The Surrett Family needs your help

Hello everyone, My name is Amanda Surrett. I'm a wife, mother and daughter. We have 3 handsome boys, Cole 19, Greysen 13, and Noah 3 1/2 years old. I'm creating a Go Fund Me account, because 2 years ago our family recieved heartbreaking news. Before I continue, I want to take the time to thank everyone who is reading about our family. May God bless you.

My husband and I are normally private people. We have a beautiful family. 2 years ago our family was doing fine, until February 21, 2022 came. I had been sick for a while and what I mean is that I was losing my appetite and losing weight. When I did eat, I sometimes had to go straight to the bathroom. On the 21st of Februray 2022, I got so sick that my husband took me to the local ER. There they found a mass in my rectum. They recommended that I get transferred to a hospital in Knoxville, Tn. The next day the doctor came to my room he informed us about the mass and said that he wanted to perform an colonoscopy in 2 days. When the day came for him to perform the procedure, he came to my hospital room and informed us that because the mass was so big that he couldn't perform the procedure. He said that he reached out to another hospital that had better equipment that they could do the procedure, he discharged me the next day. About week later I was able to make an appointment and see this other doctor so they could do the procedure. Two days later, she informed us of the same news. The mass was to big for her to be able to get past the mass and get a biopsy. She recommended going to UT GI, she discharged me later that day.

So, my husband and I go see the GI Specialist at UT. He said not only can he do the procedure but that I need emergency surgery so that he can place an ostomy bag just under my stomach. He said the mass is taking up 95% of my rectum and that my colon and stomach are slowly being filled with waste due to the mass. Two days later I had my surgery, he did a partical ostomy just under my stomach, and was able to get a biopsy done at the same time. He said the reason he did a partical ostomy bag, was because I still had my gi tract in tact. That he hoped in about a year, he could remove the ostomy and use my lower instine to make a pouch so that I would be ostomy free.

On the day I was being discharged from the hospital, the doctor informed us that I was just weeks away from death because of this mass. I was discharged and sent home to recover. We went back to the GI and he informed us that I had stage 3 rectal cancer. He said he recommened an Oncologist there at UT.

A week later we met with the Oncologist and he said what chemotherapy he was going to do and then radiation and surgery to get the tumor removed. The very next week I started Chemotherapy, this was April 2022. I finshed up with chemo in September. After I finished he informed us that the tumor didn't shrink and that he recommends radiation and try to shrink the tumor that way. Once the tumor shrinks then I can have the tumor removed.

Two weeks later we met with the Radiologist and he informed us of how he was going to do radiation. I finished treatment in late October. In Novemeber the radiologist informed us that not only did the tumor not shrink but that the cancer had now spread to my lungs. It was offical I was now stage 4 rectal cancer. I still knew I could beat this thing. I went back to the Oncologist and he said that he wanted a biopsy of my lungs. I told him no, I wanted to either start chemothearpy again or have surgery and remove the tumor. He got angry and said that he will not give me stronger chemotherapy. That as far as he was concern, I was dying and I wouldn't beat it. He said if you want stronger chemo then you'll do the biospy. I looked right at him and said if I was your wife, daughter, mother or sister, you would throw everything you had at this tumor and get rid of it so they could be in remission and start enjoying life again. I'm not doing the biopsy. He looked at me and threw his clipboard across the room and stormed out. My husband and I looked at each other in shock, that a doctor would act that way, in front of his patient. We shook our heads and left.

Over the next few days I was doing research to find another Oncologist. One that was professional, would listen to our concerns and ideas. We finally found one. So it took until January of 2023 to be able to see her. She came into the room, sat down and looked at the file, then looked at my husband and I. She smiled and then looked at me, she asked me "So what do you think your odds are? Do you think you can get into remission or do you think that you will pass away because of the cancer. Let me inform you that you are stage 4." I looked at my husband then I looked at her and said "I know I can beat this. I ready to go to war, I'm just looking for the right team that will battle with me not against me." She said" Good, I've gone over your file and reports. I believe with the right chemo and antibodies, the tumor will shrink. Then you can have surgery and remove the tumor." All I could do was smile. I silenty thanked God for sending me here. Then, she said "Now, this won't be an easy battle, the first year you will be in and out of the hospital, and the next 2 years we slowly increase the chemo and antibodies. You will lose your hair and you will have days that your too weak to get out of bed. You'll also have days where your very sick. That's ok that means it's working. As this process is going on your pain will increase. That's because we are irratating it and making it shrink. So, your looking at a total of 3 years and you should be in remission. I also want you to know that your cancer is gentatic. What that means is, you will have to take chemo for the rest of your life. After, we remove the tumor, you will go from the liquid form of chemo with the pump, to pill form. Then, for the next two years, you'll get check ups every 3 months. That way we can make sure that the cancer hasn't come back with avengeance." I smiled and asked her when do we start. She said next Monday and you'll come back on Wednesday to remove the pump. I will have you come every 2 weeks, 3 days of chemo on those weeks. I said ok, I'll see you next Monday.

When we left her office I was happy, I finally found a doctor that was ready to do battle with me instead of against me. So I started chemo again in January 2023, I'm still on chemo as of today. Anyways, about 2 weeks of this chemo, I started to feel really bad. My throat was so sore I couldn't eat or drink. I tried every kind of throat meds that we could find, just to see if it would allow me to drink and eat. Nothing worked. Scott called my doctor and informed her about what was going on. She told him to bring me in right away. She examed me and then said I needed to be hospitalized so that she can see what was going on and get the right meds to heal my throat. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks. No matter what they tried it didn't work. I was still unable to eat or drink anything. While, I was in the hospital, Scott had to miss work to take care of our youngest son, and see what they were doing at the hospital about my throat. The only thing we found out was that the chemo was so stong that it turn my entire esophagus into raw hamburger. My doctor said she would reduce the strenght on the antibodies and see if that would help. I was released from the hospital. Now, that I was back home Scott could go back to work. During those 2 weeks, he had to drain our savings to pay the bills for the month. I was back on chemo 2 weeks later.

