Help Maurice Kick Cancers Butt
Donation protected
My Dad is my hero. Two years ago, he started experiencing a severe pain in his jaw and was having trouble opening and closing his mouth. This small pain slowly progressed to the point of being unbearable. After being dismissed as nothing by several doctors and his dentist, it was determined that he had arthritis in his jaw and it would require surgery to remove it.
After the first surgery, things went from bad to worse. Following the recovery from the surgery, the pain was still chronic, and worse than before. His jaw was still closing more and more every day; physical therapy was underway but nothing at all was helping. At this point, a swallow study showed everything in his mouth was going straight to his lungs. It was no longer possible for him to eat or drink anything without aspiration occurring. A feeding tube was placed; and his normal weight of around 150lbs dropped down to 115lbs even with round-the-clock feeding.
During this time, his doctors had little to offer for the incessant pain and his suffering was overwhelming. He finally abandoned the team of doctors that performed the surgery and went to an entirely new hospital with a new set of doctors. After a fresh battery of tests, the correct diagnosis was finally given. Stage 4 head and neck cancer.
After extensive thought on something no one hopes to have to think about; he decided to proceed with treatment. With a feeding tube in place and the support of his family, Maurice underwent an emergency tracheostomy placement. The recovery process was rough on everyone, but he held his head up and continued to fight.
The next step was seven weeks of radiation and chemotherapy in hopes of being cured. With an 80% success rate, the odds were in his favor. My dad underwent radiation five days a week and chemotherapy for six hours, one day per week. As the process went along, he lost all his ability to speak. Last week, he moved the first mountain (weighing in at a mere 106 pounds) when he received his graduation certificate at his last radiation treatment.
Now, we wait six weeks to see if the treatment was effective. Then the next range of mountains needing to be scaled will be reparative surgery in hopes of fixing some of the damage from the tumor and the intense treatments. The hope is one day soon he will regain speech, the ability to eat and drink, and hopefully the gift of leading a normal life again.
In the meantime, though, the sheer number and dollar amount of medical bills is crushing us. There is simply no way we can afford to pay them all, and the constant stress it brings is yet another weight that falls on my dad's shoulders. Though we have good insurance, the copays and deductibles currently are amounting to around $5000. On top of that, continuous copays and deductibles for all the appointments yet to come and an extra $10 every day for the correct feeding formula needed to help him regain weight, are all much more than the family budget can accommodate.
If you can help at all – $1, $10, $100 … my family and I will be forever grateful for your compassion and generosity. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts ~ Emily, Josh, Kim, and (the mountain mover) Maurice
After the first surgery, things went from bad to worse. Following the recovery from the surgery, the pain was still chronic, and worse than before. His jaw was still closing more and more every day; physical therapy was underway but nothing at all was helping. At this point, a swallow study showed everything in his mouth was going straight to his lungs. It was no longer possible for him to eat or drink anything without aspiration occurring. A feeding tube was placed; and his normal weight of around 150lbs dropped down to 115lbs even with round-the-clock feeding.
During this time, his doctors had little to offer for the incessant pain and his suffering was overwhelming. He finally abandoned the team of doctors that performed the surgery and went to an entirely new hospital with a new set of doctors. After a fresh battery of tests, the correct diagnosis was finally given. Stage 4 head and neck cancer.
After extensive thought on something no one hopes to have to think about; he decided to proceed with treatment. With a feeding tube in place and the support of his family, Maurice underwent an emergency tracheostomy placement. The recovery process was rough on everyone, but he held his head up and continued to fight.
The next step was seven weeks of radiation and chemotherapy in hopes of being cured. With an 80% success rate, the odds were in his favor. My dad underwent radiation five days a week and chemotherapy for six hours, one day per week. As the process went along, he lost all his ability to speak. Last week, he moved the first mountain (weighing in at a mere 106 pounds) when he received his graduation certificate at his last radiation treatment.
Now, we wait six weeks to see if the treatment was effective. Then the next range of mountains needing to be scaled will be reparative surgery in hopes of fixing some of the damage from the tumor and the intense treatments. The hope is one day soon he will regain speech, the ability to eat and drink, and hopefully the gift of leading a normal life again.
In the meantime, though, the sheer number and dollar amount of medical bills is crushing us. There is simply no way we can afford to pay them all, and the constant stress it brings is yet another weight that falls on my dad's shoulders. Though we have good insurance, the copays and deductibles currently are amounting to around $5000. On top of that, continuous copays and deductibles for all the appointments yet to come and an extra $10 every day for the correct feeding formula needed to help him regain weight, are all much more than the family budget can accommodate.
If you can help at all – $1, $10, $100 … my family and I will be forever grateful for your compassion and generosity. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts ~ Emily, Josh, Kim, and (the mountain mover) Maurice
Organizer and beneficiary
Emily Lincoln
Organizer
Inkster, MI
Kimberly Lincoln
Beneficiary