Medical Expenses for Wesley Spencer

Lucy and Wesley are tackling their most significant health challenge and can use your help. While they do have medical insurance there are still some out-of-pocket expenses and time missed from work. Along with all the things that come with tackling this beast, helping them not worry about finances would ease their burden. Read below for Lucy's narrative of the journey ahead and consider sharing and helping if you can.

Lucy writes; It is cancer. There are three types and Wesley has the “best” of the three. He will have a CT scan and meet soon with 2 doctors at UVA. The doctor said to expect the next few months to be pretty disruptive. We need your continued prayers.

Today has been so long. We felt comforted and strengthened to handle the enormity of the information we heard today. We thank you all for your love and support, thoughts and prayers. We are going to need your help in the coming months as we are facing significant life changes.

Wesley is facing a major surgery, possibly the day after Labor Day. This surgery will be 8-10 hours, and requires a 5-7 day hospital stay. They will need to remove approximately 1/3 - 1/2 of his tongue. Obviously, this is significant which means they also need to “reconstruct” the tongue with a tissue transplant from his forearm, which then requires a thinner skin graph from his thigh to cover the tissue removal on the forearm. The surgery will also require the removal of 20-30 lymph nodes, which is an incision in the side of his neck, as of right now they only look slightly irregular. As part of the surgery he will need a tracheostomy placed to ensure he is able to breathe given his tongue will be significantly swollen. This will then be replaced a couple of days later with a smaller one that will allow him to speak. This will hopefully be removed prior to going home. Additionally, he is unable to eat through the mouth for about two weeks after surgery and will need to be fed through a feeding tube through the nose. After this surgery, a pathologist will review the tumor to determine whether radiation is needed, we will know approximately a week after surgery if this is needed. It’s an additional 5-7 week treatment. Although we have okay insurance, we are facing some significant time missed from work, we are so thankful that people are able to donate their personal sick time to ensure Wesley will continue to have a paycheck.

We are thrilled with the news that the prognosis is good. We are overwhelmed with the extensive recovery Wesley faces.

This cancer is not common, especially when you have such limited risk factors. But we are here to remind you to have regular health screenings. Mammograms, dental visits, dermatologist visits, colonoscopies, it doesn’t matter how old you are, please, please get routine care.