Strength In Numbers

        You never expect or want to hear a doctor say you have cancer. Unfortunately, on May 14th one of our best friends Andrew “Square” Esguerra received the devastating news that he had stage 3 Adenocarcinoma cancer. Andrew is the one of those guys that you can say he’s a true friend and we’re here for him and want to help out in anyway we can. 

        I’ve been living with Andrew for the past year and at the end of January he started to complain of abdominal pain. After a couple of visits to the doctors they eventually diagnosed him with Ulcerative Colitis. He started to receive treatment but the pain started to spread to his lower back and rectum. Andrew went back to the hospital and after spending two weeks in the hospital he was given the news that he had cancer.  Adenocarcinoma means the cancer started in the glands that line the inside in one of his organs. Fortunately for Andrew, the cancer has not spread to other parts of the body or metastasized. Thankfully the cancer is operable and removable but it is pretty rare to find this form of cancer at such a young age. He was told that he needed to start treatment right away. 

        Unfortunately for Andrew, due to the health conditions he was unable to work during these tough times and therefore has no insurance. Now we all know medical bills are very expensive already, but having no insurance makes the situation worse. He is working on getting insurance now, but being pre-diagnosed as well as having no income is making it tough on him and his family. With Andrew having to do radiation therapy and chemo therapy 5 days a week, bills are piling up fast. 

        The plan for right now for Andrew is to finish his radiation therapy as well as chemo to shrink the tumor as much as they can, and then have surgery to hopefully remove the cancer completely. After surgery, he is scheduled to have more chemo therapy as well. After talking with Andrew, I know chemo and radiation has already taken a toll on his body as he is feeling the side effects and has lost 30 pounds already. 

        I have set up this Gofundme campaign with Nick Lell, Alicia Iannone, and Craig Thom to help raise money for his treatment. We as his friends need to let him know how much we care about “Square” and that he’s not fighting this terrible disease by himself. It’s going to be long journey of ups and downs, but hey we’re from Philly, so let’s “Trust The Process” and kick cancers ass.