Support for Stage 4 Cancer Battle

Hi there friends,

Over the last year, I have been experiencing health issues that have slowed me down and drained me. In November, I was finally able to get coordinated with my insurance and doctor and get in to see a gastroenterologist. While I was getting checked out, they found a tumor in my lower colon. The day before my birthday, results from the biopsy came back positive for cancer. Since then, I have been moving through a process involving lots of MRIs, CT scans, blood work, and other procedures, including a liver biopsy to evaluate an additional metastasized tumor about the size of a baseball found in my liver. This discovery classifies me as having stage 4 colorectal cancer. This fundraiser is to help me pay my bills associated with my treatment and any costs that rise from lost wages and inability to make new work and bring it to market.

I am rapidly heading towards chemo, which is tentatively scheduled to start at the end of January, and at the moment, my oncologist is scheduling me for 3-6 months of chemo, followed by surgery to remove affected tissue in my liver and colon. Then there will be more MRIs, CT scans, and blood work. While I am fortunate enough to have insurance through the ACA marketplace and some support through the Denton Music & Arts Collaborative, my income is still not enough to pay the anticipated bills. I haven't even started to see the bills for chemotherapy medications yet and have no idea what they are going to cost me. I have been working as an adjunct at three different colleges, working side jobs, and selling my artwork, but that has really only been enough to make a humble living. With chemo slated for the next 3-6 months and then surgery, I am anticipating not being able to do as much and really having to pull back on my studio time and side hustles. While I will be teaching two classes, I don’t know how much energy that will leave me with to make and sell my work, and let's be honest, two classes worth of adjunct teaching is not enough to live on, especially with medical bills. I did a quick Google inquiry of colorectal cancer treatment costs for my area, and I’m seeing numbers that are 3-4 times what I make in a year. In the last 8 weeks, I have already paid or been billed for nearly $6000. So here I am asking you for help. I feel like I try to give back to my communities whenever I can, and now I am finding myself in need of your assistance. I have set up a GoFundMe to help with medical expenses for the duration of my treatment, and if you can, please make a donation. I will also be reopening my online store if you would like to buy pieces from me. Any little bit that you can assist me with would be helpful. So thank you in advance, and please feel free to reach out.

Day to day right now, I am occasionally emotionally spent and am still processing a lot of the implications of this diagnosis. This is a hard and scary thing to go through for anyone, and I’m not going to lie, it keeps me up at night. Other than that, I have been struggling with digestive issues for over a year now, and some days are better than others, but there is a lot of discomfort that comes with having a tumor in your colon, which constricts your digestive system. I have been consulting with my doctors about medications and diet to help improve this, but it still leaves me in a fair amount of discomfort from day to day. I think that emotionally, it's hard to share this with the people around me. I am pretty tired of telling people I know that I have cancer. I don’t want sympathy, but finding ways to invest in connections and communities I think would serve me better in the long run.

Love you all and go get those colonoscopies sooner than later, my friends.

GoFundMe wants me to post a cost breakdown so here is a rough breakdown of me trying to estimate costs when I do not see how much things are going to cost until the day of or day before I am slated for that procedure.

Colonoscopy - 1011

Colonoscopy Anesthesia - 1300

MRI - $1400 (x2 already and there are more in my future)

Outpatient Infusion Therapy Facility Fee - $500 (3-6 months worth so $3000-6000)

Outpatient Infusion Professional Fee - $50 (3-6 months worth so $300-600)

FOLFOX (medication) ???? cant find a price for this but in 2018 it was listed at 12,345 in Washington State by American Health & Drug Benefits. I am unsure if this is a single dose or 3-6 months.

Anti Nausea Meds - $28 for 10 doses

Liver Biopsy - 1200

Anesthesia for Biopsy - 300

Surgical Fees - 80

Port Installation - 1,673

Anesthesia for Port Installation - 300

Surgical Fees - 880

Blood work & Genomic Mapping - 300

Oncology Visits - 325 (to date)

Liver Resection - 20,000-26,000 ???

Rectum Resection - ??? Depends on location as best I can tell.

If you add all of that up (using a middle of the road estimate for the chemo and assorted fees with it) and leaving out rectal surgery then I calculate around 47000. Add to that extra fees that come with using facilities, doctors fees, and the fact that I will likely be missing out on income from teaching any summer courses and you can easily add another 13K to that and easily hit 60,000. My original estimate was based on a low end search of the average cost of colorectal cancer.