#44STRONG Help with Final expenses

Hello everyone!

Last time we were here John had been Feeling worn out, having shortness of breath and just generally not feeling well and was diagnosed with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension, congestive heart failure and lung disease.

Fast forward to March of this year. Things were not getting better. He was now having trouble swallowing and so we went in….. stage 4 esophageal cancer. So we started out our journey fighting cancer. He did chemo and radiation 5 days a week but you would never know he was doing chemo. He was doing great and it looked like the tumor was shrinking. Then something happened. John started coughing up blood. He was rushed to the St Cloud Hospital . They couldn’t see where the bleeding was coming from with the scans and couldn’t get past the tumor in his esophagus with the scope. The bleeding eventually stopped on its own and things looked to be ok. So I went home to get a Cpl things and he was going to have a stent put in to help open his esophagus in hopes of getting him eating again. As I was on my way back I got a phone call, John had started throwing up massive amounts of blood and he went into cardiac arrest . They got him back and it happened again. I was told they didn’t think he was going to make it and to call his kids & get here to say goodbye. . He had just lost to much blood. Long story short John had a gastric ulcer that had started bleeding. He lost 26 bags of blood in one hour. They were able to stop the bleeding but ultimately John had to have part of his stomach removed. We spent 21 days at the St. Cloud hospital in intensive care. He continues to baffle doctors on how he walked out of there. He truly is a walking miracle and doctors still talk about him. He came home but unfortunately the cancer had spread . It was now in his lymph nodes and stomach. Then he got sepsis. (My god) but as usual walked back out of the hospital after only 2 days. Doctors still in amazement. Any of this would have killed most.

John is now in the end stage of his cancer but we continue to fight this in hopes of buying a little more time. If chemo works he was given 6-12 months, if it dsnt… 3-6. He is doing chemo in St. Cloud now but we live in Walker. It is a 2 hour drive and a 2 day trip by the time we’re done every week. Things are taking its toll financially. It’s Christmas and with the financial stress of traveling back and forth it’s proving to be too much.  We both only get disability and with house payments , insurance, and just the cost of day to day living. We are sinking . We are asking for help to get him the chemo he needs. Any help raised will be put towards gas, lodging to stay overnight gas to get us there and the cost of day to day living to give us a little more time. He says “I’m not afraid to die, I’m just not ready yet” and neither are his kids or myself. . We’re not ready to give up and we’re not ready to let him go.

I know it’s Christmas and things are tight for everyone, but if there is anything that you can do that can help us keep him here a little bit longer would be greatly appreciated by both of us. ❤️#44Strong