Help John Carney Beat Cancer

Your colon is enormous," said the Urgent Care physician with some concern.

"When was your last bowel movement?"

"Two days ago, but it was tiny. Like squirrel poop."

It had been a painful 5 days. Cramps, bloat, and vomiting all seemed to show up at the same time. There had been some random vomiting a few weeks before, but nothing like this.

"I'm prescribing you a very strong laxative. If you don't have a bowel movement within 3 hours go straight to the emergency room.”

This was the conversation John Carney was having during the afternoon of Friday, November 4, 2022. It was a day that would change everything.

John’s colon was completely blocked by a cancerous tumor. Adenocarcinioma of the Sigmoid Bowel, Stage 2A. At age 48. Within days he was in surgery that removed his gall bladder, a section of large intestine, and 33 lymph nodes for further testing. The surgery also included a colostomy. It was major surgery that left John weak and unable to work or care for himself for months.

Fast forward 6 month and John’s recovery from surgery is on track and he’s gaining weight and walking up to two miles several times a week during chemotherapy off weeks. As of this writing he’s almost halfway through chemotherapy and recently went back to his work from home job. As positive as these developments are, the income lost so far remains lost. John’s ordeal has left him with a pile of medical bills with many more to come. Even with insurance, for example, chemotherapy costs John over $400 per session. Chemotherapy will continue into August and that will be followed by another major surgery to reverse the colostomy. In some cases the recovery time for this surgery can be up to a year. This will mean an unknown amount of time away from work in addition to the expenses. And these are the things we have some awareness of. John has already experienced 2 unplanned hospitalizations since his November surgery and assumes it will happen at least one more time. The chemotherapy has started to reduce his white blood cell count, which diminishes his ability to fight infection. This may cause unexpected time out of work from an illness or infection at some point.

In addition to the cancer, life deals us other challenges like replacing a hurricane damaged roof, fixing tile damage in the kitchen and a possible foundation issue. It’s all been snowballing. That’s why John needs your help. So he can concentrate on recovery and make some progress towards getting back on his feet without worrying about everything tumbling down.

Thank you very much for your help!