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I am a married father of two who recently had a partial gastrectomy to remove a cancerous tumor from my stomach. Well, we didn't really want to do this, ask people for financial help, but here we are. We have racked up around $5000 in medical bills and have to pay for an expensive chemo treatment over the next one to three years. Anything you can do to help our family wth this financial burdan will be appreciated.
If you don't know the whole story, here it is:
A weekend back in April, I got really sick. The following Monday, I went to my Doctor and they discovered I was in A-fib, so they immediately sent me to the Hospital (via ambulance). I was in Baylor Hospital in Irving for a week, where the doctors there discovered that I had a tumor that had been bleeding into my stomach (which caused the a-fib).
The tumor, a Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor, was large. 10 cm in size at least. It had to be removed before they could find out if it was cancerous or not. I was too anemic from the blood loss to do the surgery yet. So I was discharged from the hospital and had to go to Texas Oncology for a series of iron infusions to get rid of the anemia. I also had to get some dental work done, a root canal, before they would proceed with the surgery. After those were checked off my list, the surgery was scheduled for June 28th.
My surgeon said the surgery would take two to three hours and I would be in the hospital for three to seven days and I would be back to work in three to four weeks. Of course it didn't work out that way at all, not to mention that two weeks before the surgery I was in a car wreck and totaled my car and had to buy a new one.
So nothing went as planned. The tumor was way more complicated to remove than my surgeon anticipated and, in his words, "had to flay my stomach open" to get the tumor out. I was in surgery for four hours. That wasn't the end of it though. My stomach ended up having leaks in it after the surgery, which required a second operation the next week. Because of this they installed a feeding tube and I was labeled "NPO", which meant no food or drink by mouth until I heal. I also ended up with an abscess which required several radiological intervention procedures to install drains to remove the fluids from the abscess. On top of all of that, I ended up with a nasty post-surgery infection that required the supervision of a Infectious Disease doctor and IV antibiotics. I ended up being in the hospital for a month.
I was finally released to home health care on July 28th, where I had to finish my IV antibiotics. Although I am currently healing well, I am still on a feeding tube at least till the end of August, if not longer.
According to my oncologist the tumor was cancerous but low-grade and non-life threatening, but would require me going on a chemotherapy pill for one to three years. A pill that the pharmacist described as "stupid expensive".
Right now, I am currently at home on disability and FMLA and only making 50% of my normal income. I don't anticipate going back to work until the end of August or beginning of September. We have racked up $5000 in medical bills (my out of pocket maximum) and as soon as I am off the feeding tube and eating again we have to pay for a very expensive chemo pill for the next year or three.
If you don't know the whole story, here it is:
A weekend back in April, I got really sick. The following Monday, I went to my Doctor and they discovered I was in A-fib, so they immediately sent me to the Hospital (via ambulance). I was in Baylor Hospital in Irving for a week, where the doctors there discovered that I had a tumor that had been bleeding into my stomach (which caused the a-fib).
The tumor, a Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor, was large. 10 cm in size at least. It had to be removed before they could find out if it was cancerous or not. I was too anemic from the blood loss to do the surgery yet. So I was discharged from the hospital and had to go to Texas Oncology for a series of iron infusions to get rid of the anemia. I also had to get some dental work done, a root canal, before they would proceed with the surgery. After those were checked off my list, the surgery was scheduled for June 28th.
My surgeon said the surgery would take two to three hours and I would be in the hospital for three to seven days and I would be back to work in three to four weeks. Of course it didn't work out that way at all, not to mention that two weeks before the surgery I was in a car wreck and totaled my car and had to buy a new one.
So nothing went as planned. The tumor was way more complicated to remove than my surgeon anticipated and, in his words, "had to flay my stomach open" to get the tumor out. I was in surgery for four hours. That wasn't the end of it though. My stomach ended up having leaks in it after the surgery, which required a second operation the next week. Because of this they installed a feeding tube and I was labeled "NPO", which meant no food or drink by mouth until I heal. I also ended up with an abscess which required several radiological intervention procedures to install drains to remove the fluids from the abscess. On top of all of that, I ended up with a nasty post-surgery infection that required the supervision of a Infectious Disease doctor and IV antibiotics. I ended up being in the hospital for a month.
I was finally released to home health care on July 28th, where I had to finish my IV antibiotics. Although I am currently healing well, I am still on a feeding tube at least till the end of August, if not longer.
According to my oncologist the tumor was cancerous but low-grade and non-life threatening, but would require me going on a chemotherapy pill for one to three years. A pill that the pharmacist described as "stupid expensive".
Right now, I am currently at home on disability and FMLA and only making 50% of my normal income. I don't anticipate going back to work until the end of August or beginning of September. We have racked up $5000 in medical bills (my out of pocket maximum) and as soon as I am off the feeding tube and eating again we have to pay for a very expensive chemo pill for the next year or three.