Help Chris pay medical debt and other medical expenses

It's been almost a decade since I was first diagnosed with colon cancer. Though this has obviously been the most difficult ten years of my life, I still feel very fortunate to have survived this long. Only a small percentage of people survive beyond five years after a Stage IV diagnosis, let alone an entire decade. I'm extremely grateful that I've had this many years to experience knowing and loving my children. And of course, I'm grateful for being able to celebrate 14 years of marriage to Laura.

But while knowing I'm blessed to have survived this long, cancer treatment is expensive, along with the cost of everything that goes along with it. And I'm also faced with the harsh reality that this cancer has been growing, and spreading, leaving me in severe pain and constantly getting infections that my immune system has had a tough time fighting. The cancer has grown so much that it no longer allows my kidneys to drain properly. I had to have tubes implanted into my kidneys that drains my urine into two nephrostomy bags. This is the source of most of my infections. Along with that the cancer has spread to my spleen, my liver, my lungs and more recently it has grown into my sciatic nerve. The severity of the pain coming from this is something I've never experienced before. I can't find the words to even describe it properly.

This pain, along with contracting so many infections, has left me unable to work enough to pay down my medical debt and personal bills. I tried working through the pain but the problem is that it has been so severe at night I've been unable to sleep much. I often will sleep just 20 minutes at a time, for maybe two to three hours a night. And driving while being sleep deprived is as about as dangerous as driving while drunk, so I had to stop.

Unfortunately the only way for me to get any relief from this pain at this point is to go through some risky radiation. My doctor has me scheduled for radiation treatment twice a day through the remainder of March. And he stated that it could take a few months for my body to recover. Based on the fact that I lost almost 45 pounds the last time I went through radiation, and I only weigh 135 now, it isn't an exaggeration to say that I may never fully recover. However, at this point I have little choice but to go through with the radiation.

This is why I've decided to start a GoFundMe. This is something that has been very difficult for me to do. l must admit that it's probably mostly because of pride. I've been a hard worker and through the first several years of having cancer I worked 50 to 60 hours a week, regardless of how I was feeling from chemotherapy. But as my health has declined so has my ability to work like I once did, leaving me in this difficult situation.

And honestly, one of my main motivators for doing this is that I am afraid of dying and not only leaving Laura to navigate the rest of Isa's childhood as a single parent, but also having to find a way to pay off my medical debt. She has already had to go through so much being married to someone with cancer for 10 of our 14 years of marriage. She and Isa don't deserve to be saddled with my medical debt.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. If you'd like to donate but not go through GoFundMe, you can also send donations through my venmo @CMM1549