My precious wife, Carol Schoolcraft, is fighting a battle that no-one should have to endure - the fight against cancer.

Carol is an incredible person. She just turned 70 years old on March 23rd, 2023, and she is funny, caring, and spontaneous. She's played Mrs. Claus for abused kids and always went the extra mile to help handicapped customers during her time at Walmart where everyone loved her, including Butch the Dog who always sought her out for a friendly pet.

Thursday November 24th, 2022(Thanksgiving) we had just finished eating our turkey dinner when suddenly we both had trouble breathing. Carol got worse and was losing color in her face. I called an ambulance and we both ended up in the emergency room. They soon discovered that she was anemic, bleeding vaginally and needed an operation as soon as possible. She also needed multiple blood transfusions.

The next day she went for emergency D&C surgery to stop the bleeding. At some point her doctor came by my room to tell me that they had stopped some bleeding, but they would have to wait and see how she healed. She said they needed more tests. She also said she was turning Carol over to another doctor who was more of a specialist. As we soon found out, he had an advanced certification in gynecologic oncology.

At her first appointment with the new doctor, Dr. Arango, we got the news. Carol had cancer and had to have a radical hysterectomy as soon as possible. The appointment was set. When we arrived for the operation, all the nurses were nice and made her comfortable. At this point it seemed that everything moved on fast forward, and they soon wheeled her away.

I waited for what seemed like an eternity as she was operated on. After about three hours Dr. Arango came out to talk to me. He said that he was able to remove a lot of the cancer but unfortunately it had spread outside to her lymph nodes on each side where her uterus had been. He said he would know more when they received the pathology report.

We sat in his office about a week later talking to his physician’s assistant. She checked Carol out to see how the operation was healing and then told us the bad news. Carol had Stage 3 malignant neoplasm of myometrium and would need to talk to Dr. Arango as soon as possible to learn more and discuss treatments.

We left, scared and confused. How had this happened? No pain and what we thought she needed was just to have a D&C.

The next Tuesday we waited to talk to Dr. Arango. We went over possible questions and follow up questions. After a few minutes the doc came into the room. Speaking solemnly and straight forward he went through the entire situation. He said that although the cancer had spread to certain lymph nodes, there was no indication that it had spread to her kidneys, liver, lungs or anywhere else. Though this was good news he would not give a prognosis. He said his job was to cure her and that was what he was setting out to do and he would set her up immediately with chemo treatments and radiation.

She just had her first chemo treatment a week ago. It was rough. She was surrounded by many negative people going through the same thing, along with a few that were upbeat and positive. For seven hours they dripped different chemicals into her. No breaks, just drip, drip, drip…

Yes, she is frightened. Yes she is uncomfortable but Carol is taking all this as a brave woman and there are many more treatments ahead for an undetermined amount of time.

I have started this Go Fund Me account to help ease the financial burden we are facing. One less thing she has to worry about. My name is Robert, her husband of 51 years. You see, when we were both in the hospital together for over 3 weeks it turned out we both had heart attacks and I almost died. I mention this because I am a Vietnam era veteran and my hospitalization got paid for by the VA. Hers, only partly by insurance.

We are on a fixed income, and we cannot cover all the previous hospital bills, never mind the new ones. Over the next days, weeks, and months ahead we will need to be at countless doctor appointments, hospital stays and surgeries. As you can imagine with inflation, the huge increase in the normal costs of everyday living...such as a mortgage, food, gas, electricity, etc...the medical costs are astronomical.

This will enable Carol to be able to concentrate on getting well and fighting this horrible disease named cancer.

We ask from the bottom of our hearts that you share this link with your loved ones, and if you are able, we kindly request your support in donating. (any amount you can spare will help).

Thank you for listening and sharing this with your loved ones. Bless you all!!

Sincerely,

Robert Schoolcraft