Stage 3 Metastatic Testicular Cancer.

When Victor left the hospital on 8/23/22, our family was overjoyed. He was limping but walking, in minimal pain from his surgery, and although a little nauseous, had a great appetite. We were constantly told that his diagnosis was the most curable of cancers and he would be starting the same chemotherapy regimen as Lance Armstrong. Things were looking up. He was scheduled to start chemo on 9/12/22 to give him a little more time to heal from his spinal surgery. But just eight days before chemo was to start, on Sunday 09/04, Victor's left leg was paralyzed. We called the doctor's emergency line around 10pm, only to be met with an unfriendly voice who couldn't comprehend our fear. The emergency line operator said she would pass our concerns to his neurosurgeon but we later found out she never did. Thankfully, we already had an appointment with him scheduled for Tuesday 09/06, since Monday was a holiday and we hadn't heard back from the emergency line, Victor figured we'd wait it out until the appointment. When we arrived and the doctor saw Victor in a wheelchair he was extremely troubled. He asked why we hadn't reached out the minute Victor couldn't use his leg anymore. As we told him of the unsympathetic emergency line operator, he became physically angry. Red in the face but calm voiced he asked what time we'd called exactly and the gender of this unhelpful person. Upset but satisfied with the information we'd given him, he stepped out of the exam room and made sure to close the behind him all the way but didn't that have his desired effect because we still heard him yell from his office down the hall, "Get me their head on a like!" When he returned to the exam room, the red flush was gone from his skin and he informed us of his hypothesis. He believed the tumor had grown back to the spine and possibly started to eat at Victor's L2 vertebrae which would explain his paralysis. He wanted us to rush to the hospital for an emergency CT scan to hopefully disprove his theory. Unfortunately, the good doctor was right and we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Stage 4 Metastatic Non-Seminoma Testicular Cancer.

Victor hadn't completely healed from his spinal surgery yet and he needed to start emergency chemo before the paralysis became permanent. It was a catch 22 situation, starting chemo would stop his back from healing and make him susceptible to infection but waiting could mean that Victor would never walk again. The doctors gave him the choice, he chose to start chemo. Victor was prescribed 5 days of radiation to target the tumor at his L2, and 4 Rounds of chemo, each round amounting to 3 weeks each. It was surreal, five days of chemo in the hospital and relatively no symptoms. Victor was discharged so he could start the 2nd week of his 1st round at the outpatient center closest to our home. It wasn't until Victor got home that all the symptoms reared their ugly heads.

My sweet oldest daughter, Zoey, who is only 3 years old, is the epitomy of Daddy's Little Girl. I know my daughter loves me but Victor is without a doubt her person. Everytime he doesn't come home and has to stay in the hospital for days on end, her loving, caring personality has a dark shadow cast over it. She becomes a bully to her cousins, younger and older, and refuses to eat any of the meals prepared at home. It tears me up inside to think about my precious toddler starving herself until her father is discharged. It takes the whole family to try to convince my heartbroken toddler to eat her food while Daddy is away. After Victor's first two hospital stays, with plenty of trial and error, we finally figured out her comfort foods, the only things she'll ingest until her Father comes home, French fries, Mixed Berry yogurt, and Cocomelon Smoothie pouches and even then it's a fight to get her to finish them. Are they the healthiest foods for her to eat? Not necessarily, but eat she must, and if these are the only things to get that done? So be it.

I've done my absolute best to make sure Victor was around for most of Peyton's firsts, which, let me tell you, was no easy task. Because of Victor's neph tube, he could no longer sleep in our bedroom out of fear that it would get tugged on by myself or our children. Thank goodness we built a Murphy bed in our living room for out of state guests just 10 months before Diagnosis day, or we would have struggled to find adequate sleeping arrangements for him. With Victor being bed-bound, holed up in our tiny living room on a Murphy bed occupying 90% of the space, on the other side of our apartment, it was extremely difficult for him to see his children play, eat, or learn. I had to stop Peyton, my now 1 year old daughter, from taking her first steps so that I could get her father from across the apartment to witness it with me, instead of after me.

A Note From Our Friends:

Victor's sudden and tragic illness leaves emotional and financial uncertainty.

We're helping our friends as much as we can but we're hoping you can help them too... So how can you help?

1) Financial donations of any size are so greatly appreciated.

2) If you want to reach out, messages of love and support are always appreciated.

If you know Victor's family, you know how strong, positive and resilient they are. That being said, they are going through some of the most unimaginable battles right now and can use our support.

Thank you so much for taking the time to help our beautiful friends. ♥️