Supporting Jason Wright & Family!

Our good friend, Jason Wright, was recently diagnosed with Kidney Cancer. While it was caught early, and can be very treatable, it doesn't come without the expenses that come with the doctor visits, treatments and surgery that he will need. Jason needs to focus on healing and staying healthy, and will be off work for some time.

We would like to raise money for him and his WONDERFUL family to try and take some of the burden off their shoulders. With the holidays coming up, we know things are already a little stressful, we want to make sure the family enjoys their time together and can relax instead of worrying about how things will be paid for.

Jason and Stefenie are incredibly selfless people with three beautiful and energetic daughters! If you can, please donate what you can to help this family. I know they will appreciate it more than words can say.

For More Information; Jason's Facebook Post:

I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. It's called renal cell carcinoma and is very treatable. I am likely stage 1 or 2 and it has not spread according to imaging. I will be ok. My right kidney, which measures 15cm, has an 8cm mass hanging off the bottom of it. It's pretty gnarly. On December 1st I'm going to have my right kidney removed, which the doctors think will be enough to get all of it. They will test the tumor tissue to get a full picture and determine if I will need followup treatment after surgery. I'll be out of commission until January, and with luck, I'll be back to normal then.

Obviously this is scary and nothing is for sure, but I'm confident in my doctors, and Stef has been taking good care of me and keeping me from losing my mind when we're waiting between knowing and not knowing what we're facing.

We caught this out of pure luck. I have suffered from back issues for a few years and in September had a bad flairup (I get these once or twice a year) and it was the worst one I'd experienced, I could barely stand up let alone walk. I usually just go to the chiropractor and take it easy for a few days and I'm good. This time my chiropractor Dr Roed at DSM Spine + Sport wanted xrays. Spine showed some minor deterioration of a few vertebrae and a straightened lower curve of the spine, but overall nothing serious. Around this time I also was dealing with a stomach bug that persisted for a week or so. It wasn't getting better and Stef laid down the law and told me to go to the doctor. So I called for an appointment and was told my doctor, who I hadn't been to in 5 years, no longer considered me his patient and that he wasn't accepting new ones. Which was okay with me because I detested him. The same office mentioned Dr. Raval was accepting new patients so I made an appointment, but had to go through a new patient appointment first.

At that appointment Dr Raval and his resident were amazing. They listened to me and were not dismissive (cough my old doctor cough) and legitimately were concerned about the things concerning me. I went in to discuss my stomach issue, but when Dr. Raval asked if there were any other concerns I had, I mentioned my lingering back issue. He immediately said he wanted to see the xray and that he was going to order an MRI to get a better idea of what was up.

Fast forward a few days after the MRI, Dr. Raval calls me and tells me the same thing regarding my spine, nothing serious, but that there was an incidental finding. A mass on my right kidney. He said it could just be a cyst or mass of fat or muscle, but ordered an ultrasound. That gave them a better idea of what the mass was, and so they ordered a CT scan. This confirmed it. A large tumor on my right kidney.

The prognosis is very good and while I'm very nervous and scared still, I'm so happy that this is going to be taken care of before it gets worse. Overall I feel fine, pretty tired, but not much pain, just discomfort, probably from the softball sized tumor that's been hitching a ride.

But I want to say this: GO TO THE DOCTOR. PLEASE. Just go get a physical once a year. Just talk with them about what you're experiencing and be open. But you gotta go. If you don't like your doctor find a new one. If it wasn't for Stefenie making me go and my buddy Kyle being open about him going regularly and encouraging me to just do it, I would have likely put this off even longer. Don't wait until it's too late. Just go. For me.

Gwen, Olive and Heidi are doing ok, but still scared. Especially Olive, who is our sensitive one. Their only frame of reference with the C word is Stef's best friend Becky, and their Grandpa Steve. So when they hear that word it means "dying" to them. So give them a little extra love and support for me when you can.

This process is going to be challenging for my family, especially during the holidays, so if you're willing to give us some help with something, we would absolutely appreciate it and be very grateful. Stef has been taking care of EVERYTHING the last couple of weeks and she still find the time to make sure I'm ok, so anything that could ease her burden would really mean the world to me.

I love you all, go to the damn doctor, I'll be ok, and most of all:

FUCK CANCER.