Urgent Help for Gary's Cancer Battle

Hi everyone, my name is Jessica Schroeder and I am organizing this fund raising effort to help my cousin Chandra and her husband Gary,who is currently fighting for his life. Back in May of this year Gary developed what his dentist thought to be an abscess. This resulted in an extraction of all of his teeth on August 21st. Although the extraction was successful, Gary was still suffering with painful swelling. Four days later, during a grocery trip, Gary collapsed to the floor and went into a full seizure. Paramedics noticed his blood pressure was dangerously low and had to get him stable enough for transport to the hospital. On route to the hospital, Gary coded. Once at the hospital he crashed twice more. He was admitted to a special trauma unit where he spent a week. Doctors knew at this point they would need to go in and surgically drain the “abscess”. During surgery it was there they discovered Gary was not suffering from a dental abscess, it was a tumor. Surgeons performed a biopsy right away. The doctors were able to once again stabilize his blood pressure and sent them both home. All they could do now is wait.

Back at home, Gary’s swelling worsened. He was extremely weak and his body was tiring quickly. The tumor was getting bigger and causing more pain than ever. In the meantime the results from Gary’s biopsy came in-CANCER…Keratinizing Squamous Cell Carcinoma. The feeling of utter helplessness came over our family as Gary was now in a fight for his life. Doctors were able to schedule an appointment with an oncology specialist at Vanderbilt Hospital on September 12th. However unfortunately

Gary had another episode on Sunday September 8, which resulted in another trip to the ER. Although doctors were able to get his blood pressure back to normal, there is no telling when he will crash again. At this point his prognosis is not looking hopeful. He is home again feeling weaker by the day.

This ordeal has been very challenging to say the least. Chandra has just started a new job, which she fears she will lose due to caring for Gary and future hospitalizations , medical bills are piling rapidly, and without Gary’s income, the stress of monthly bills is weighing heavily on her heart. To make matters worse, Vanderbilt Hospital is 123 miles away from their home, causing further stress and financial difficulties.

Any amount, big or small, would help Chandra maintain these costs and allow her to focus on Gary’s hopeful recovery. As a family we are praying and trying to remain positive but seeing them go through this is utterly devastating as most of our family lives in Wisconsin and cannot physically be there by her side. Thank you so kindly for taking the time to read Gary’s story.

9/12/24 update:

We met with the oncologist today. The cancer has spread into his lymph nodes and jaw bones. It is going to take a massive resection and reconstruction surgery to try and remove it. Surgery will be a minimum of 10 hours and will take a team of surgeons working in him. They will be removing all of his jaw bones and his lip. They will take bone and skin graft from his left arm to reconstruct what they can. He will have to have a feeding tube and tracheotomy for awhile. Once he has recovered from surgery they will start radiation and chemo. Doctors said that he has a very long hard battle to come. Please continue to pray for him.