Help Support Josh's Family After His Loss

Hi,

On July 2nd, we had the best and worst day of our lives.

Josh had been feeling minor discomfort that, to him, felt like bound up gas starting around May 29th, but he assumed it was just that - or that he had a mild GI bug.

When he came home early from work two weeks later, we knew it was time to involve doctors and went to an URGO. The doctor there looked at his medical history, confirmed he'd been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes which had been diet controlled for sugars since 2009, and determined that this was likely diabetic gastroparesis based on an xray that showed the gas buildup but no apparent cause for it. He wasn't able to make a gastroenterology referral from the URGO but recommended following up with Josh's primary care provider to do so. The symptoms sort of matched up, but the other nerve damage in extremities that would normally happen prior to stomach nerve tissue damage was not there.

Josh had let his status with our family doctor lapse due to having had his blood sugars under control for a very long time and having been on a low sugar, low carb diet. New patient appointments were very far out, so the scheduling line nurse helped us set up a followup appointment for the URGO visit for sooner but the available physician was a retired doctor who doesn't accept new patients but works a few hours a week to keep his license and relieve retirement boredom.

Two weeks later, our family doctor's office cancelled the followup appointment due to thinking it was an appointment to establish care as a new patient. He was getting progressively worse and the discomfort was building.

We called back in to the after hours nurse line and, based on his symptoms, the nurse advised him to head to the Emergency Room. He was admitted, given fluids and electrolytes, and had bloodwork done, the ER doctor prescribed medications and was able to get referral in for gastroenterology office near us.

Our family doctor was able to work in a follow up appointment from the Emergency Room visit since he wasn't getting better and felt the same as he had even 24 hours after that visit.

Josh was let go from his job working as a service clerk on June 21st, but we hadn't been worried because, with imminent baby arrival, we planned for him to take some time to be there for our two older children and for myself.

He hadn't received a raise in four years, so we had planned to search for a new job once his health situation was sorted out. We had an emergency fund so we planned to rely on it while waiting for management and for me to heal enough to care for our 3 children. (Daycare costs were higher than my monthly income with just 1 child so we went to having a single income in 2020 after the lockdowns and daycare while unable to work full hours ate through the emergency fund we had then.)

At the time, we didn't anticipate this being an issue that wouldn't be able to be managed while working once through initial treatment.

When we went in to see our family doctor, she ordered several tests - including a CT scan - which was done on a Friday with a repeat c-section scheduled for Tuesday for our 3rd child if he didn't choose to come out on his own sooner, so we werent sure when we would get results from that scan.

We welcomed our third child and first boy into the world...and Josh got a phone call telling him that his CT scan came back showing signs of cancer in his liver while I was in recovery. They also stated that by the way it looked appeared to be metastatic (spread from a different, original mass) but were unable to determine where the original mass was in the scans they had.

Josh was referred to oncology for the next day, set up for a biopsy of one of the lesions to take a tissue sample and determine the type and origin. We were still hopeful of a best case of this being bile backup causing burn lesions in his liver - which isn't fun but would have been curable.

Further scans confirmed this was likely metastatic cancer but still couldn't find the original mass, so we moved forward with a biopsy to take tissue samples from a lesion. A referral to our local Cancer Institute was placed for him by the team of doctors who reviews testing and scans for possible cancer in our area.

The liver biopsy shocked his system, hospitalizing him for five days after our 2 week appointment with our newborn and leading to stints being placed to allow for his liver to function properly.

During this process, they found the original mass in his esophagus just above his stomach, took a tissue sample form it, and sent that sample for testing to confirm.

The liver biopsy came back confirming that the lesions there were metastatic adenocarcinoma and originated from upper GI tract.

His condition is still deteriorating as we await the start of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. His health conditions prevent him from searching for a new job at this time and require him to have assistance with anything that requires him to sit or stand for more than a few minutes. His care, my recovery from a c-section, and the care of our 3 children as we go into the school year with our eldest being homeschooled prevent me from working as well at this time.

We've applied for SSDI for him but the process for this can take upwards of 4 months to be approved and begin receiving benefits for. Unemployment insurance requires that you be able to work and be actively searching for a job to receive benefits from it. Long term or short term disability would require that his job have not laid him off prior to the diagnosis and inability to work.

Stage 4 esophageal cancer has a low rate of survival past 5 years - only about 5-10% - and is very aggressive. Once chemo starts, we're hopeful that this will eventually go into remission due to his age allowing for more aggressive treatment of this cancer, but the time we will be without a steady income is longer than we anticipate our emergency funds lasting.

Anything helps. we set our goal at about what 6 to 7 months of bills typically cost us for a family of 4. Hopefully by that time, SSDI will kick in, Josh will be able to at least sit long enough to create content for his YouTube channel (Broke Daddy Gamer) during treatment, and we will have a rhythm down for our family to allow me to build up our extremely tiny reselling revenue stream to cover our bills.