Hello all, my name is Amanda Allsup. I'm raising funds for one of my brothers, Derek. For those of you who know Derek, you know he is one of the kindest, funniest, and most kindhearted people you know. He would give the shirt off his back if someone was in need. He loves his family; he is a wonderful brother, son, and uncle. Derek never asks anyone for anything but is happy to give, which is why I am the one asking for the support. We are the type of family that all come together; we are very close-knit, but we also generally do not ask for help; we try to help each other. But with his recent situation, he is going to need all the help he can get.

He had been having some stomach issues, went to the doctor, and they told him he seemed to be constipated and to take a stool softener. On Sunday, September 14th, just a few days after he had gone to the doctor, he went to the emergency room due to crippling pain in his stomach. His blood pressure and heart rate were through the roof. Once he got admitted (6 hours later), the doctors did blood work that looked good, did X-rays, and thought they saw a potential tear in his colon and did see he was rather "backed up."

So they decided they needed to do surgery to get a better look at what was going on. After a 5-hour surgery, the outcome was that he had most of his sigmoid colon removed (part of the colon by the butt in the pelvic area). They also removed a portion of the descending colon and gave him an ostomy bag.

They removed the abscess and removed the portion of the bladder that it attached to. They sent it off for analysis of cancer, but the doctor said cancer is likely and that he may need chemo or radiation. Some days later, the results came in, and it was in fact cancer. After talking with the surgeon, we learned it was an aggressive localized colon cancer. The cancer did not spread to his lymph nodes, which is great news, and the surgeon took more than was needed when she did the surgery as she felt very confident that it was cancer. Derek is now out of the hospital but has some recovery time, where he will not be working. It is also likely he will be doing chemo and radiation or maybe just chemo, which will result in him being out of work longer. In about 6 months (depending on how the chemo/radiation goes), he will be able to have the ostomy bag reversed, which means another surgery, another hospital stay, and more time off work.

I am hoping to help alleviate some of the burden from the hospital bills that will be coming his way, chemo/radiation bills that will be coming his way along with the future bills coming his way for the reversal of the ostomy bag and also help him stay afloat with bills. I know that this is a very tough time for most people with inflation and holidays right around the corner. But I know Derek and all of our family will be so very grateful for any donations, and if you cannot donate, we would be so very grateful for you to share this post!