Help Marc Swanson Find Comfort in Hospice

Marc Swanson is a 56-year-old man. Back in 2021, he went in for a colonoscopy, and there was a big tumor, so they operated immediately. He was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and started chemotherapy right away. Everything was going well. He wouldn’t tell me just how bad he felt, but I could tell. During all this, he continued to work and acted like everything was okay, but I could look in his eyes and know it wasn’t. He was supposed to do 12 chemo treatments and then do radiation. With one treatment left to go, on his birthday, he had a heart attack! I had to perform CPR on him to keep him alive. That was December 2022. After the heart attack, the cancer doctor said his blood work looked good, and he didn’t have to do radiation. We were so thankful and so happy. But in May of 2023, the cancer doctor ordered a scan, and they found spots on his lungs where the cancer had spread. After a biopsy, it was confirmed it was his colon cancer, and it had spread to his lungs. So once again, he got his port back in and started getting chemotherapy again. Then this January, one day before my birthday, I got fired from my job I’ve had for almost six years, and later that night, he had his second heart attack. Once again, I performed CPR to keep him alive. After this second time, he hasn’t really healed, and the doctors say he probably won’t. Once again, they think the heart attacks were caused by the chemotherapy treatments. So they stopped giving it to him through his port and got pills for him to take instead, but his body just wasn’t accepting it. He lost 50 pounds in a month. He kept telling the doctor how bad his stomach hurt, and that was when the cancer doctor said he couldn’t do anything else for him. So now he is under hospice care, and I’m the main caretaker of him. It’s been hard getting a job because I can’t leave him alone at times. I try to bring in some money to help with some bills, and he can’t work at all. We are falling so far behind on our bills, and the stress of that he doesn’t need. I never thought I would be in this position to ask for help. I think if he knew I was, he would be upset because he is too proud. I love him so much. We have been together for almost 13 years. I won’t accept that he is going to leave. I am just asking for any kind of help so we can get a break from worrying about paying bills and concentrate on making him comfortable. I’ve never done this before. Watching someone you love suffer and waste away before your eyes is the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. I feel so helpless that I can’t fix it for him. I’ve saved him twice; I wish I could save him this time. Any help would be so greatly appreciated. Just to have the relief of not stressing for a minute about how to pay something would be appreciated.