Hi everyone. I'm Chris, and I'm trying to figure out anything at all to help my family right now. A family that can be stubborn, private, and prideful - but given the circumstances those things don't matter anymore and so I'm here to share our grief with the world to try and make a dent in an impossible problem.

The situation is almost comically dire with how many overlapping complications have managed to emerge in a short window. Just two days ago, as of writing this, I learned my father has advanced throat cancer. Immediately after we discovered that, due to complications with how his disability and social security were arranged after his accident years back, he won't be covered for any treatment. The one avenue forward is to deduct payments from his Social Security payments, and even then, we are told coverage won't begin for several months. Given that my mother and father subsist entirely on those benefits, this will pose its own challenges. As of now we are struggling to get health coverage to get any treatment started, and so far anything that has happened or will happen is out of pocket. A pocket that is already trying to pay a mortgage, credit cards, electric bill, car insurance, food, ect. Basically, there isn't any money in a situation entirely dependent on money!

To be honest with you, all of this has shattered my world view a bit. My father has always been indestructible. That accident he suffered? He fell several stories off a bridge and landed on his feet - the damage to his spine meant a lifetime of chronic pain from that point forward and yet I never once heard him complain. Before that, while working on bridges, countless things that sound impossible happened to him. I'm talking shards of stone from an explosion being lodged in his skull - he laughed it off. Seeing him lose hope while all these things fall apart around him is crushing my family, and how all this is affecting my mom is a weight on my soul I didn't think a person could take.

As for how the funds will be used:

Treatment costs! This is priority one, any out of pocket expenses for chemo, radiation, scans, or anything else.

Keeping the lights on in the house! Also keeping the house in general! Basically just making sure they don't lose the house during this whole mess is priority two!

That's pretty much it right there, cancer and trying to keep my parents heads above water while this whole mess goes down.

So yeah, I'm asking for help. Money, of course, but also anything else! You know someone who might be able to help get things moving? Would love to talk to them! Resources we might not know about? Tell me! Maybe some magic wishes you never used? Pass one my way! Just anything at all, I need some hope.