Cancer Sucks!

Hello to the world! Today I am creating this page for my husband John. John was diagnosed with a rare Parotid Salivary Gland Cancer in 2016. He had, had a large tumor the size of a baseball growing on his face for over a year. With his first go around fighting this cancer, he had to have all of his teeth removed, due to the fact that the radiation after his surgery would basically kill them off. Then he had the surgery to remove the tumor in Sept 2016. 13 weeks of radiation followed. After radiation, he had to be fitted for dentures. Here is a pic of John before the surgery. You can see the tumor on the left side of his face. ***WARNING*** some pictures are graphic....Viewer discretion advised!

What is Parotid Salivary Gland Cancer you may ask?

You can find out about his cancer here>>> https://cancer.org/cancer/salivary-gland-cancer/about/what-is-salivary-gland-cancer.html

John is now Stage III

I noticed a small lump on his left cheek in Nov 2017. The same cheek he had the tumor removed from. John's job doesn't offer insurance and he couldn't get any though the state. So we had to wait to save money for him to go to the doctors. The lump on his face started to grow very rapidly and then a sore appeared in the middle. Within a few weeks, his cheek started to split open and his face started to swell so badly that his left eye was almost completely swollen shut. We went to the Doctor asap and they did a biopsy. His cancer had returned and it is very fast acting this time. Not only was there a lump, but the left side of his face, neck, underneath his chin and down to his chest/collarbone area has become riddled with cancer. Here is a photo of his face as the cancer started to eat away at him. The top sore is the lump that we noticed and the bottom is where it started to eat away at his skin.

John and I eventually had planned on getting married in the future, but since he didn't have insurance and I did, we did a courthouse wedding in May. Well, I went to add him on to my insurance and found out, that my insurance had been cancelled due to none payment of the premiums. ( I had fallen at work and had to have a knee surgery so I have been out on workers comp and didn't realize my job wasn't paying the insurance premiums and wasn't told that I was supposed to make the payments!) So now, we have no insurance. John has been undergoing chemo to kill and shrink the mass growing on his face. He will have to have a skin graft operation to fill everything back in. He can not wear his dentures right now do to the chemo causing his jaw to lock up. The chemo causes him such pain throughout his bones, but this man, this funny, loving man hardly ever complains. He goes to work everyday, gets stares and mean comments from people who couldn't possibly understand what he is going through, but he still posts a large smile on his face and will make you laugh in a minute!

This past week we got our very first shocker in regards to how much cancer treatment really costs with out insurance. We got our first bill in the mail. It is for $16,000! This was just for 3 chemo treatments a CT-scan and his medications! John has to have 8 total first, then he has to get a scan to see if the cancer has shrunk enough for the doctor to do surgery. IF it hasn't, then he will have to undergo a more potent chemo, plus more radiation. After that, then another scan, and then surgery.

I want to let everyone know that we have applied for the grant that Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tn. offers. The assistance program only covers his medications. We are still responsible for all his blood work, doctor visits, CT-scans and his chemo/radiation treatments. We have also tried to get him Medicare/Medicaid and the state offered health care called Tenncare. He is not eligible for any of these programs. This page is our last resort. The money that we are asking for to help, will cover about half of what will be needed. John's chemo treatments, scans, doctors visits and blood work tests every week will cost about a total of $90,000. The surgery itself, I am unsure of how much it will cost!

Would you all help John be able to get his operation? He will need all of this asap! No one should ever have to fight cancer with out insurance. Please, if you can not help by donating, could you share this on your Facebook page, blog, forums, twitter....any social media?! Please help my husband get his new face! We thank you so very much!

I made a hashtag for my husband of >> #savingface #cancersucks