Rich Bauer’s AML Fight.
(Venmo ID at bottom)
As many of you know, Rich is a 22 year survivor of Hodgkins Lymphoma, and was just diagnosed on 7/21/21 with AML- Acute Myeloid Leukemia, after going to urgent care for a rapid heart rate for about a week and a half. At that point, Rich never went home, he was instantly admitted to the hospital and started chemotherapy within two days. His bone marrow was at 80% blasts, meaning 80% of his bone marrow was cancer filled. Now Rich will need a Stem Cell transplant (bone marrow transplant) as soon as a donor is found. They will be testing his siblings in the next week and then going to the donor database if that does not work. They believe we will find one, just hoping a good one! In the meantime he will be going in one week out of every month until then for chemotherapy to keep in remission, because while he has recently reached remission, this disease does not stay there very long without chemo or the transplant.
I will post the link below for all of my journal entries I’ve been entering on caringbridge.org. It has his story from beginning in July until now, and I update periodically. I don’t want to go on and on here.
However, while we are praying and knowing that God is going to perform miracles so that Rich will cured of this terrible disease, we have a very long way to go that will sadly come with a very large financial burden.
We will need at least $3000 to pay the hospital bills while he is in LA at City of Hope. This is through Kaiser, but they contract out with that hospital. Also I will have to stay up in the area, but cannot stay in the room with him, so I will need lodging for at least 30 days. That will probably run close to $3000, plus food costs.
Then once he is released, if all goes smooth, we will still have to be up in LA twice a week for a couple of months, then tapering down over the months, which is about a 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive with normal traffic.
I only have about 13 days left that I can get paid for through the unemployment department for being a caregiver, as they only pay eight weeks and I’ve already taken quite a bit during the beginning of all of this while Rich was having his induction chemo. So the added cost of missing work I’ll also be a big burden as well. Many of our friends know that I’ve hesitated having to do a Go Fund Me, we don’t want to be a burden to anyone else, and I have put off as long as possible While I know it could be much worse, there are some people who have costs that are just unimaginable, this is still just too much for us.
Thank you so much for all of the help we have received already, and we appreciate anything you can do. God is good, God will provide and I know we will get through this together!! Much love to you ALL ♥️♥️♥️
If you feel led to share this, please do so. Also if you prefer not to go through this sight, or not in need of a tax write off through this sight, you can also give through Venmo (@Gabrielle-Valentino-Bauer). I assure you none of this money will be touched, until we are in the process of the transplant.
A CaringBridge Site was created for Rich. It‘s a caring social network to help people stay connected with family and friends during a health event.
Visit Rich's Site: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/richbauer
Site Name: richbauer
Venmo: @Gabrielle-Valentino-Bauer