Jareds cancer fund
Hello there,
My name is Allison Carmichael, and I started this Go Fund Me page because my dear hubby who is 35 yrs old just got diagnosed with stage 4 of Diffused Large B-cell Lymphoma and is now (temporarily) paralyzed from the chest down.
Together we have a 7 month old baby, and she is the cutest thing ever, we are very blessed to have her. I was hesitant to ask for help online... people who know me know how much I hate asking for help. But I just spoke to our new insurance company and unfortunately I require some financial assistance since I am on maternity leave and my husband will be in the Cross Cancer Institute for the foreseeable future.
"Brief" story on what happened:
Hours after work, Jareds back was hurting, he described it as a muscle pain as if he strained it. He didnt do anything at work for this to happened. It all just suddenly happen. So he went to our family doctor, and he prescribed him a cream but that didnt really work as his pain was still there. He went again another day, but we saw another doctor since ours wasnt in that day. And she said that our family doctor was doing the right thing and that we should give it time for the cream to work. A week went by and the pain was getting worse and worse. He tried getting a therapy massage but he couldnt handle the pain at all. So we went to the Emergency at The Grey Nuns Hospital (BTW...Worse treatment ever. We will NEVER go back to that place). And after waiting 4 hours, Jared got 5 Percocets. That night he took some and absolutely nothing good was happening. In fact, the pain suddlenly was growing. My husband was in very much pain, he couldnt move at all, he could only stand like a statue. Since he coulnt lay down or sit down, he had to call in sick for work. The next day was the same thing: Just a statue. No movement. That night, I heard a big "Thump". I went quickly downstairs to see what had happened.... My poor hubby was on the floor in pain. He had fallen asleep standing up and his legs just gave in. He was is SO MUCH PAIN. Later on, we went to the same ER again and it was the most horrible experience in my life. We waited about 4hours just to get called and then spent 2 hours inside for them to tell us that he will be staying there (Which BTW was on a skinny stretcher bed in the hallway... My hubby is not a small man. He is 6 FT 5). We spent 3 days there (All 3 of us including my 7 month old) and nothing had happen... they would take blood samples and give him some pain meds but nothing was improving! And I am not exagerating when I say this but Jared was standing up 98% of the time there! So eventually, his legs couldnt support his weight and he fell about 3 times on the floor.
I want to take a moment to tell you that as a first time mother with a baby in the hospital, to see that your partner is on the floor crying for help... was emotionally unbearable. Him on the floor with 7 nurses not knowing what the hell to do with him, really opened my eyes on how poorly they handle things. Finally, around 10pm they call a Neurologist and they take him for an MRI exam. Less than an hour after, he tells me that there is a mass that had led to internal bleeding in the spinal cord and that he will need to get a surgery. While he is speaking to me, I see Jared, scared out of his mind, loading up into an ambulance and off we go to the U of A Hospital. Midnight hits and he is about to go into surgery. 5am I get a call saying that the surgery went well, a tumor was removed and they sent it for a biopsy and the results would be given to us in 2 weeks max. We were in the ICU of Neurosciences and then went to the ward. During this time, Jared had originally lost the ability to feel or move his legs, a few days later he slowly was able to move them but then later it went back to square one. No movement.
October 19 - We got the heartbreaking news...all his spinal cord has cancer. After crying it out for a while, he gets transferred to the Cross Cancer Institute.
Jared is currently there, well taken care of. Up to today, he cannot or feel anything from the chest down but for most of the days he is in good spirits. He is getting radiation treatment and will also do some chemotherapy later down the road. We have been told that the best case scenario of beating cancer will take 5 months, but for him to learn how to use his legs will be 1 year.
This life changing scenario has put our family in a tough position. These funds are primarily for Jared but might also be used for other important payments.
I thank you in advance for just taking the time to read this. Please dont feel obligated to donate! No hard feelings whatsoever! However, any donations, big and small are very much appreciated!
One last thing, I would like to keep this a secret. I want to surprise Jared with this. So please if you do know him, please dont tell him that his wife has created an online fundraise page.
Thank you so much.
Allison and baby Harper Carmichael.
