Local Gardener with Terminal Stage 4 Cancer

After being unceremoniously and unexpectedly let go from my job in July, I made the decision to follow my dream of becoming self employed and completely independent. I have always been happiest in my garden or lovingly caring for the green spaces of my friends.  I took my meager savings and purchased all new gardening tools, paid my rent in advance as far as I could, designed a slick business card, and bada-boom-bada-bing, I was reborn, broke but very happy, as Matthew Varvil Local Gardener.  I woke up every day before sunrise, jumped on my bike with my backpack of tools, and gardened everywhere I could until sunset. I said to myself each day, "I am a gardener and I will go out into the world and make all the plants healthy and beautiful". Without pay or invitation, I set out to weed and plant, and sweep, and beautify my neighborhood spaces. People would stop and talk to me and I would give them my card. Before the month was out I had enough clients to pay my bills and was ready to take my dream up a level. Reality was catching onto my little dream quite nicely.  Six weeks into the dream, I was suddenly immobilized by what felt like a pulled muscle.  Five days later I was in an emergency room, unable to sit or stand. Twenty-Four hours later I had an emergency surgery to remove a large mass from my abdomen. The doctors removed a section of my colon, installed a colostomy bag, and let me wait for over a week with no information about what they had done to me or what would happen next. A tube was forced down my nose and into my stomach and I wasn't allowed to eat or drink for most of my hospital visit. I saw a social worker once and never again. Ten days later, a doctor woke me and very bluntly told me I had Stage 4 Colon Cancer, it had spread to my liver, and I was free to go home. I am 37 years old. Without treatment, I will die within a year.   I need this money to pay for my "care" in Louisiana and relocate myself to California ASAP where a dear, dear friend has offered to assist me in enrolling in the public health system and manage my access to real, comprehensive treatment that will save my life.  I will need to find suitable care for my amazing 14 year old companion, Jasper D Dogg.  I need to continue my services as a gardener as well as I can in order to pay my rent on my apartment in New Orleans while I undergo chemotherapy at UCSF. I need to repay my only sister for her loss of work and missing school to come sleep in my hospital room in Louisiana. For at least 6 months, I anticipate being unable to work as I have for the last 20 years.  From what I understand, my illness is the result of a series of unfortunate genetic mutations. I've been to the doctor plenty of times in my life, but unless I had begun taking specific tests that are normally reserved for people over the age of 50, I never would have found out that I have had a cancer growing inside of me for years. It has already killed one of my kidneys, taken a part of my digestive tract, and it's going for my liver now. Find out the medical history of your parents and grandparents and make sure you get the appropriate tests!! If I had known that I was genetically predetermined for this disease and I had gotten a colonoscopy when I was 30, I wouldn't be writing this today.  Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for donating and sharing my story.  Love, Matthew Varvil Local Gardener