My mobility needs, hip surgeries and cancer fight

hi, my name is Gerry, and I’ve always been extremely active, I worked hard and always was up for a walk at the dog park when I wasn’t.

in 2012 I was diagnosed with an unknown cancer, symptoms were mostly pain and lack of stamina. 2015 my knee is so arthritic I need surgery. So I continued working until I could get surgery done. Well, in 2020 the unknown cancer I had was discovered and was now a grapefruit sized tumor in my abdomen. Immediate surgery was booked in the heat of Covid and I came out of that quite well. It was a GIST tumor, and this particular type of cancer “seeded”, so to prevent its return I was started on a chemo drug and continued it until I had to go off it for my now scheduled hip surgery. I had hip surgery Dec 16/21, it was a success almost as I got an infection and needed repeat surgery to clean that up. Well I struggled through the infected hip and a total of 8 hip surgeries in 12 months. During that they’re also trying trying to get my chemo fine tuned and realize the drug had put me in kidney failure so now trying a different chemo medication and it seems to be working. The infection was so bad and then added a bout of infection and had sepsis twice. I was near death. I still can’t walk well and definitely not far. My cancer has also metastasized and I’m now stage 4. My pain is so bad I can’t walk unaided and I live in constant pain from my abdomen. I was on months of IV antibiotics at home and had home care treating me daily. I survive daily with a large regime of medication and narcotics.

I have 2 dogs that bring me great joy and I know they miss our walks as much as I do. If I had funds to buy a motor scooter, it would open my local world to me again. I was a truck driver for a career so I miss being mobile and able to go to the parks with my dogs.

It would allow me to contribute to my home as I could go grocery shopping and run little errands.

my wife, she’s such a blessing, owns a small retail store and throughout Covid and my hospitalizations, she’s been bearing a very heavy burden. I would love to be able to help her and contribute to the home.

Thank you all, so much, this been beyond successful. Additional funding can fund things I never thought I could get, as the government has already turned down so many. Like 0xygen therapy, cpap, M rail for my bed, and other mobility devices.