Orrana's Medical Fund Proton Therap

My name is Ron Cunningham and I have been an Oklahoma City Firefighter for over 23 years serving the citizens of Oklahoma City. My wife Orrana Cunningham manages our farm and our family. Throughout the year of 2013 she has been seeing many doctors in OKC being mis-diagnosed with a strained muscle and pulled tendon in the left jaw. This was treated by a TMJ and Cranial Facial DDS from Norman, OK for 6 months with the situation getting worse. Since there was no relief of the pain she was experiencing Orrana continued to seek out another doctor.

While searching for a doctor to find some answer as to what was going wrong, Orrana had two lymph nodes swell up on the left side of her neck. At this time Orrana was prescribed antibiotics by her General Physician to no affect. Then prescribe steroids by an Oral Surgeon which also had no effect. Now we are in the month of September, we called an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor and got an appointment with his office in October.  He listened to our case and ordered 2 CAT scans (One with contrast and one without contrast). His office called Aetna to get these authorized and they were denied. At this time the doctor filed for an appeal and did a peer-to-peer and was authorized to proceed with CAT scans.  He also scheduled in November to do a biopsy on one of the lymph nodes on neck. We received a phone call from E.N.T. on November 18th 2014 with a diagnosis of Squamous Cell Carcinoma which is a Nasal Pharynx cancer.

At this point we immediately consulted with SW Medical Oncologist and Radiologist being advised to go to M.D. Anderson; Houston, TX and to seek treatment with Intense Modulated Proton Therapy (IMPT). Which in the United States M.D. Anderson is the only facility that has that advanced life saving technology. Now we have no other option but to get this treatment, as the Chemo Therapy is not working at all. Our insurance company has now denied the Proton Therapy again, we have lost several appeals and the insurance company continues to deny all appeals to date. MD Anderson notified us that the cost to continue will be $92,000, we have exhausted all our resources on top of our normal living cost we are living in an apartment in Houston that is costing us a little over $2,700 a month, plus $15 per day parking ($450 month), $120 for gas each 500 mile trip to MD Anderson when they send us home to Oklahoma, but this is cheaper than flying but it so hard of a ride in the truck that long. Our deductibles, coinsurance, and medications so far are over $7,500 and this month will be another $6,000 since it’s a new year for the insurance company. I have lost about $7,500 in earning by people working my shifts, and I’ve started to exhaust my vacation and sick time pay.

   We attend Life Church South campus in Oklahoma City and believe that God will provide. We are trying in every way to stay positive and come up with the funds for her treatment. So she can survive this and see our Son Trevor grow up and see our grandchildren, thank you for thinking of us and any support you can help us with. God Bless!