I have cancer.

Hello, My name is Christopher, and I just found out that I have cancer.

I was with my girlfriend Jackie at the store, when I suddenly lost the ability to control the left side of my body. We went home and it got worse, so we rushed to the ER at Aurora Health in Milwaukee. Assuming I was having a stroke, the team quickly worked on assessing and treating my symptoms. After some lab work and imaging, it was determined that I had 3-5 lesions (tumors) in my brain that were causing the loss of left side body control. They also determined that the tumors had most likely spread from cancer somewhere else in my body, and did a CT on my chest to find what they think is cancerous nodules in my lungs that have metastasized to my brain and lymph nodes.

This is an incredibly scary thing to hear. Lung cancer is scary. Brain cancer is scary. Until I lost control of the left side of my body, I haven't had any other symptoms that I can remember. I was given steroids and anti-seizure medication at the ER which seemed to alleviate the initial symptoms, and since then I have felt somewhat normal. However, since the machine needed to take a biopsy of my lungs is apparently broken, they weren't able to biopsy my lung tissue to make a proper diagnosis. This has complicated things somewhat since I don't have current insurance, getting a biopsy somewhere else has forced me into a pretty inane cycle of calling providers, specialists, and hospitals over and over just to get answers. It seems that even just to get a diagnosis, I'm going to have to spend several hundred dollars out of pocket right from the get go. Doesn't seem right.

The lack of transparency around treatment options for people who are under or un-insured has caused a great deal of hardship and confusion, and it seems that just getting the process going will require some out of pocket payments that I am frankly not prepared to make. At this point, treating the lesions in my brain, as well as getting a proper biopsy and diagnosis is priority number one. After that, I will have more information on what I need to ensure I can get the treatment I need and fight this thing.