Help Nick Rock fight Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Hi, my name is Janae McCulloch, I am creating this go fundme page for my brother Nick Rock. My brother Nick at 44 is facing one of the hardest medical events anyone can ever face. Nick has been a devoted youth skating coach for 23 years helping many young skaters develop into world class athletes. Nick has unselfishly touched the lives of many families helping many of his student athletes and peers grow into exceptional adults. It is now I ask you to read my brother’s story and offer any help you can so that he can hopefully look to the future and one day continue to help many more young athletes grow.

On March 18th Nick started experiencing excruciating back pain that spread to his ribs. He was in so much pain that he was unable to lay down to sleep. After suffering for a couple of days he finally decided he had had enough and needed to go to the hospital. March 20th, he went to the ER and told the doctor that he felt it might be his gallbladder, because he had experienced a gallbladder attack 2 years ago and the pain was like what he was experiencing. The doctor ordered an ultrasound to be done. Nothing alarming was found on the ultrasound; the doctor did not feel it had anything to do with his gallbladder and got Nick comfortable enough to be discharged home with ibuprofen.

After 5 days of still being in misery Nick found himself back in the ER. He was admitted and had x ray of his abdomen this time, the doctor said his gallbladder was slightly inflamed. The plan was to give him some IV meds and avoid surgery, but the pain never subsided and the decision to remove his gallbladder was made.

March 26th the gallbladder was removed, and he was sent home to recover. Nick was still in a lot of pain, but it was expected after having surgery, so he continued to use the pain medicine he was sent home with.

Two Weeks later April 8th Nick was still in pain but trying to work thought it. While teaching skating at the rink, his legs gave out on him which had never occurred before. He managed to drive home and prepare for another long day at the rink for a skating competition. On April 9th, Easter Sunday Nick woke up at 4am to get ready for his long commute to the skating competition, while getting ready he was overcome with nausea and vomiting. Somehow, he still managed to go to the skate meet, he was in so much agony the whole day. Around 1:30pm he was done coaching, but still in bad shape he knew he would not make the 90-minute drive home. He decided he needed to go ER; Advent Health is near the rink he was coaching at.

Nick was admitted quickly, and they started running tests. With the pain he was experiencing the doctors thought Nick could be having complications from surgery or something with his back. He stayed the night for pain management and observation. On April 10th the doctors were ready to discharge him, as Nick was trying to get his clothes on and prepare for discharge, he called his nurse in, he was still in so much pain and now had lost feeling in his legs. The amazing nurse called the doctor right away and said there was no way Nick could be discharged in his current condition. The doctor agreed and ordered an MRI to be done to see why the new symptom of leg numbness had occurred.

On April 11th Nick went in for the MRI. After a few hours the doctor came in with the results that Nick had a large tumor on his spine, pressing against his nerves thus causing his legs to go numb. This set into motion an emergency surgery, that would seek to remove the tumor from his spine and relieve the nerve impingement and prevent possible paralysis of Nicks lower body. While reviewing Nicks scans the doctors became aware Nick had 3 other sites or possible tumors or lesions located on his sternum, neck and hip. On April 14th, 2023, Nick had successful back surgery to remove the tumor that was causing much of the pain and numbness issues. The tumor was sent off for study to confirm what at this point is suspected which is that he has some form of cancer.

On May 4th Nick had his oncology appointment and it was confirmed by the panel of doctors that Nick does have Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Acute Myeloid Leukemia, often noted as AML, is known to be one of the most aggressive forms of Leukemia requiring extensive systemic on-going chemotherapy treatments. On May 14th, 2023, Nick was officially given his first chemotherapy dose which is given due to the extreme amount of chemo needed to treat this form of cancer over nearly a 5-hour period every day for as long as the doctors think he can stay healthy. The doctors currently are putting Nick through 8 days of continuous systemic chemotherapy treatments. This is done through both IV and oral applications.

This brings us to why we are here and why you are reading this from me. Nick has taken every step to help himself on this journey but it's never enough. Nick has minimized his expenses as much as possible. The gracious hospital staff at Advent health has expedited his Medicare and Medicaid insurance benefits. Unfortunately given the nature of the cancer and the intensity of the treatments Nick has also been deemed disabled which takes him away from any possible employment at this time. Even though all this has been done to aid in his ability to be treated, the unknown and amassing medical bills not covered and co-pays out of pocket leave Nick in financial need. This need is at the level of saving his life, Nick will need continuous lifelong treatments as he battles this cancer. There may be a point where Nick will have to seek various forms of treatments by different studies in hopes of one day returning to health. All of this again creates a need beyond our family’s ability to produce at this time and as such we humbly ask that as you see and read the story of my brother it compels you to help him in anyway or any amount you can. Nick and family are and will be forever grateful for the support he has already received and for the future support he doesn’t know is coming.