Hello!
Our family is struggling financially due to excess medical bills stemming from a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. The cancer has greatly affected our ability to earn the income necessary to keep up with our bills! Any help you can offer would be so appreciated!!
I am a stay-at-home mom of four children. My eldest is on the spectrum and lives at home with us. My second son graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign with his Master's in five years and currently lives in California. My third son is in his second year of college at DePaul University. My youngest daughter is currently a sophomore in high school. She suffers from severe anxiety, social disorder, and depression. It has been very challenging to deal with her mental disorders. On top of that, my husband, Will was diagnosed with bi polar disorder 2 years ago! We all have varying degrees of "special needs" that we suffer from but have done our best to address our problems privately and deal with them on our own. The financial burden has been very heavy. The cancer diagnosis my husband received May 26, 2025 was a major blow to us, financially and emotionally. We are struggling.
*This morning, May 18, 2026, Will passed away. He went peacefully early morning at his home under hospice care. His family was able to shower him with love and say their final good byes. Unfortunately, the financial struggle continues for his family. Please help if you are able, it is so appreciated!
Our story is below.
Will has a very high tolerance for pain and is rarely ill. Even when he is ill, he will drag himself to work. He has a lot of grit. On May 26th, he woke up as usual and ate breakfast with our daughter. They hung out a little bit, and he began to feel ill. A little achy, tired, and nauseous. Just thought he was starting to get the flu. He laid down on the couch with our dogs and rested. I was busy doing my chores around the house when I came into the kitchen and saw him laying on the couch. He said he didn't feel well. I felt his head, and he felt very warm to the touch, so I went and got a thermometer. His first reading was 106! I thought that can't be right, so I tried again; this time, I got 104.7. He said his stomach was really hurting him now, as well as all the other symptoms. I recommended he go lie down in bed, take some fever reducer, and keep an eye on the situation. After taking the medication, his fever seemed to come down a little but not a lot. Even more worrying was that his stomach pain was more intense. I was worried about maybe appendicitis, so I recommended at this time we should maybe go to the ER. When he agreed to this, I knew something was very wrong, that he must be in extreme pain. The emergency room was always a last resort because of expenses, but we were on our way.
We waited quite a long time in the ER before he could be seen. He still had a fever, but it had come down a bit. His blood work was great, but that pain in his abdomen was intense. They ruled out appendicitis and were thinking perhaps diverticulitis. They ordered a CT scan. This all took hours, and he was in excruciating pain. He was given fentanyl a few times, and it was hardly working. Finally, the ER doctor came in with the CT scan. He closed the door behind him; I knew it wasn't good. He said he saw some troubling things on the CT scan. He had a large mass in his colon and various masses, including several in his liver. I immediately began to cry and shake. He looked at me and teared up and said he loved me and he was so sorry, which made me cry more. The doctor tried to comfort us and said he wasn't saying he was dying of cancer but that more investigation was necessary and Will would be admitted to the hospital. They also told him that they have more drugs in the hospital than he has pain, so they could help with that, which was a relief. They began morphine.
Around 10:30 pm, as we were waiting for a hospital room, Will's primary care doctor came into our ER room. When he arrived, he asked if we knew what was going on. We said we had an idea, yes. He then said, "So you know you have stage 4 colorectal cancer." We did not know that exactly, so it was a bit of a shock. More tears, more shaking, more "I love you," more "I'm sorry." He was only 52 years old! I had gotten a colonoscopy 2 years earlier and had been teasing/harassing him to get his. He had always been so healthy. It became an ongoing joke; I regret this. This didn't make sense. He had no worrying symptoms. In hindsight, he'd struggled with back pain and heartburn. These are things that we all struggle with from time to time. Nothing unusual. He had his blood checked more often than most because his bipolar medication blood levels had to be monitored. He got regular check-ups and had blood work done with usually stellar results. If anything was off, it was only by a little, and a change in diet usually remedied any concerns.
We finally got into the hospital room, and he was getting hooked up to machines and pain management. He was getting scans and tests done. It was discovered that the large mass in his colon had completely blocked his colon. The first course of action would probably be chemo to shrink it down, then possible removal. He had to have a tube inserted into his stomach to drain it and a PICC line to feed him. He was hooked up to so many machines. It was scary. He was in and out of consciousness due to the morphine but thankfully not in pain. They had to take an X-ray after placing the tube to make sure it was placed correctly. During this procedure, they noticed "air bubbles," which they said should not be present and indicated a very big problem. The large colon tumor had ruptured his colon, and he would need emergency surgery. They removed a "large baseball-sized" tumor and gave him a stoma.
He thankfully recovered fairly quickly from this major surgery. When all his vitals and bloodwork were finally good, he was discharged into my care. I learned how to flush his PICC line and give him antibiotics. Although I did enjoy taking care of him, I was glad when the PICC line came out about a month later.
He was due for his first round of chemo in two weeks. However, about a week later, he developed pneumonia. PICC line back in and another hospital stay. Much shorter though, only about a week. Chemo would be put off again. His oncologist wanted to get him started ASAP, and so did we!
Now that chemo has started, it has been a roller coaster. The first PET scan was pretty devastating. He has been tolerating the chemo very well. His second PET scan showed drastic shrinkage in most of the tumors! We were so happy! If anyone could hang on a long time, I figure it is Will. During the most recent chemo session, he let the doctor know he was experiencing a lot of back pain, and the muscle relaxants she had given him to aid in this problem were not helping. He was ordered to get a CT scan. This revealed many small tumors in his lung and an area on his spine. This was heartbreaking news. However, Will is always optimistic. He is enduring all of this with a smile. He still works every day and works as hard as he possibly can! Unfortunately, his place of business has decided to cut his commissions quite a bit, but he is working from home and really doesn't have the choice to complain. We are still in major debt, and this setback pushes us even further. We are fighting mental illness and cancer at the same time, and it is very hard! He is keeping us all going for now, but somehow I have to find the strength to be the fighter at some point. Not my forte, but I will try my best. He receives his next PET scan tomorrow. Here's hoping and praying it is nothing we can't handle!
Any donations would be so appreciated and not squandered! It will go towards Will's medical bills and our family's debt so that we don't go under at this difficult time. Please only help if you can. God bless.