Nobody wants to hear the word CANCER.

In February of 2021 Guy noticed what he thought was a cold sore on the inside of his bottom lip. Within 3 weeks it had doubled in size. On March 3rd his ENT confirmed that he had oral cancer which is an aggressive, fast growing cancer. On April 1st he had his first surgery which took 15 1/2 hours. During this surgery, Guy had part of his jaw bone, 6 teeth and a large portion of his chin and lip removed. The surgeon also removed about 50 lymph nodes from his neck. They used a large skin graft from his arm to help in the reconstruction of his mouth.

Recovery was hard but they were optimistic that they had gotten it all.

By November 2021 they were ready to begin further reconstruction. However a week prior to that scheduled surgery Guy found a painful lump in his collarbone area. During the reconstruction surgery they biopsied the lump and once again found cancer.

On December 5th he underwent yet another surgery to remove that cancerous lump. It was found to be in a deep lymph node and wrapped around a muscle in his neck. The tumor and part of the muscle were removed. The diagnosis is now stage 3 or 4 Head and Neck Cancer.

Because this is a fast growing and aggressive cancer, the course of treatment is both radiation and chemotherapy simultaneously.

Guy begins this treatment the first week of January 2022. It will be a course of radiation that will take place every week day for 6 weeks and on Thursdays he will also receive chemotherapy.

 

The extensive medical bills, gas for trips to Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit along with countless days of missed work for both Claudine and Guy has taken its toll on them financially.

This is going to get much worse in the coming weeks as Guy will most likely be off work due to appointments and illness from the treatments. Claudine may also have to miss work to help care for Guy.

With the new year also comes a new medical insurance deductible.

 

Both Claudine and Guy are extremely hard working proud people. But they need help.

 

Guy works as an electrician by day and as a reserve (non-paid) police officer for Lake Orion and Holly Police Departments in the evenings and on weekends.

Claudine works as a Paraeducator for Lake Orion Schools.

 

This GoFundMe is to help remove some of the financial burden and stress. Nobody should have to worry about losing their home or how to feed their family when they are fighting for their life.