Indira Castaldo was taken to the emergency room at Baptist Health Conway, Arkansas on March 11 by her husband, Richard Castaldo, due to severe abdominal pain. After testing, a large mass was discovered attached to her appendix and colon. They did emergency surgery to remove the mass (5.7 cm), the appendix, and sections of her intestines and colon. The mass was malignant.

Eleven days after the first surgery, still in the hospital she developed a fever, more pain, nausea, and other serious symptoms. After more testing a block obstruction was discovered and required another emergency surgery on March 22. During this surgery more of her colon and intestines were removed along with the block obstruction and her ileocecal valve.

Not long after this surgery she developed an infectious hematoma and required a minor third operation and a fourth major surgery to go in and clean out the infection.

The incision from the two earlier surgeries had to be left open after the cleaning and a large chunk of her abdomen was removed since it was infected tissue. The giant wound could not be stitched or stapled shut. It remained open. She was then hooked up to a pressure VAC to keep the wound clean and keep more infection

from developing. This machine also helps heal the wound until it closes.

Indira was in a lot of pain during her entire hospital stay which was 22 days and continues to be so. She was discharged on April 2 with a portable VAC connected to the wound and a walker and has been home bound to this day. Most of the time Indira is confined to bed and in tremendous pain every day.

Home health care nurses come out 3 times per week to treat her wound and change out the VAC cartridge. It's a very painful process to clean the wound and she is now in her fourth week of this process with possibly another two weeks with the VAC to go.

Then she will have daily wound care and the last step will be rehabilitation as she tries to regain muscle

strength by walking and gentle exercising with the hope of being able to become somewhat mobile.

Indira has been out of work for two months and it will be

another three months before she will possibly be able to function normally with light movements.

Indiras husband, Richard spent many days and nights in the hospital with her due to so many constant developing problems and being called on consistently by doctors and nurses. Indira is from Honduras

and was not familiar with her medical surroundings or the way things work so Richie often acted as the interpreter and mediator on her behalf. He has stood by his wife as a loyal and caring husband and done his best to pay the bills while managing her care. He worked as much as he could during this time, however, many times during his shift he would be called by the hospital to come immediately.

Due to missing so much work during this last 30 days and financial cuts at this place of business, his employer laid him off and he also is now without work. He has spent every day at home when not at work to take care of his wife. She has required consistent care and help every day since being discharged.

The doctors have advised that there will be an undetermined amount of time of her needing constant assistance. There will also be many doctor's appointments over the next 3 months, rehabilitation and more testing to be done on a continual basis.

The medical bills are mounting along with the daily expenses. We believe God that the battle against Indiras colon cancer has been won, but there's still a long road to recovery ahead and a good many life changes that have to be made by this precious couple.

Please consider financially and spiritually giving support to help them while they are desperately trying to stay in faith and also heal in body and spirit. Their children are depending on them, their debt collectors are starting to call, rent needs to be paid, and basic daily expenses are not being met along with the medical expenses.

Thank you for your prayers and support during this crisis. We

know God has his angels around them and we are thankful for miracles every day. We thank you in advance for Indiras complete healing and freedom from Cancer. We also thank you for considering helping this family during their time of need.

Psalm 116:7, “Be at rest once more O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.”