Ben's Year of Cancer Treatment

Just over one month ago, Ben was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. After some complications with digestion and his gastrointestinal tract, he requested to get a colonoscopy. Due to colon cancer not being common in men and women Ben's age, the colonoscopy request was initially denied. After complications continued to grow worse, he was referred for a colonoscopy. Finally, 6 months after the initial request, a colonoscopy was performed.

 

The doctor that did the procedure did not have good news to deliver. There were a couple polyps, and a fairly large tumor. The polyps were taken out and a biopsy was sent in. The doctor had the nurses bring Ben to radiology for a CT scan immediately afterwards.

 

The CT scan came back showing multiple suspicious lymph nodes in addition to the tumor, but no additional tumors in Ben's body. The biopsy came back and it was confirmed that the polyps and the tumor were cancerous. A MRI was done a couple weeks later, which was able to show the tumor and lymph nodes in more detail. The tumor measured 4.4 cm, and was growing through the rectum wall. It was beginning to fuse with and take over the pelvic floor muscle, and invade other pertinent things for functionality when considering bowel movements (we won't go into too much detail here).

 

The surgeon suggested aggressive treatment with chemotherapy first for 4-5 months, so that the whole region can be taken care of, and hopefully the tumor would shrink. The port for the chemo will be installed in 1 week (9/20), and chemo will begin on 9/22/21. After recovering from chemotherapy, the next step is doing some radiation therapy to target the tumor specifically as a more concentrated effort to shrink it. After this, surgery will be performed to remove the tumor and everything affected. A stoma will be installed. The hope is that if the tumor shrinks enough, Ben will not need a permanent stoma and bag attached, but will be able to have things reconnected a couple months down the road. All-in-all, the treatment will take about a year.

 

When all is said and done, here is what we are working with: Stage 3b or 3c Colorectal Adenocarcinoma, with a tumor that is grade 2 (grade 1 being not very aggressive and grade 3 being extremely aggressive). The statistics put Ben's survival rate for making it another 5 years between 33-45%, but there are factors that these statistics do not account for (age, and advances in treatment since the ending period of when those statistics were gathered).

 

Financially, this is where we are standing: Ben should have himself and his family covered by insurance the entire way through, so praise God for his employer! Ben has been written out of work at this point, as his frequency of appointments are ramping up leading up to beginning chemotherapy. That being said, the Aleshire's income is taking a considerable hit, as Ben is the sole provider for his family and disability covers 60-70% of a person's income. Additionally, their rent is going up by about 700 per month. When all is said and done, it is estimated that the Aleshire's will be approximately 1800-2000 per month behind their normal, sustainable income, including changes in cost of living. If we estimate on the safer end as to not create unnecessary financial stress for the Aleshires over the next year, 2k x 12months = 24k. While there are other ways that people can support (prayer, grabbing groceries, distracting the children, bringing food, or just some good old fashioned love and empathy), hitting the goal of raising 24,000 will ensure that the Aleshires will be able to live modestly and comfortably without additional stress.

 

Thank you for considering helping out. We love you, and we will keep you updated!

-The Aleshires