Help Mark Boling Overcome His Battle

There is no nice way to say this so I’ll be blunt.

My name is Dave Boling.

My Brother Mark Boling has Cancer. He was having trouble with pain in his tongue which started in early January, which was gradually getting worse and worse each day.

After 4 months of trips to this doctor and that doctor, with all sorts of miss-diagnosis, they finally found a Tumor in his tongue in mid-April. The next step was to have a biopsy done on his tongue.

After a week, the biopsy came back as Stage 4 Cancer.

The prognosis was either Surgery or Chemo, (although the Doc at Novant failed to mention the combination possibility).

This prognosis and the “Quality of Life” it entailed, had Mark about to give up altogether and get his affairs in order while waiting for the end.

Because of the pain, Mark had not been able to work and has not been eating much of anything since January which caused his weight to drop from 165lbs to 114lbs. The Novant Doctor said neither option was viable until he got his weight back up so on April 22nd they put in a stomach tube to feed him 24/7. At present he has gained 6lbs but that still isn’t enough to start Surgery or Chemo.

We were told that Surgery was the best option but his quality of life afterwards would have been crap, (¾ of his jaw removed along with most of his tongue, leaving him unable to talk or swallow solid foods).

Depending on bone involvement, Chemo would have a lot less chance of successfully getting rid of the cancer.

I talked with my Daughter April about this, (she is a nurse up in Raleigh), and she suggested a Cancer team at UNC & Duke university that has had great success with a combination of Surgery and Chemo followed by reconstructive surgery to reduce his facial disfigurement and get back a large percentage of his quality of life.

Mark has been in Wilmington NC at the Novant Health Cancer Institute since April 22nd and they recently moved him to Azealia rehab in Wilmington, (possibly because we told them we were going for a second opinion from UNC in Raleigh).

This morning, (May 11th), April went and picked up Mark from Wilmington and drove him to Raleigh to get seen and hopefully started on his treatment there.

Mark is hopeful of this new move and finally looking forward to some good news for once. Because of the pain, Mark is on a regimen of pain killers just so he can still talk and eat something.

Aside from the better treatment chances it entails, his move to Raleigh is also a welcome one because he is now centrally located closer to all of us and the whole family can now visit him more often.

The picture on the left is of Mark at Daytona’s Iron Horse Saloon a few years back, and the right one is of Mark at Novant Health Cancer Institute in Wilmington on April 27th. One of the Nurses commented she has never seen a IV tree with so much stuff hanging off of it as the one to the left of Mark’s bed.

The reason for this Go-Fund-Me page is that since the first of the year, Mark has not been able to work and his bills have been piling up. he is also unable to help out financially around the house so I have had to take over his share of the expense’s here which leaves me with very little to help him out financially myself.

Although I am worried about Mark, I am doing ok financially so I don’t need any money and I am only asking that you help Mark with his financial troubles.

I have never done a Go-Fund-Me page before but I believe the links provided will go directly to Marks bank account so he can get caught up on his finances and maybe even be able to get ahead some. With all that has been going on, Mark could really use some good news for a change.

Mark suggested that the link be posted on his Facebook page because he says that is the best way to let all of his friends see it. I am not sure how this works for posting contact information but if possible I’ll leave some sort of link here on Go-Fund-Me so that people can get in touch with me or Mark and we can progress from there to get a better way for you to talk to him directly.

Mark could really use some friendship right now, especially phone calls or texts etc...

Update: 16 May 2024. Mark is now at UNC Cancer Center in Raleigh North Carolina and he is doing a lot better.

He is scheduled to start the procedures next week and he is both scared and excited about it.

He meet with all of the doctors that will be involved in the full procedure on Wednesday and his hopes are up there now.

Please, even if you cannot make a donation, please give him a call on his cellphone at (910)-495-3638 He would love to hear from his friends while he waits to get this procedure done.

I will keep this page updated on Marks situation and progress as often as I can.

Update: 02 June 2024. Marks surgery went as well as can be expected. There was a lot of swelling afterwards and his neck mobility was very limited. He now has a scar that runs under his chin and goes from ear to ear. They removed the tip of his tongue, (where the tumor was), and some of his jaw. They replaced part of his jaw with bone and muscle from his left scapula. He also has some metal plating used to complete reconstruction of his jaw. Mark couldn't talk at all and was breathing thru a trach-tube afterwards because of all the swelling.

As of yesterday, the trach-tube has been removed and Mark was able to give me a call yesterday, asking when I was coming to visit again? He still has trouble pronouncing T's and R's but he is basically understandable.

The doctors say that Marks recovery is pretty much on par with most of their former patients. In order for Mark to leave the hospital and come home, he must pass what is known as a swallow test. So far Mark has not been able to do so yet but I'm sure he will very soon.

I have been covering down on some of Marks overdue bills but he still has a ways to go before he will be financially in the clear.

Because of the next step in his recovery, (Radiation Therapy and possibly Chemo), Mark still will not be able to return to working for some time now so donations are still needed so that Mark will not have to worry about his financial situation.

I know this update was late and I will try to be timelier in the future.

Thank you and god bless you...

Update 10 June: Mark finally passed his swallow test and they are going to send him to a rehabilitation center in Chapel Hill. The rehab center will work on his speech, get him actively moving around again and also start his radiation therapy. It will still be quite a few more months before he will be able to even consider going back to work so more financial help would be greatly appreciated.

Update: 17 July 2024:

About 2 weeks ago, they moved Mark to a rest home called the SECU Family House.

It’s where people go that still need to visit the hospital on a daily basis but no longer need to take up space in a hospital bed.

At the same time, Mark has started Radiation Therapy and seems to be doing ok.

His strength in his left arm is still not that good so I have to go up regularly and crush up a week’s supply of his medications for him so that he can take them thru his stomach tube.

Apparently he will be staying up there for a few more months as he does his radiation therapy.

Once that is done they will decide if he also needs Chemo or not.