Please help John & Jaimi handle the medical cost of John's cancer fight. John's story:It has been an interesting year so far. I had an MRI on January 21 of my lower back which revealed a large mass in the back of my abdomen (the retroperitoneal space) that was branching into my lumbar spine, fulling encasing and creating pressure on some of the nerves that go to my left leg and pelvis. After seeing this, my doctor ordered a CT guided needle biopsy of the tumor, which was done on January 28. The doctors eliminated a bunch of options, but weren't able to narrow down the cancer type, so sample was sent off for further testing. We are still waiting on the final results of the pathology testing. After we enjoyed a rare weekend of snow in SC, which was a weird mix of happiness (the kids very much loved playing in the snow), uncertainty, fear, and a lot of other emotions. Tuesday, February 3, I went in for another MRI to get a full picture of my abdomen to see the true extent of the tumor. Jaimi and I met with the oncologist Tuesday morning shortly after the MRI, and she strongly suggested I be admitted to the hospital. So, after a quick lunch to try and wrap our minds around how much things were going to change, Jaimi dropped me off at the hospital to go through the process of being admitted. That same night, I had another MRI, with and without contrast to get an even better picture of the extent of the tumor, and to check my brain and other internal organs. I also had a CT of my chest, abdomen, and pelvis with and without contrast to get more information. The bad news is that we found the tumor was upgraded to "huge", measuring 26.7 x 14.7 x 13.4 cm. The cancer has also spread to both my lungs and a couple lymph nodes in my abdomen. The GOOD NEWS is that there is no sign of cancer in my brain, bones, liver, or other internal organs. So, even though it is Stage 4, it has only spread locally in my abdomen. The oncologists are leaning towards the tumor being a type of soft tissue Sarcoma. Sarcoma's are fairly rare, which is why the pathologist wasn't able to get a result after the first biopsy, and had to send a sample out to a larger specialist center. I've been at McLeod Regional Medical Center since Tuesday afternoon, and everyone here has been great. I am currently waiting on a bed to open up at a Sarcoma specialist center at either Duke or MUSC Charleston. Unfortunately, both clinics are at critical capacity. The radiation oncologist here at MRMC set a deadline of 10am Friday (yesterday) that if I was still here, him and his team would get started on a radiation treatment plan to help shrink the main tumor in my retroperitoneal space. I had a CT guided needle biopsy of my lungs yesterday, and directly after, went to radiation oncology to be scanned for them to fast track a treatment plan for me to start next week. Assuming it's a high-grade Sarcoma, the plan is a high-dose short duration radiation treatment of once a day for 5 days. This should kill some of the tumor ino order to shrink it and relieve the pressure on my nerves and insides. That's the plan for right now. Start radiation treatment here in Florence, in the good hands of Dr. Gainey and Dr. Nalluru in oncology. Once we get the pathology results, then they will be able to start looking into chemotherapy treatment planning, with a move to Duke or MUSC where they specialize in Sarcoma tumors. I apologize if I haven't responded to some people or if I don't respond in the future if you reach out. I am adjusting to my new "normal" for the foreseeable future and sometimes I have the energy to talk/text, but sometimes I just don't. I wouldn't be doing nearly as well as I am without Jaimi. I don't know if I could do it without her. BUT, I will fight for her, and for Tommy and Livie, and my family and my friends. I AM NOT GOING TO GIVE UP. One more last note, thank you to my parents for dropping everything and hitting the road Tuesday afternoon when I told them I was being admitted. They arrived Thursday and have jumped right into helping pick up kids and helping make life easier on Jaimi while I'm "stuck" at the hospital. One more, one more last note. We will be sharing links to a Caring Bridge Page that will have links to ways to help, and a GoFundMe page a friend is setting up. We will try to post updates on all three so no matter your feelings toward Facebook, there will be somewhere to keep up to date. I will attempt to keep people updated via text, but it gets to be a lot of work to message so many people. I'm so grateful for everyone that has reached out and offered to help. We are working the process and will have a better idea of what help we need once we know where I'm going once a bed opens at Duke or MUSC.