Hi, my name is Kristin Kiro and I'm fundraising for the Ricker family. Tanya Ricker and I have been friends for over twenty years, and her family is currently experiencing some difficult times and unexpected medical expenses.

On March 19th, Patrick, Tanya's husband, went to urgent care because he suspected he had bronchitis. He was wheezing, so they did an x-ray of his lungs to check for pneumonia. Instead of finding that, they found a 4.6cm mass on his right lung.

Their world changed that day, and since then, it's been a flurry of doctor's appointments and hospital visits. After a CT scan, followed by a pulmonologist visit, Patrick had a biopsy of the mass via bronchoscopy. They were fortunate that there was a pathologist in the room and they got immediate preliminary results: Cancer.

Since then, they've had an appointment with Dartmouth and got the full pathology.

Patrick has a carcinoid tumor. This type of lung cancer is rare, slow growing, and doesn’t typically spread. They are still waiting on a PET/CT scan to confirm it has not spread anywhere else. His tumor is quite large. So large in fact that it is not only squeezing one of the bronchioles (airway tube) but it is also pushing on the main vein/artery to his heart.

On Monday, May 1, they met with a thoracic oncology surgeon. At this point, barring anything else showing up on the PET scan, Patrick will be having a lobectomy. They'll remove the entire bottom lobe of his right lung with the tumor. At this point, he won't need chemo or radiation, thankfully.

Recovery is 4-8 weeks depending. There are two ways to do the surgery, and because of the location and other major structures involved, it is likely he will need the larger incision (including cutting and restitching the latissimus muscle back together) and therefore more recovery time.

The tumor will get pathology to make sure it's what they suspect. They can’t 100% say if it's typical or atypical until then.

Everyone is so thankful that he doesn’t have to go through radiation or chemo, but the Ricker family still has a long road ahead of them and they are going to need some help. They don't know exactly how long he will need to be out of work. Unfortunately, his company doesn’t offer short-term disability, which means he will be unpaid for most of that time out.

As a family with two young children in daycare, every paycheck is important. Missing anywhere between 4 and 8 weeks of work will add even more stress to their lives.

In Tanya’s words: “We live paycheck to paycheck. I'm not ashamed of this, we live a good life, but this will make things very difficult. We want to be able to keep the boys' lives as normal as possible during all of this. We want them to be able to continue to go to school and daycare where they are loved and thriving. We need to be able to pay our mortgage and other expenses, in addition to the medical expenses. Just the travel alone to and from medical visits is expensive.”

Anything helps, and they are deeply grateful for everything they may receive. The fund will go towards their general living expenses (gas, food, mortgage, utilities) and Patrick's medical expenses. A portion will also go towards daycare for the boys so their lives are not disrupted during this exceptionally difficult time.