Introduction:

My name is Carman Anderson. I am a 32-year-old woman living with my husband and 7-year-old dog Abby just outside of Houston, Texas.

I am a full-time medical patient at the moment. But I make as much artwork as I can in between doctor’s appointments and side effects, both to bring in income and to keep my mind off my illness.

My current diagnoses that I am fighting are septic arthritis and Stage 2B Classic Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Backstory:

On October 26th (my birthday) I was taken to the emergency room because I couldn’t move my right shoulder. After a CT scan and blood test, they determined that I had some kind of infection in my shoulder joint and “water on the joint.” I was admitted to the hospital immediately. A trauma orthopedic surgeon was called in to clean out the infection in my joint. There was so much there that they had to scoop it out rather than the initial plan to just wash it. After the infection was cleaned out they placed a drain port into the joint and closed me up, expecting everything to be okay. However, even with 3 different broad-spectrum IV antibiotics, multiple pain medications, and surgery, the infection still kept getting worse. I was fighting sepsis still.

The surgeon elected to do a 2nd surgery 3 days after the first to clean out and look for even more infection. However, I just kept getting even worse and worse while still in the hospital under the doctor's supervision and with a lot of intense pain and drugs.

Another surgeon came in and after both a CT and an MRI, he chose to go in for a third time. They expanded the initial search and cleaning to the back of my shoulder and all down my bicep. There was still infection and fluid pockets everywhere.

This time the surgery helped! I was able to have the port removed and went home on November 8th, only 4 days after my 3rd surgery.

I didn’t get to enjoy being home for very long. While I was home, the pain in my shoulder was not getting better and generally, I felt terrible. On Sunday, November 13th the lymph node on the left side of my neck swelled up to about the size of a golf ball. It was painful and hot and made it difficult to swallow. The following day I had a follow-up with my primary care provider. The lymph node worried her, so she sent me back to the ER to get it looked at. I was already on so many IV antibiotics that I shouldn’t have still had an infection in my lymph nodes.

I was admitted to the hospital yet again after many CT scans and X-Rays. A needle biopsy was performed on November 16th on the lymph node in my neck. The doctors did not want to perform the biopsy, but I insisted. They just wanted to give me more antibiotics and monitor it. While hospitalized this time I was terminated from my job due to being absent for too long and lost medical insurance as of November 19th.

I was released from the hospital on November 22nd, after the lymph node had shrunk and the sepsis was no longer detectable in my bloodstream.

Diagnosis:

On November 25th, the day after Thanksgiving, I received a call from the attending physician at the hospital. He told me not to panic. The biopsy results had come back. It was cancer. Classic Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He gave me a name of an oncologist and hung up.

Treatment:

Because I had been out of work and hospitalized since October 26th and I lost my job and medical insurance, I could not make an appointment to see the oncologist right away. I looked into resources in our area for unemployed and uninsured people, but everything had a minimum of a two-month waiting period before I would be accepted. I had to find private insurance if I wanted to start treatment soon.

After finding private insurance that we could afford, I was able to get in to see my oncologist in December. It is stage 2B. The cancer has not spread throughout my entire body, but it has completely taken over every lymph node in my neck.

Due to insurance delays and the holidays, my chemotherapy was delayed until early January.

My treatment protocol began on January 17th and is a regimen of high-dose chemotherapy called AVD. I am currently scheduled for 4 rounds, each round lasting for 30 days. After 2 rounds I will be tested and scanned again to make sure that the chemo is shrinking the cancer.

As most of us know, the treatments to kill cancer can be challenging, as both cancer and the treatment can be life-threatening. I have been experiencing various side effects associated with treatment and expect them to get worse with each appointment. Nausea, body aches, and extreme fatigue are just a few of the lesser effects.

Transportation to and from treatments and most of the household duties, including paying the bills, have fallen on my husband Chris. Chris has been amazing in helping me where he can, but he needs to go to work every day to make sure that we are not homeless and that all of my needs are met.

Financial Need:

Cancer treatment isn’t only challenging for the patient, it’s expensive, with many associated costs not covered by insurance or even anticipated until yet another bill comes through.

My husband is the sole income earner in our family now. After losing my job in November, no one will hire me because of all of the time that I need to take off. And Texas Unemployment has been unable to help me thus far due to technical issues that they are not willing to resolve with me (though I am continuing to fight).

My ability to make art and produce an income has been significantly impacted by my treatment and will be expected to diminish even further. While insurance covers many of what will be astronomical medical expenses, there will be a substantial amount that will be out-of-pocket.

Everything, in addition to other medical debt incurred in 2022, has and will put a heavy financial burden on my family.

We have some support from friends and family that have offered to help, but any donation to this fundraiser is needed and greatly appreciated. I am an overthinker and a worrier, especially when it comes to money. Worrying over how we will pay our bills has worried me more than my diagnosis at times. Every dollar donated will go towards my medical expenses or our monthly bills.

If you do not feel comfortable donating financially, but would prefer to donate needed items, please feel free to visit our Amazon Wishlist for things that we need or would make our lives easier throughout the treatment process: https://amz.run/6LO0

Or, feel free to send anything directly to our mailing address below:

Carman Anderson

3915 W Davis St

Ste 130

Conroe, TX 77304

Thank you so much for reading and for any help that you may provide. This has been one of the hardest things for me to write, but it needed to be done. I will continue to update as I can.