Rick Flowers Fundraiser

I am starting this Go Fund Me on behalf of my parents. To be honest, they will probably be a little embarrassed and put off by me doing this. My parents aren’t typically the type to ask people for help. But I know they could use it.

My Dad has been diagnosed with a Grade 4 Glioblastoma. In Layman’s terms….he has brain cancer. The prognosis is not good. You can look it up, but to summarize, it is a terminal diagnosis.

Last September he had a couple of issues with speaking and word recall. After an emergency room visit and a transfer to Edwards Hospital, he was diagnosed with having a stroke and underwent stroke protocol. Fast forward to November and it happened again. This time they found a brain tumor. (He never had a stroke in September. It was the tumor bleeding all along.) He had a craniometry and they got like 99% of the tumor. The crappy thing is that no matter how much of the tumor they got, it grows back.

The tumor was growing where the speech center is, so he now has aphasia. He knows exactly what he wants to say, but sometimes there’s a disconnect between his brain and getting the words out. He also struggles with texting to people. Thank goodness for the talk-to-text feature.

After the craniometry, they started him on 6 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy right before Christmas. He is currently on what they call Chemo maintenance. He does chemo for like 5 days in a row and then has 28 days off. He had another MRI this past Friday and next week they find out what’s going on with the cancer and if it’s growing yet.

The crappy thing is that it's just a matter of time. It will spread and grow. The unanswered question is when and how much time does he have left.

My Dad retired from Kendall County Sheriff’s Office and my Mom can retire in a couple of years from Sandwich Police Department. They have both worked their whole lives with the idea of moving to Tennessee or Missouri to start living “The Retirement Dream” when they were both done working. I hope and pray, but I don’t think they are ever going to get that.

Even with insurance, I know my parents are struggling with paying medical bills and there’s not much left over for anything else. I want them to be able to make memories and at least be able to enjoy what time is left. The way it is right now, they do not have the means to do that.

My Dad means everything to me and if by some small means, this helps them with some of their medical bills and allows them to make a few more memories along this journey, I am honored to do this for them.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and please include my Dad in your prayers.