Lonnie's Battle: Cancer and Dementia

Hello friends and other loved ones. Many, if not most, of you are aware of the health hardships that Lonnie and Sally’s family have been going through over the past 3+ years.

Lonnie has been fighting a blood cancer called Multiple Myeloma for years now and was placed on chemotherapy again last fall. He’ll be on chemo for the next year, along with being given monoclonal antibodies, which have been giving him some pretty nasty side effects.

This past August, Lonnie tripped and fell in a parking lot, sustaining a concussion and breaking eight ribs. After a few days in the hospital, he was able to come home, but developed pneumonia and sepsis and ended up back in the hospital. With his weakened immune system, the sepsis was hard to kick and resulted in 2 or 3 more ambulance rides over the next several weeks.

On top of dealing with blood cancer, Lonnie is also dealing with a damaged spinal cord from receiving 25-27 radiation treatments for two tumors in his C4 and C5 vertebrae shortly after he was diagnosed in February of 2006. He still deals with pain from this on and off daily and takes moderate pain medication to help with it.

Unfortunately, perhaps the most difficult thing he has been diagnosed with is a very bad case of dementia (Alzheimer’s disease). The dementia is very hard to deal with. He suffers from strange and sometimes spooky hallucinations almost daily, along with nightmares caused by the dementia. All of this just seems unbearable at times. His neurologist has also taken away his privilege to drive and he has no way to work at this time.

Sally has been Lonnie’s (unpaid) caregiver and driver for a while now. She’s not comfortable leaving him alone during the day as she’s the one who had to call the ambulance the last few times. Sally also takes Lonnie to all of his appointments now as he needs someone with him and can’t just be dropped off. She is currently working on finding a flexible remote job.

Their only source of income right now is Lonnie’s Social Security Disability income. We are currently trying to raise $25,000 to get them caught up on their mortgage payments and several other bills and utilities.

Lonnie and Sally would surely appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers, and any financial help you can give at all. They would be beyond grateful for anything.

Thank you!