I need help getting through Cancer
Donation protected
I am a self employed Registered Massage Therapist(RMT). I love my profession and I love seeing the positive impact I have on the lives of many of my patients. I have been fighting with Thyroid Cancer since 2012. Up until this fall it has always just been another surgery approximately every 3-4 years. There was always the hope that "this one would be the last one". Well, this time around it didn't stay put. It got into my SCM (sternocleidomastoid) muscle near the original infection site, as well as into a bunch of lymph nodes. This prompted my Oncologist to convince me to go for deep beam radiation therapy this time after the surgery. (My main picture is me strapped into the machine). This is a 30-35 treatments, 5 day a week, course. After he explained how much worse this could potentially get if I didn't get the radiation treatment done, I agreed.
At this point, I don't know what to think. I'm several weeks into the treatment, and it's both quite painful and going to continue to get worse for several more weeks. Basically it's like sticking my neck in a microwave. The outside of my neck gets redder and redder, the inflamed tissues inside my neck get worse and worse. I'm at the point now where I can't even swallow a multivitamin, I have to crush it and mix it into some soup. I pray that I will be able to do this ONCE and be cancer free(shouldn't 4 surgeries and 1 course of radiation be enough?); I don't think I could agree to start radiation again if I had to.
Anyway, the reason I'm coming here now and not at the beginning of this ordeal, is because I wanted to try and see if there was any chance my bank account could hold up. Unfortunately, between the pain, fatigue and other side effects of the radiation, it's impossible to do any kind of work right now, and I won't be able to for months; even choking down food is a battle due to the pain and swelling in my neck. The lead up and treatment span over a period of 2-3 months, and after having talked to many of the professionals at the Cancer Agency, the most common point at which people have recovered enough strength return to work is 6 months post treatment. Some people take up to a year to reach that point. With my other underlying conditions and physical job, it may take me a bit longer, but for now I'm grabbing hard onto that 6 month post treatment marker and praying it won't be any longer.
I try to be self-sufficient, but between my medication costs and not being able to work for 8-9 months, it's just not going to be possible to pay for all of this without selling my condo along the way. The last prescription I filled was for only 2 drugs and that was $619 dollars; that won't be the last big bill. Every month I borrow more and more against my equity, and in the not too distant future, that will run out. I've set my goal at $20k, but that's over the course of this whole thing. Two or three thousand right now would make a big difference to the choices I'm having to make about which medicines I can afford to buy, and which I can't. Still, any amount helps.
May you all be blessed with happy and healthy lives.
At this point, I don't know what to think. I'm several weeks into the treatment, and it's both quite painful and going to continue to get worse for several more weeks. Basically it's like sticking my neck in a microwave. The outside of my neck gets redder and redder, the inflamed tissues inside my neck get worse and worse. I'm at the point now where I can't even swallow a multivitamin, I have to crush it and mix it into some soup. I pray that I will be able to do this ONCE and be cancer free(shouldn't 4 surgeries and 1 course of radiation be enough?); I don't think I could agree to start radiation again if I had to.
Anyway, the reason I'm coming here now and not at the beginning of this ordeal, is because I wanted to try and see if there was any chance my bank account could hold up. Unfortunately, between the pain, fatigue and other side effects of the radiation, it's impossible to do any kind of work right now, and I won't be able to for months; even choking down food is a battle due to the pain and swelling in my neck. The lead up and treatment span over a period of 2-3 months, and after having talked to many of the professionals at the Cancer Agency, the most common point at which people have recovered enough strength return to work is 6 months post treatment. Some people take up to a year to reach that point. With my other underlying conditions and physical job, it may take me a bit longer, but for now I'm grabbing hard onto that 6 month post treatment marker and praying it won't be any longer.
I try to be self-sufficient, but between my medication costs and not being able to work for 8-9 months, it's just not going to be possible to pay for all of this without selling my condo along the way. The last prescription I filled was for only 2 drugs and that was $619 dollars; that won't be the last big bill. Every month I borrow more and more against my equity, and in the not too distant future, that will run out. I've set my goal at $20k, but that's over the course of this whole thing. Two or three thousand right now would make a big difference to the choices I'm having to make about which medicines I can afford to buy, and which I can't. Still, any amount helps.
May you all be blessed with happy and healthy lives.
Organizer
Bruce Lamb
Organizer
Vancouver, BC