Rally for Ricky: Fight Cancer Together

We're trying to help Ricky through a difficult period.

Ricky has always been a wonderful family member and friend, being the first with a joke, the first to commiserate, and the first with a hug.

Around Memorial Day this year, he began having abdominal distress, and after 10 days a trip to the hospital revealed a growth on his pancreas and a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. A stent put in shortly after that didn't help enough and led to an infection that spread to other organs, and he spent 20 days in the hospital.

This held up starting chemo and has wildly expanded the medical bills.

Next, Ricky visited Johns Hopkins University Medical Center to confer with a specialist about possibly receiving a pancreaticoduodenectomy (also called a Whipple procedure) to remove part of his pancreas. It's a serious surgery and one with the potential for risk, but one that could help. However, new tests taken there make it seem unlikely that it will even be an option. If not, chemo will be all that's left. The tumor seems be growing rapidly, and the oncologist has called for a PET scan to help determine a final course of action.

No matter which ends up happening, the treatment and the travel to receive treatment is already costly, as well as the daily cost of living for Ricky and his family, and we need all the help we can get to support him through this difficult time.

Please help us help him.