Fight for Andrew Culver

Our world changed when Andrew Culver, our son, brother, uncle, grandson, nephew, cousin was diagnosed with a rare soft tissue sarcoma. As we navigate hospital stays, chemo treatments, surgery, the emotional toll of this journey, we are also facing mounting medical and travel expenses.

We created a go fund me to help lighten the financial load so we can focus on what matters most- helping Andrew to fight!

If you are able, we humbly ask for your support-weather that's through donation, sharing the link, or keeping our family in your thoughts. Everybit means the world to us

Here is his story:

Andrew Culver’s Journey to Health

Late last year Andrew noticed a small lump in his right bicep. He noticed it, it wasn’t painful, it was just there. During Andrews exam for his wisdom teeth extraction the oral surgeon saw and said he really should have it looked at. Once Andrew recovered from that he saw his general practitioner about the lump in his arm. She agreed he should have some imaging done and sent him to get an ultrasound, the results showed a 4.2x2.8x2.2 cm recommended further imaging and on April 20th he got an MRI. The MRI showed a 4.7 mass, and he is referred to a surgeon. He saw a local general surgeon, he walked in and told us that he doesn’t deal with sarcomas and that Andrew needed to see an orthopedic oncologist. We got an appointment right away and saw Dr Sorger. They scheduled the biopsy and Andrew had that done a few days later, on May 20th. The biopsy results took 5 weeks, the Cincinnati general hospital’s affiliate lab could not identify it, so the sample was sent to Cleveland Clinic. They then had to have the Mayo clinic consult and his results are still not clear. They know it is a high-grade aggressive sarcoma; it appears to be Rhabdomyosarcoma.

Within an hour of the biopsy coming back we received a call from Dr Turpin at Cincinnati children’s hospital. He was wonderful answering questions and explaining what was next and got his team together to get Andrew down for a day of tests. All of Andrew’s Dr are pediatrician’s, sarcoma’s make up 1% of all diagnosed cancers. And adults with sarcomas are very rare. So, he is being seen by the experts. Children’s hospitals treat patients up to 40 years old.

On Monday June 30th, we spent the day at Children’s hospital getting a Pet scan, CT and Bloodwork. We then met with Andrew’s oncology team, to discuss the results and treatment. The Pet scan came back clear; the CT showed a nodule in his right lung. This may or may not be a metastasis.

On July 8th Andrew will have a lung biopsy, lymph node biopsy and his port put in for his chemo treatments.

Chemo will start soon after surgery, so far, the plan is to do inpatient chemo for 3 days then he can recover at home for 18 days then back for the next dose, this will continue until mid-November. Then he will have surgery to remove the mass, followed by radiation and more chemo.

Andrew will not be working and is selling his home he shares with Haylee. He will be moving back home with his mom and Rob.