Jones' Family Fight Against Cancer

Charlie, a Captain of the Tallac Hotshots, on Feb. 24th went in for his first ever Colonoscopy.  At only 40 yo it was meant to be just a "well after 20+ years in wildland fire, let's just take a look" sort of thing. He and his wife fully expected to be told that everything looked great and that they should follow up in another 5 years.  Instead they found a tumor.  Biopsy results determined it is malignant Stage 2  Colorectal Cancer.  The good news is that it has not yet spread to his lymph nodes, and his MRI and CT scans all looked great.  The bad news is that because of the tumor's location, surgery isn't the best the option right now. Surgery right now would result in a permanent Colostomy bag. They met with a Oncologist at Carson Tahoe Cancer Center and a Surgeon in Reno in March.  The Dr.s want to be aggressive with his treatment and on April 2nd he received his first intravenous infusion, which is to be followed by 14 days of a Oral chemotherapy, and then 7 days of rest. This 21 day cycle will then need to be repeated another 5 times. After that it's on to 5 weeks of daily radiation treatments. At that point another MRI will determine the next step. Doctors are saying (right now) that there will be a potential surgery with a temporary colostomy bag, followed by another 6 months of Chemotherapy.  The road ahead is daunting and uncertain. Charlie is a father of two beautiful young children and a loving husband to his wife Holly.  Unfortunately,  this course of treatment will not allow Charlie to be out on the line this fire season. As the sole income earner for the family (although, Holly did just pick up a part-time serving job to help alleviate some financial stressors), he spends the majority of each summer/wildfire season away from home and on the fire line. However, this season is different. With the medical bills and this loss of work it presents a tremendous hardship to his family.  Every little bit counts and is a tremendous blessing to this family as they navigate through his cancer battle together. Thank you so much!