My name is Kylee and I am reaching out on behalf of my father, Bobby Durham.
One of those things that you whole heartedly believe will not happen to your family, happened to us and it happened quickly.
Cancer. Metastatic squamous cell carcinoma.
On January 26th of this year my father went to the E.R. for a third round of antibiotics after an ear infection he believed he still had due to headaches and a 'swollen lymph node". Unfortunately, he left that E.R. with the open-ended news of 'a mass' in his throat.
That led him to the Ear Nose and Throat specialist the very next day, who sent him right on his way to biopsy in Bismarck ND and by February 5th we had the diagnosis, it was cancer. 12 days later he went to Fargo ND to the Roger Maris Cancer center to find out the next steps.
A punch in the gut, not only was the tumor in his neck inoperable, but it also wasn't alone. The cancer had spread throughout his body and into his bones.
My dad has always been a hard worker, and he's not treating this any differently.
It has been 6 weeks now of traveling back and forth from Watford City to Fargo developing a treatment plan, and it's starting soon.
As if this already hasn't uprooted our lives emotionally, his treatment plan will do it physically.
Treatment will involve intense Radiation 5 days a week and Chemotherapy once a week for 7 weeks in Fargo at the Cancer Center. Followed by Chemotherapy consistently for at least two years.
This means no work/income for an unknown amount of time, finding a short-term rental or hotel for two months, family traveling in shifts each week to take turns helping him with his day to day during the debilitating treatment. Of course no one can forget, the medical bills.
My dad is a prepared man of course and we are exhausting all of our options, who would have thought that little bit extra each month for 'cancer insurance' would come in handy. Though, like insurance tends to be it is not enough.
We are hoping to relieve some of the financial stress of my parent, who have been married and by each other's sides for 23 years, while they become a one income household suddenly while also temporarily living on opposite sides of the state.
My dad is only 42 years old. In those 42 years he has been a son, husband, father, grandpa and an overall provider for all 25 of the years I've known him. He has always been one to help others, volunteering his time including as a firefighter with the Arnegard Fire Department. It is his turn for help.
My dad has been there for me my entire life and never wavered, and I hope in this way people can help me provide support for him while he fights to be able to continue to do so for us and my two children, and if I know my father, it will be fight.