John's Cancer Battle Fund

On July 19,2017, I was admitted to the emergency room with unknown medical issues.  I was unaware of where I was or what was going on around me.  The ER staff didn’t give me much of a chance of surviving.  After two days in the hospital, the diagnose as determined; Stage IV Cancer (brain, lung, liver, kidney and adrenal cell).  The Cancer is renal cell carcinoma.  For a 60-year-old in great health, this diagnose was unexpected and quite terrifying.  It would be another two weeks until I regained enough of my cognitive ability to understand what had happened and the ramifications were and continue to be.

 

I am currently being treated by a suburb Oncologist team at Memorial Hermann Hospital here in Houston.  The treatment plan is still in it’s early stages.  So far, I’m undergoing a Chemotherapy trial medications and radiation treatment.

 

I have completed my initial imaging (CT and MRI) to establish my baseline.  Additional imaging is coming in September to evaluate any improvement.  I am making improvement.  Every day, my strength, depth perception, coordination and memory improve.  I’m taking the battle to cancer and will not be a willing sacrifice.

 

To fight a battle for life and death isn’t easy or inexpensive.  The struggle just to maintain and improve my quality of life is daily, hourly.  Just at a new normal start to change you and your family’s lifestyle, you realized just how much more of burden you now must bear.  First come the out-of-pocket co-pays and deductibles.  You don’t really think about paying until you realize the thousands of dollars you have spent in a couple of weeks.  With such a diagnose, you can’t work (or drive for that matter).  In addition to increased spending, the termination of income is a very real and distracting to any recovery.  I have applied for disability, but that is expected to take six months.

 

I intend to use the funds to pay medical bills and household bills.  While my spouse is working and we have cut our outgoing expenses in an effort to make out savings last as long as we can.  While I am confident that I can fight the battle with cancer, my confidence in providing for my family of the next six months causes me much consternation and weighs on my ability to recover.  I have always been self-reliant and a fighter.  Now, I’m relying on the kindness of strangers.  Thank you for your consideration.