Urgent Help Needed for Bladder Tumor Surgery

Ms. Pam and I met through a virtual faith-based fellowship. Over the past year, Ms. Pam and I have built a friendship over frequent WhatsApp messages. Through much pain, she has been able to gracefully maintain communication—vulnerably sharing her struggles with chronic pain and the frustrations of trying to get proper treatment within Trinidad’s public healthcare.

Below is the timeline of her illness:

(This is a video of Ms. Pam explaining it in her own words)

In March of 2022, I developed urine and bowel incontinence due to damaged discs Lumbar L3 and L4 compressing on the nerves. The hospital clinic sent me to do various tests - 5 MRIs, 1CTscan and 4 ultrasounds. The doctor had to insert a catheter because the urine was uncontrollable and I couldn't manage the situation. 

In May 2022, I started seeing blood and sediments in the catheter. I notified the doctor and he said it was only a little irritation the catheter is causing and the sediments could be a sign of bladder stones. He sent me to do an ultrasound and there were no stones found. 

The heavy flowing of sediments through the catheter eventually eased but then fleshy bloody substances started flowing through the catheter and that was a cause for concern to me, so I told the doctor and he sent me to do another ultrasound in October 2022 but the cause could not be found. All this time I am in a lot of pain and the urologist couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. 

In August 2023 the urologist sent me to do an ultrasound and a CT scan. I got the results for the CT Scan and still the problem could not be found. To this date, I haven't received the ultrasound report. Every time I go to the radiology department, they keep telling me the report has been misplaced and to check back in two weeks' time. 

On my clinic day which was October 2023, the urologist told the nurse that he could not see me because I didn't have a report and the clerk then said she cannot give me another appointment to see the urologist, although I explained my condition. 

While I was home crying out to God about this situation, the Holy Spirit revealed to me to go to a specialist privately and I did so with faith not knowing where the funds would come from. The Lord put three good friends in position to help me with the specialist and the cystoscope procedure so the doctor could see what is causing the bloody fleshy substance to pass through the catheter. To his surprise, he found a tumour that is aggressive and spreading in the bladder and it looks like so many tumours but it is that one tumour that is behaving in an aggressive fashion. 

The specialist said it is a matter of urgency to do a surgery as soon as possible to prevent the cancer from spreading from the bladder to the rest of my body. 

He sent an estimate to do the surgery, which I am sharing with you:

Surgeon Fee — $18,000 TT

Institutional Cost — $17,000 TT

Anaesthetic Cost — $4,500 TT

We have the goal of raising this amount of money by the end of January. Kindly help us reach this goal; every little counts. The funds will be wired to Ms. Pam since she is unable to host a GoFundMe from Trinidad.