About a month later I was back in the hospital for the same thing. It just wasn't as bad, I was in the hospital this time for about a week and a half. Again, Scott had to miss work so that he could take care of Noah and see me at the hospital so he could find out what they were doing to treat me. Which caused us to get behind in bills again. We had to send our motorcylces back, so that it was one less bill we had to pay. We were taking from Paul to pay Peter. You know that old saying. Anyways, they came up with a mouth wash that I would swallow every 4 hours, it would coat my esophagus and that way I might be able to drink and eat. Everything, was going good until about 2 months ago.

Late July, I was going to the bathroom, when all of a sudden, I started pouring blood. I called for Scott, before he could get to me I passed out. He called 911 and they rushed me to the hospital. They did a blood transfushion, then they hospitalized me for 2 weeks. Again, Scott had to miss work to take care of Noah and see what they were doing to find where the blood was coming from. While in the hospital, I had PET, CT Scans, X-rays, ultrasounds done. They couldn't find the source of the hemmorage and they couldn't stop the bleeding, they slowed it down, but they couldn't stop it. After 2 weeks of being in the hospital, they discharged me. They said there was nothing else they could do. They tried everything they could think of. Because of those 2 weeks in the hospital it made us get even further behind in bills.

Then on August 31, 2023, it happened again. I was going to the bathroom when all of a sudden I started to pour blood again. Thank God that our oldest son was home. He called 911 and Scott, I was rushed back to the hospital. They did another blood transfushion. They hospitalized me once again, and once again Scott had to miss work while I was in the hospital. Which put us even further behind in bills. Scott wasn't telling me because he didn't want me to stress or worry. He just wanted me to focus on getting better and getting back home again. Anyways, once again, they had no idea where I was hemmoraging from or why. They did have a procedure that they could do. It's simular to a colonoscopy but a lot more detailed because they would use the smallest camera they had. The doctor felt that the hemorrage was so small that none of the testing could pick it up. So, the next day (I had already been in the hospital for 4 days, again Scott missing work and getting further and further behind in bills.) I had the procedure done. She found where I was hemmoraging. The down side is that none of the hospital's surgeons could do the surgery. She said I needed to be transferred to another hospital in Knoxville. Since it was Friday night, there were no surgeons there to talk to me I had to wait until Monday.

Monday came and the doctor said that he would get with 2 other surgeons and come up with a game plan to seal up my fistual. If you don't know what a fistual is. It's a small tunnel that was going from my tumor to my uterus wall. The chemo that I'm on is weakening my uterus wall and causing the tumor to push through the wall. The fistual is slowly filling up with blood until it can't hold anymore and ruptures causing me to have a massive blood loss. Anyway, so the doctor said that he would see me on Wednesday and let me know what they were going to do. Wednesday, finally came around and the doctor came to see me. He didn't look happy. He informed me that the surgery that they would have to perform had a very high chance of taking my life. He said if I survived the surgery, that they only gave me a year to a year and half to live. The very next day I was discharged from the hospital.

My Oncologist called me later that day. She said that I need to talk with the radiaologist. That they believe some very intensive radiation should seal the hole and I would be in the clear. So she setup the appointmant and the next day September 7th, we met with the radiologist and he had very high hopes that 3 weeks of treatments should seal the hole and that after his treatments I could continue my chemo treatments. They figured out what was causing the problem so they are going to remove that from my treatments for now. I'll get back on that treatment once they feel my body is strong enough to handle it. That they would be watching me very closely.

Now, I know that this is long. But I wanted to inform you of what we have been through so far. That way you will understand why we are struggling. We know we aren''t the only family that's struggling. Even though I could drive myself to my treatments, we feel better if Scott took me. The reason is if I happen to hemmorage again, at least I won't be driving and pass out behind the wheel and get into a major wreck. With Scott driving me he can rush me to the hospital. But that means another 3 weeks he has to miss of work.

You see my husband is a truck driver. So, if his truck sits he doesn't get paid. Now, while all of this was going on, his company has lost a lot of contracts due to this inflation. The company also cut his pay almost in half so they could stay open. They only did it to the local drivers. Scott got hit first because he was having to call out of work so much because of me. He was rotating on who to pay. One month his truck would get paid and the next month he would skip his truck payment and pay on my car. He had been doing this the whole time I've been in and out of the hospital. He has been calling all our utilitiy compaines to see if they will work with us on getting them paid. Some did and some didn't. We normally are saving up for our gas that heats the house. To fill the tank cost right at $1,000.00. They won't do a half a tank, you either get a full tank or no gas at all. They will not take monthly payments either, you have to pay the whole bill in 2 weeks, or they will drain your tank. See Scott never told me of everything going on because he didn't want me to stress or worry while I was in the hospital. When, I was discharged from this last stay, is when he told me everything.

I want everyone to know, that if you want to see medical records I'll happily show you, or you can talk to some of our family members as well. If you want to see how far behind we are on the rest of the bills, we'll gladly show you those as well.

With that being said, I want to thank everyone who took the time to read about our family and what we've been going through. I also, want everyone to know if you donate thank you so very much, every little bit counts. If you are like us and in a bind and can't donate, please just share our story, thank you to you as well.

God bless everyone.