Support Troy Davis in His Battle Against Glioblastoma

Troy Davis is our Stepdad, rather step-up dad, as he has always treated us like his own and been there for us. We love him very much. His grandchildren adore him and he loves watching his grandkids grow up, that is one of his pure joys in life.

On September 9, 2022, our lives changed forever. On September 9th 2022, Troy’s life was drastically changed forever driving “Truck” as he would call it. Troy drove “Truck” all his life, 39 years to be exact. He was driving his dump truck for work and had just got done dumping at the site. He was heading back for another load when suddenly he saw smoke and the brakes on the trailer caught fire. Troy got out and quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher and rushed to put the flames out. He looked down to check and see if he got it well enough, to the point where he was laying right by the tires, when suddenly the tires exploded from the heat. Troy was then rushed to the ER by ambulance, lucky to be alive. He had/has tire shrapnel and had burns all over his face, neck, chest and arms. They rushed him in for an MRI and CT scan to make sure there was no internal bleeding. We were all so glad that he had survived. As we waited for him to be released, we all received some very unexpected news, the MRI showed something none of us expected.

The scans showed a large mass on the right side of Troys brain. We were told that a different doctor would be in to talk to us more about what it might be. Sitting there in disbelief, trying to process what had just happened with the tire, now we had a new diagnosis to process. The room became silent as thoughts flooded our heads. As the new doctor came in, we were nervous and we had a right to be. It was an oncologist, a cancer doctor, suspecting that it was a malignant brain tumor. These are all the answers we had until we followed up with a specialist in neuro-oncology weeks later. The specialist solidified that it was indeed a malignant brain tumor, just not certain the type, and the option to remove it was not on the table as it was spread too far and too much through his brain. There were then two options we could choose from, leave it alone and do another scan in several months or we could do a biopsy to figure out exactly what we were dealing with. We went home and discussed the options and we decided to go back in to meet with the specialist to ask questions and finalize our option to do the biopsy. The surgery required Troy’s skull to be removed above his right ear and a metal plate to be placed. This surgery caused him to be out of work for a little while to heal. On top of this surgery, he was also experiencing shoulder pain from the tire explosion. Getting back in the “Truck” was really hard and uncomfortable, though that’s all he knew from age 18, finding another source of income was difficult.

Meanwhile Troy kept trucking to provide the second source of income that they desperately needed to pay bills. As life moved on with questions, we finally received a call that the biopsy results had come back so we went and met with the neuro-oncologist. The results were slightly frustrating as they didn’t point to a certain type of brain cancer, so now we felt we were in limbo and questioned the biopsy. They still had an abundance of tissue they could sample so they sent it off to several resources to study what it might be. The even more interesting thing was he had no symptoms of a brain tumor. The nuero-oncologist suggested starting radiation and chemo so that we could maybe shrink it or even stop it from growing. Troy decided to get ahead of this while we could and decided to go ahead with the radiation and a pill form of chemo to try to combat the tumor. The appointments he had to make it to required him to take a lot of time off. As treatment went on Troy became really fatigued and it was really hard to drive "Truck" requiring him to take days off. Missing work because of fatigue and missing work because of all the required appointments made for a lot of lost wages.

In February 2024 Troy began to decline. More questions arose and the tumor began to change a lot from the MRI scans he’d been getting every four-six months. Troy became weaker and through the course of the months and by June he became even more fatigued, even a lot of noise would make him tired. He had a lot of edema in his brain and it was making him lean to the left. We have found out that the brain tumor has officially transitioned to a Glioblastoma. He has been doing IV antibody treatment hoping it would slow or stop the growth. He hasn’t been able to drive "Truck" since end of December and my mom, his wife Jill, became the sole provider for them. He has since declined even more, he is very unstable on his feet, he has to have 24-hour care to get him food, sitting to standing, and all of the daily tasks. Troy has had several falls and EMT visits. He has also encountered a few ER visits within a month’s time. My mom has been lucky enough to be able to work from home a few days a week and we rotate taking care of him. For the past 2 years they have been trying to make it work with my mom Jill working overtime and extra hours. Also being so young he hasn’t been able to be on Medicare. It just seems that the medical bills just keep flooding in and mounting up and has become so overwhelming and discouraging. That being said, we would love to try and relieve some of the financial burden so that my mom can focus on Troy's care. We are planning a couple fundraisers but I have also opened a go fund me and added Venmo information if you would like to donate in any way, even sharing Troy's story would mean the world to them and the family.

Kaydee and Megan

Thank you so much for all the love and support for our family during this difficult time. We are so grateful.

Love Troy, Jill, Kaydee, Kade, Megan, Paul, and grandkids

Troy’s Venmo account is

@Troy-Davis-327