Battle for the Bard: Help Dave Fight Brain Cancer

Everyone who knows and loves David Kaltenbach is already aware that he must have a giant hole in his head somewhere. Sadly, quantifiable evidence has recently come to light revealing that the most popular speculation that the deficiency’s location was in the common-sense department was incorrect. I’m Kelly, and my efforts here are to fundraise money to pay for the repair costs of said hole.

After a visibly rapid period of decline involving difficulty finding words, balance challenges, and eventually severe long-term memory loss, Dave was admitted to the emergency room on March 30th. A CT scan revealed a large mass in his left frontal lobe. The subsequent MRI clarified the dire situation: the tumor was the product of an aggressive, High-Grade cancer. Further, the tumor’s rapid growth was damaging healthy brain tissue resulting in extensive swelling. Dave was admitted to a hospital room immediately and worked into the neurosurgery schedule as quickly as possible. It was only a matter of days before he was under the scalpel of a crack team of neurosurgeons.

While the craniotomy went exceedingly well and though Dave has followed all the doctors’ orders and been able to receive radiation and chemotherapy treatments, grief still looms in the all too near future. It is fortunate that he has worked himself to the point of exhaustion to scrape back every bit of functionality that he can as swiftly as he can after such a traumatic illness; time is now unbearably precious.

The biopsy informed us that we are facing a glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer. The harbinger surgeon said that it’s the diagnosis that they never want to have to give. There is a great deal of life that he will have to pack into the next (hopefully) few years, and I will personally kick his skinny butt if he tries to waste that time worrying about money or the people that he is going to inevitably leave behind. He simply has too much to offer the world and our local community, and he should spend some time finally considering himself, too.

This is a good time to describe Dave himself. A true Renaissance Man of our time, Dave’s skill sets and the knowledge base are as extensive as they are intriguing. Master machinist, and yet talented musician; former Scout Master with hard-earned wilderness survival skills, and yet homebody happy cooking delicious meals and brewing honey mead in a cozy household setting.

A father, a family man, a bird lover, a mentor, a pillar at work and in the neighborhood, and a beloved partner; Dave wants as much time as possible to leave behind a gift of knowledge that will better the local community and benefit anyone who would train as his student. Such a worthy legacy, but the maximum time frame is a scant two to five years - far too brief for him to spend even a moment doing anything other than enduring brutal cancer treatments and passing down everything that he can.

I cannot support us financially right now. Dave has needed a full-time caregiver and chauffeur for daily appointments, and he was the breadwinner anyway. Further, I have spent any extra time that I have working odd jobs and tracking down every scrap of financial aid that is available to us. We are even collecting aluminum recycling and selling it to salvage shops…every little bit helps.

There is a possibility that we could save money on interest by refinancing our mortgage given the work we have put into the small property, so we will jump through any hoops necessary to save wherever we can. We have never lived extravagantly, and Dave has paid into decent health insurance for his entire working life; but life is so difficult for everyone right now. I know that he is worried for his family, for the bills and the debts that we are going to face when he is no longer here to help us. I will not, however, watch him waste time and energy on such things when he could be living to the fullest by being a true blessing to everyone around him.

We have a daily 60-mile round trip to the radiation oncology facility in the city, thus we are easily burning through $100 a week on gas alone no matter how carefully we schedule appointments in adjacent time slots. There are still three weeks left of radiation treatment, so $300 will go towards getting Dave there every day.

What’s more, on the frequent days with multiple appointments food is a difficult thing to work out without stopping somewhere, given the hours long wait in the hot car. The chemotherapy drug is, mercifully, a capsule that can be taken at home and available in generic form; but the price of that will invariably increase by an unknown amount as the dosage increases.

Just the anesthesia for the surgical procedure was more than $3,000 dollars, the tumor removal itself more than $5,000. A minutes-long visit from the radiation oncologist before Dave’s surgery was over was $500; the actual radiation therapy is about $3,300. It has barely been more than two months since the initial diagnosis and we have already reached the insurance plan’s out of pocket cap of $4,500, and the medical bills are coming in and adding up terrifyingly rapidly.

Aside from that sudden expense, we are still paying health care premiums, and disability through employment insurance is swiftly running out. With our savings drained and little income coming in it may become difficult to both keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. If we reach our goal then that should cover about half of our out of pocket medical expenses after fees. We can find a way to manage the rest and then focus our efforts on simply getting by in our current situation.

Thank you for your kindness in listening, and your generosity in considering offering your help in our time of need. Regular updates on Dave’s status and progress (as well as funny vignettes of us driving each other up the wall) will be available on Twitter here at @SaveTheBard, and you can view pictures and videos of Dave as he doggedly progresses to better health here at the_bard_and_the_barbarian on Instagram. An especially big thank you if you decide to donate any amount. The support and tangible aid means so much to both of us.