Randy's cancer and healing
Donation protected
In July of 2017, Randy was diagnosed with Anal Cancer. Doctors assured us that it was 100% curable with six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. They projected that he could be back to work mid-October. He started his treatments on August 7th – the treatments went well, the Cancer is gone, and he is on the mend. However, his pain levels are still incredibly high and he is on strong pain medication. Since he is a truck driver, he obviously cannot return to work while on pain medication. We have exhausted our savings and my income along with our youngest two children’s, Kailee (18) and Miranda (17), is not enough for us to continue getting by. This is causing unnecessary stress for Randy because he has been the main provider for our family since our oldest two children, Nick (27) and Brittany (25), were babies.
When the doctors projected that Randy could be back to work around mid-October, they were assuming if everything went well. The treatments went well but the pain is unbearable. We recently had to make another trip to his doctor in Cheyenne 60 miles away because we could not manage his pain. The doctor says the site of the Cancer is probably infected and not healing as a result. She has increased his pain medication (making it harder for him to complete regular tasks at home), eat more protein, and told him to soak and scrub the site. If this does not work, they will have to sedate him and scrub it because it will be very painful. We have been through this before, in 2005, when he had knee surgery that ended up getting staphylococcus and streptococcus infections. He was laid up for 9 months that time. We lost our house and vehicle then and now we are at risk of it happening again.
He was scheduled for a PET scan at the end of this month but we had to cancel and reschedule it because he is not healing. It is tentatively rescheduled for the end of December and it is projected that he will be able to return to work in January. What was supposed to be an 8-12 week journey has now become six months so far.
Everyone knows that Randy has never been one to lay around and not work. He loves to work and this sitting still is driving him crazy – to the point that he tried to go off his pain medications early so that he could go back to work. We had to force him to start taking them again because he was in so much pain.
When the doctors projected that Randy could be back to work around mid-October, they were assuming if everything went well. The treatments went well but the pain is unbearable. We recently had to make another trip to his doctor in Cheyenne 60 miles away because we could not manage his pain. The doctor says the site of the Cancer is probably infected and not healing as a result. She has increased his pain medication (making it harder for him to complete regular tasks at home), eat more protein, and told him to soak and scrub the site. If this does not work, they will have to sedate him and scrub it because it will be very painful. We have been through this before, in 2005, when he had knee surgery that ended up getting staphylococcus and streptococcus infections. He was laid up for 9 months that time. We lost our house and vehicle then and now we are at risk of it happening again.
He was scheduled for a PET scan at the end of this month but we had to cancel and reschedule it because he is not healing. It is tentatively rescheduled for the end of December and it is projected that he will be able to return to work in January. What was supposed to be an 8-12 week journey has now become six months so far.
Everyone knows that Randy has never been one to lay around and not work. He loves to work and this sitting still is driving him crazy – to the point that he tried to go off his pain medications early so that he could go back to work. We had to force him to start taking them again because he was in so much pain.
Organizer
Melissa Johnson
Organizer
Wheatland, WY
