Prayers for Christopher

My cousin Christopher, who is a 21 year old newly wed, was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkins Lymphoma. Chris has been a volunteer Fire Fighter and a Medical First REpsonder for the last 4 years and has dropped everything and run to help comeplete strangers out and now he is in need of our help.

Just before chris got married on August 15, 2015 he was having a hard time breathing, and his puffers for his asthma didnt seem to be helping. He went to the doctor and also informed the doctor that he had a couple lumps under his armpits and groin area. The doctor sent him for an x-ray as well as a cat scan and an MRI. He got a call only a few short hours after these tests and was advised that he needed to see a surgeon about the lumps the following week. 

On August 20, Christopher went to see the surgeon and they booked a date to go in and do a surgical biopsy. The doctor advised chris that he would need to take between 2-6 weeks off of work because of the type of biopsy they had to do and so he could heal the incision. 

September 8, 2015 Christopher went in for the biopsy which was only supposed to take about 15 minutes but ended up taking much longer. When the surgeon went in he discovered that the lump was quite mangled and not what he was expecting at all.

September 15, 2015 he got the news that no one wanted to hear. He was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. they gave him a date of September 23 that he would have to travel to Halifax to meet with another doctor to discuss a treatment plan.

They met with the doctor in Halifax and he said that he would have to undergo chemo and radiation treatment starting the week after thanksgiving.  They also did a bone marrow biopsy there as the doctors know that the cancer has spread to his lungs. They are waiting to see if he is being upgraded to stage 4. He will have to travel from pictou to Halifax every second week to do a round of chemo and medical appointments. 

Since that appointment, On September 19 Chris has had an infection set in where they did the biopsy and has been admitted in the hospital. He has been hooked up to an IV and receiving two different types of antibiotics as well as a drainage bag to catch all of the infection coming out. Today September 30, he is going in for another surgery to try and clean up the infection so that he can start to undergo his chemo treatments.

Our families normally do not ask for help and make do with what we have, however this family needs whatever they can get. Chris's wife is going to be laid off shortly as she works a seasonal job and will have to look for a new one. They have alot of traveiling to do between pictou and halifax on a weekly basis as well as bills to pay in order to keep their roof over their heads when chris gets home from the hospital. I am asking that everyone pull together and help this deserving family out with whatever you can.