My Dad's Pancreatic Cancer

Hello, my name is Lilly Roy, I am 18 years old. I am starting this fundraiser for my dad's cancer. His story starts back in 2016, the summer I was heading into 6th grade. He found out he had pancreatic cancer and was now going to be battling to live, not only for himself but for his only daughter too. I wanted to be with him every step of the way, but I couldn't because I was going to school with my mom at the time. My mom and dad live 2-hours apart, so trying to see my dad was hard since I couldn't drive at that age. My dad started off with chemo and radiation for a while and watching him change at such a young age broke my heart. Before chemo, my dad was always the type of person who even if he was exhausted from work would put everything aside to spend quality time with me and make my childhood the best he could. Even during chemo, he always pushed himself to seem okay and strong for me.

In late 2017 my dad got an 8-hour Whipple procedure done where they took out his gallbladder, half of the pancreas, some of his stomach, and some of his intestine. During the surgery, they found that the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes, and they had to remove those too. After that surgery and a little bit of recovery in the hospital, he had to go home with an open wound. He needed a stay-at-home nurse which was pretty expensive, and it was very hard for him to afford. Once his wound healed and he fought off an infection, He had 3 months of chemo and 1 month of radiation.

My dad got better for a little while and it was nice to see him come back to his old self, but sadly that didn't last as long as I hoped for. In 2022 into 2023 he started to have a lot of pain again and found out he needed a triple hernia surgery. During this surgery, they found stomach cancer and a lot of it. They started off with more chemo for 4 months to see if that would help, but sadly it didn't do much. So, they had to do another surgery and take 90% of his stomach, they also had to rearrange and take some of his intestines.

During the healing process, my dad could barely eat anything, and when he did it caused a lot of pain. We were all hoping my dad's eating would progressively get better, but instead, everything took a turn and got a whole lot worse. My dad stopped eating entirely in August of 2023 because he would throw up every little thing. He needed emergency IV nutrients given to him because he was so dehydrated and malnourished, so he was taken to the hospital by ambulance. After we received the liquid IV, we just returned home like he wanted. We weren’t sure what was happening, but we were hoping his intestines were just kinked and it would be an easy fix. My dad is the skinniest I have ever seen him, almost skin and bones. He is in extreme pain every day because his body is rejecting everything.

My grandmother and I brought him back to the hospital because something was clearly wrong, and he needed to be seen immediately. After a few days of examination, the doctors decided he needed immediate exploratory surgery. After the surgery, the doctor came out and told us that my dad's intestines weren't kinked. My dad had cancer in his intestines, and they couldn't remove all of it. He woke up from surgery with hope of good news but instead, he had tubes coming out of his body. He now has a stomach tube to empty the liquids he puts in and another going into his intestines for nutrients that he will need for the rest of his life. He won’t be able to eat a lot of foods now if any, which hurts him because he’s a huge foodie. When he was trying to heal, his intestines developed two holes that caused leakage. He was in extreme pain until he got two more tubes put in him for the leakage. My dad has been in the hospital for 8 weeks this Monday 11/20/23. His doctor wants to put him in an adult care facility. I am going to quit my job to take care of him so he can just come home because we can't afford the facility and he just wants to be home.

We are really struggling with a lot of stacked medical bills and rent. I am not going to be able to work because my dad is going to need me. Since I’m taking the responsibility of taking care of him, we will also need an at-home nurse to come and do things I can’t. My grandmother is trying to help out financially, but things are pretty hard. Currently, where my dad lives, they keep upping the rent but not fixing absolutely anything around the house. I also don't have my own room, which isn't a big deal to me but my dad wants to find a little bit bigger place so I could move in and have my own space. This is the worst I have ever seen him, so I don't know how long he has. It could be months or years, but I need to be with him no matter what and I want to make the rest of his time here worry-free. My dad is truly an amazing person. I just wish I could give him the world like he always tries to give to me. Sadly, he is still in pain every day and I am trying my best to ease that pain, but we all wish we could do more. He just never seems to get a break from it all. My dad hates asking for help from anyone, even me, so starting this GoFundMe took a lot of convincing and made him feel less of himself to ask people for help. We really need it though so absolutely any donation will help! All donations will go to helping my dad. Thank you for listening to our story!