Update April 22, 2026

After surviving the complications of my cancer reoccurrence which included some pretty precarious emergency situations - I am hoping for a bit of support as I try to reestablish stability with regard to my physical, mental, and emotional health. I am beginning to regain a bit of strength after being hospitalized the majority of January, 2nd stint placement, 2nd port placement, and 7 of 12 rounds of 48 hour chemotherapy infusions. I was provided short-term subsidized housing for about 6 weeks post hospitalization. My efforts to save my own life have started to show positive results. This time around has been much more challenging from a medical and personal perspective. I was 113lbs when I was released from the hospital at the end of January. I've since gained back some strength back but overall my body, mind, and soul have floundered.

This disease has taken so much of my life from me and forever affected my identity. I've struggled to manage my personal affairs AND battle a disease which is the 2nd leading cause of death in the world. I am doing the fight solo now. But I am showing up for myself, despite the fact that my choice to save my own life has resulted in my inability to retain stability in other aspects of my life including housing and finances. The fact is I have been facing housing instability for the past 16 + months - which has a huge impact on my health.

The Good News: I have found a great place that would allow me to settle and truly begin to recover while offering me the stability necessary to continue my treatments. I was able to put down a deposit but I need financial assistance to move in. I have and continue to do everything I can to get support through state, federal, and local nonprofit organizations. I am and have been applying to jobs but my medical needs have superseded by ability to work in the ways which I have always been employed (requiring physical strength and endurance). I am more than halfway through the New Treatment Plan which should conclude the end of June.

As of today, I risk loosing the new housing situation. The severity of my health condition and complications over the past 6 months made it impossible for me to do anything to support myself financially. My life consisted of ER visits, emergency surgical procedures, hospitalization, and immediate chemotherapy - ALL medically necessary to stay alive. I was forced to make decisions - it was life or death. And although battled, bruised, and permanently changed I am still here. I have to redefine myself and am working on navigating the world in a new way that supports my health as a top priority. How do I do that! I'm still figuring it out. My sponsor once told me that the only purpose of life - is just to live! Stability is the goal both in my health and housing. I believe they are intricately dependent on one another. Lack of stable housing has a direct effect on my health and ability to survive.

How will donations be used? They will go to keeping a roof over my head, provide me with the ability to cook, and a convenient and comfortable place to shit. It may seem strange for me to outline these basic necessities as vital needs, but the truth is I have been living without these in a stable form since January 2025.

I am and will forever be grateful for all of the support I received since my diagnosis in 2023. I want my next update to be exploding with good news and I have hope success is eminent with a little more help.

Update January 14, 2026

I’ve been thinking a lot about the definition of the words humane, death, cancer, pain, family, burden, hardship, joy - and I am ready for whatever is next.

I am weak and am suffering.

More than one doctor has told me the system failed me.

I am pleading with the world to help me have whatever time I have left to be as joyful and pain-free as possible.

My disease, although trapped inside of my flesh has negatively affected everyone that I have ever known. And I would never wanted to share that pain or suffering with any of you.

2025 was a year of medical misses, poor guidance, and the reoccurrence of my cancer in the renal area (kidney, bladder, ureter). It is rare for my disease to reoccur in this area. Any reoccurrence within 5 years gravely impacts my mortality. Reoccurrence in the renal system has a less than 10% survival rate in the first 5 years. The ramifications of this effect my need to urinate, frequency, pain, and susceptibility to UTIs from efforts to try to keep a dying system operational. *Large tumor 3.5 cm + slowly occluding my left ureter causing extreme pain as fluid is not able to properly drain into the bladder and/or backs up into the kidney (which can cause kidney function to decline)

I am moving into Year 4 post diagnosis which was in March 2023. I fought hard in 2023 and survived emergency colon surgery to combat complete obstruction of my bowel by a 4cm tumor (2 more were found in the colon), followed by 3 rounds of 48 hour chemotherapy infusions, liver surgery in June 2023 to handle 7 tumors (ablation and surgical removal), and another 3 rounds of 48 hour chemotherapy infusions.

A stint was placed in my left ureter to keep it open but has cause considerable discomfort and 2 UTIs which are common. The pain I am experiencing has kept me tethered to hospitals, warranted medical procedures that only provide temporary relief with no real attack on cause, the tumor which has been named Godzilla.

Godzilla is growing at a rate much faster than my previous tumors. I did 5 treatments of radiation which were mildly effective as the tumor is very close to other structures and what we had hope for - clear marginal death and necropsy - was not accomplished.

Godzilla responded with some interior necropsy (death) but grew considerably in areas where margins were challenging to reach without damaging adjacent structures. The reoccurrence rate in the renal area is 2-6% - a rarity! How special am I! This is a highly sensitive, complex system with many structures of great importance with regard to daily functions including urination. My team did the best they could do and they are battling Godzilla! Even with an army of highly skilled professionals behind me, this beast is killing me. Post - Radiation treatments saw growth in size of Godzilla - increasing pressure on my left ureter and kidney causing extreme pain.

The pain I experience at times makes me walk with a limp. And options for management include heavy opioids which would impact my connection to life.

I am interested in seeing the country, sharing meals with those that I have loved, and leaving this world in an ethical manner. With my dignity intact.