Support Randy Knopp Sr's Cancer Recovery Journey

SUPPORT FOR RANDY KNOPP Sr (BIGS) CANCER RECOVERY

My name is Randy Knopp Jr, and this is the story and current status of my dad Randy Knopp Sr, AKA (BIGS) and his battle, surgery and recovery from face cancer.

January of 2024 the Dr noticed a growth on my dad’s face, the growth was below his lower lip, around his jaw, chin and neck. Over the next couple months those areas started to swell up and started to become uncomfortable and painful. The Dr referred him to see a dermatologist to have the area checked out. He went to the dermatologist, and they took a biopsy and sent him for a PET scan, the results came back negative and didn’t show any abnormalities, so he was then referred to Dr. Wolfe at the university of Maryland for a second opinion. After consulting with Dr Wolfe, they decided that he would need to have another biopsy which would need to be deeper than the first and have another PET scan. On June 5th, 2024, I took him downtown to the university of Maryland hospital to have the biopsy procedure done, and by this time the growth on his face had increased in size and was making it difficult for him to drink and eat. They cut a hole in the middle of his chin and went as deep as they could, while he was under the surgeon had pathology test to see if it was a big enough sample for testing, the biopsy this time was deep enough. The tests came back positive for Squamous cell carcinoma which is a type of aggressive skin cancer. He then went and met with Dr Wolfe and discussed the surgical procedure to remove the cancer / tumor from his face and the reconstructive process which would be comprised of a team of surgeons from the University of Maryland. The surgical date was set for August 7th, 2024, at the university of Maryland where he would undergo an 8–12-hour procedure. The surgical plan is to remove the cancer by cutting right below his bottom lip out to his jaw and around his chin. During this they will remove his lymph nodes and check his bone to see if the cancer had grown into his bones. They will be taking skin and bone if necessary, from his left upper leg to graft to his face.

On August 7th 2024, I took my dad and mom downtown to the hospital where we arrived at 5am for a 7:30am surgery. The first part of the surgery started at 7:30am and went until noon, where the reconstruction surgery took over. At 7:00 pm the surgeon came out and told us that the surgery went well and they had removed the cancer and the tumor in his lower face and all of his lymph nodes. They did find the cancer had wrapped around his jaw bone and they used soft tissue to rebuild his jaw bone. He came out of surgery with multiple drains in his face and neck, a trach to breathe from, a feeding tube up his nose so he could eat, and a monitor on the side of his cheek which monitored the blood flow to the new skin to make sure it was getting enough blood to live and grow successfully on his face where they grafted it and stitched it on to his existing skin. They were able to save his bottom lip, but it will be for aesthetics only since all the muscle and ligament had to be cut out to remove the cancer from the area. They also had to cut his neck from one side to the other to lift up the skin and remove the cancer and stitch the new skin on. After the 11 hour surgery we went to see him and he was stable and resting where the nurses and Dr’s were getting him comfortable and situated into a room to start his recovery process. We visited him everyday and for the first 5 days he was unable to move his mouth or talk, but on day 5 they pulled the large trach out and put a small one in to allow him to start breathing through his mouth and begin to talk again. He had the small trach in for 2 days and was able to breathe and keep his oxygen levels stable and talk. That evening of day 6 in the hospital they removed the trach completely and put sutures in to close the hole and covered it with gauze to heal. We then got a class on how to administer his food and medicine through his feeding tube and how to use the pump for his feedings and how to flush his tube and rinse it each time. On day 7 they released dad to go home to continue his recovery, where they will have nurses and therapists come out 3-4 times a week to check on him and work with him. They will be providing physical therapy, occupational therapy and possibly speech therapy if needed. He will not be able to eat anything solid for approximately 3 weeks. He will also need to have radiation 5 days a week for 15minutes each day for a number of weeks just to make sure all the cancer is gone and will not grow back. With all of this will come a lot of unknown expenses for the various medications, devices and therapy necessary for his recovery. They have health insurance which will help cover some of the costs but not all of them. With dad already being disabled they already live on a tight budget, so any added bills and expenses on top of their normal expenses will cause added stress on mom and dad which may impact his recovery time and healing process. During this recovery time Dr Wolfe has requested my mom take off for the first 6 weeks after his surgery as this will be the most critical part of his recovery. She will need to be at home and help him with his daily needs such as administering his medicine, feedings, bathing, getting up and down, in and out of bed, as well as assisting him in walking to help gain his strength back and taking him to all of his follow up appointments and radiation treatment. My mom has been approved for FMLA for the care of my dad during his recovery, but she only has enough paid leave to cover the first 4 weeks off and after that will not have any money coming in. We are asking for any monetary donations from anyone who can help to offset the costs of the medical bills, loss of wages from work, costs of traveling to the follow up appointments, radiation treatments and all of the check ups over the long period of recovery, healing and rehabilitation. Other ways to help my dad and mom during this time would be meals, groceries, household items, firewood for the winter, visiting and checking in on them as this will be a lot of work for everyone in our family. Anything anyone is able to donate or do to help with this situation will be appreciated by my dad and mom and our entire family more then anyone will know. This has been written by his son Randy Knopp Jr, without his knowledge of this, because the last thing my dad would ever do is ask for help, so I wanted to write this story to explain whats going on and why im asking for help for my dad and mom. I appreciate everyone for taking the time to read this and ill will post updates on his healing and recovery process as I can.

God Bless You and thanks,

Randy Knopp Jr & the entire Knopp family