Help Garth Recover from Leukemia

UPDATE 2/22/24:

I've had my bone marrow transplant. I've got a few more days in the hospital before I move over to the Koz House, where I'll have a 24/7 caregiver for around three months. Thanks to all the donors for helping me get this far. The next few months are still looking a little precarious financially. I've got the caregivers' money saved. I've got the Koz House rent covered. I've got some food money, but probably not enough. And the bills keep coming from home.

So, a few small donations would go a long ways right now.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Let me introduce myself. My name is Garth Hagerman. I've lived on the Mendocino Coast since 1994. I'm a photographer, graphic designer, web developer, actor, and a few other things. I started this year with the "lazy bug" and a small financial reserve which was earmarked for fixing my teeth and printing my long-delayed photo book. The lazy bug got worse, and I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in early March.

Two months of hospitalization at the UC Davis Medical Center followed soon after. Now, after a few more months of treatment locally, the cancer is in remission and I feel more or less OK as long as I don't exert myself. But that financial reserve is gone.

I need to have a bone marrow transplant in the next few months; that is the only route to a full recovery. Following the transplant, there will be a two- to three-month period where I'll need a caretaker 24/7. While Medi-Cal covers the main expenses, there's very little help available for the caretaker or for my day-to-day living expenses while I recover. So I've started fundraising.

One difficulty in this adventure is that I really don't know how much money I'm going to need to get through it. I'll need 24/7 care for two to three months, but how much help will I get from the government or private foundations? There's a state agency which helps find and pay for in-home caregivers, but they only pay a low wage for part-time helpers, and I'm not even sure I'm eligible for that. There are some grants from private foundations, but those grants are fairly small. If I'm nearly on my own to hire a caregiver, the thousands roll by pretty fast.

Additionally, I'm not sure what condition I'll be in after the transplant and the maybe three month aftermath. Will I be able to go right back to work? Probably not. How long will it be before I'm myself and making a living again?