Dad's Cancer Journey

Hi, as many of you know, our father, John Fuchs, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in January. They found a good sized tumor which needed to be removed.

April 8th, Dad had surgery for his removal. The surgery took 8 hours, they removed about 14" of his colon and got all of the cancer out! They also removed 22 lymph nodes and ended up needing to add an ileostomy bag. He will find out in mid-June if he's cleared to have the ileostomy bag removed, it will depend on how well his colon is healing.

April 10th, we heard from pathology that all 22 lymph nodes are cancer free! This was the best news we could have asked for. It means NO chemo and NO radiation! Victory- they removed all of the cancer!

After a rough hospital stay, Dad was able to come home on April 16th!

He's happy to be home and able to recover comfortably but his life has been severely disrupted with this diagnoses and his journey to recovery is far from over. For the next few months Dad will not be able to work, with his benefits not covering nearly anything for them. He will then need another surgery to remove the ileostomy bag which is another week long hospital stay and not being able to work following this surgery. We're anticipating him being out of work a total of 4-5 months this year so he can get healthy!

Mom has been by his side for all of his appointments and was there during most of his hospital stay and is now out of vacation days and not being paid whenever she takes off to be with him at these important visits.

We're asking for any help you can give to help them cover the costs for his current medical treatments and the ones to come this year. The hospital Dad is going to is 1.5 hours from home and the gas to/from is also something they could use help with. They could also really use the help to cover their basic monthly needs for their mortgage, utilities, etc...

The loving support from family and friends has been overwhelming. We are eternally grateful for everyone who has been checking in on him.

We would like to add that any remaining money that isn’t used towards his medical bills and mortgage will be donated to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. https://colorectalcancer.org/

With love and gratitude,

Abbey (Mike), Heather (Tony), Tucker (Sam), and William (Grali)