Quoted:
Wow.

I don't know what to say right now.  The wife and I are both floored to be honest.  She really wants to post something from her own account and we are in the process of creating one. We just need site staff to approve it and she'll do so.

In the meantime, I want to take a moment to thank you all. This post might be a bit long, so I understand if you skip it.

TLDR: Just know that we appreciate you. Seriously and sincerely.  Thank you most for the good wishes and prayers.

NOT TLDR:

Ok, here goes - I have to be honest with you - this whole thing makes me incredibly uncomfortable.  I am not one to ask for help and am usually the one who does the helping. I know many of you understand how I feel. But my good friends @AZNetEng  @RINO_Hunter spent the better part of the day talking sense into me.  I was preparing to go at this alone and to sell, mortgage, and liquidate whatever I had to in the process.  They helped me understand that to be hard headed and go about things that way would be selfish to my family and self-serving to my ego. So I relented and let them run with this project.

I'm just going to try to be gracious about this blessing and say thank you - on behalf of my entire family.  You guys are relieving a lot of pressure with your generosity and I'm absolutely floored by the response.

Theres a lot more information about Mila's case in the team thread, but for those of you without access, here are the details:

Mila is 8 years old. She was diagnosed with Stage 2B Osteosarcoma on November 18th. We are fortunate that we caught it before metastasis, because this cancer tends to go to the lungs, and once it gets there.....please just pray it doesn't go there. I don't even want to think about that. Once that diagnosis is made, parents have to start thinking about "making arrangements" for their kid. The kind of arrangements that no parent should have to make.

We found her tumor by a miraculous accident that I will explain later. Or you can read it in the team thread.   We have since been fortunate enough to end up in the care of some amazing doctors in a fantastic hospital.

Mila is 7 weeks into 10 weeks of chemotherapy.   There are 6 sessions in these 10 weeks, and we spend 3-5 days in the hospital for each session.  She is receiving the MAP protocol for those interested in knowing.

She is responding well to the treatment. Very minimal nausea, she's still eating well and keeping her weight up and hasn't developed a fever or needed a blood transfusion yet.

Mila will need surgery to remove the tumor, though. This kind of cancer can't be treated by chemo alone and doesn't respond to radiation. The surgeons are confident that they can save her arm, but she's going to lose a lot of function and there is still a risk of amputation.  They really won't know until they get in there.  

We're struggling to decide on an approach. The prevailing recommendation is a called a vascularized fibular head graft.  @xanadu had it right. They'll probably need to harvest her fibula with the growth plate from her leg and transplant it to her arm.  The other option is mover her ulna to where her radius is.  The whole radius needs to be removed.  Two of the best surgeons in the world have made contradictory recommendations, so its making the decision difficult to reach.

After surgery Mila will need another 6 rounds of chemo in 10 weeks, and it's not uncommon to need another 9 weeks after that.

Our son's situation is a little more straightforward.  He has a growing tumor on his cheek near his jaw.  It looks benign and appears to be in superficial tissues, but it needs to come out (and be biopsied) before it grows into nerves or important blood vessels.

Tony wasn't wrong either.  The costs are significant.  We almost hit our family OOP max in 6 weeks at the end of the year.  And the insurance just reset, so we're on the hook for the entire OOP max again this year. And that's just for the direct Healthcare costs. This ordeal has had a financial impact in many other ways that we couldn't imagine before.

Beyond that,  this whole situation has been extremely stressful, heartbreaking, and an emotional roller-coaster. At one point, Mila looked me in the eye an asked me if she was going to die from cancer.  And I had to stay strong at that moment, smile and say no, absolutely not.  It was the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life and I hope nobody else here ever has to deal with something like that (or deal with that again).

Team - we appreciate your support more than we can communicate.  And we are absolutely convinced that Mila is doing so well because of all the prayers, good vibes, and support being sent her way, so please keep it up!

One more thing - I want to reinforce something very important that Tony said in the GFM post.  Your support will go exclusively to the family's Healthcare costs and expenses directly related to their care. If there is anything left over after this ordeal, it will be paid forward to another worthy family or organization like St. Judes.

If you have any questions just ask.  My wife will be along shortly to say a few words of her own as soon as her account is approved.

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/276753/20220107_233527_jpg-2232546.JPG

ETA: Fuck Cancer

Quoted:
Wow.

I don't know what to say right now.  The wife and I are both floored to be honest.  She really wants to post something from her own account and we are in the process of creating one. We just need site staff to approve it and she'll do so.

In the meantime, I want to take a moment to thank you all. This post might be a bit long, so I understand if you skip it.

TLDR: Just know that we appreciate you. Seriously and sincerely.  Thank you most for the good wishes and prayers.

NOT TLDR:

Ok, here goes - I have to be honest with you - this whole thing makes me incredibly uncomfortable.  I am not one to ask for help and am usually the one who does the helping. I know many of you understand how I feel. But my good friends @AZNetEng  @RINO_Hunter spent the better part of the day talking sense into me.  I was preparing to go at this alone and to sell, mortgage, and liquidate whatever I had to in the process.  They helped me understand that to be hard headed and go about things that way would be selfish to my family and self-serving to my ego. So I relented and let them run with this project.

I'm just going to try to be gracious about this blessing and say thank you - on behalf of my entire family.  You guys are relieving a lot of pressure with your generosity and I'm absolutely floored by the response.

Theres a lot more information about Mila's case in the team thread, but for those of you without access, here are the details:

Mila is 8 years old. She was diagnosed with Stage 2B Osteosarcoma on November 18th. We are fortunate that we caught it before metastasis, because this cancer tends to go to the lungs, and once it gets there.....please just pray it doesn't go there. I don't even want to think about that. Once that diagnosis is made, parents have to start thinking about "making arrangements" for their kid. The kind of arrangements that no parent should have to make.

We found her tumor by a miraculous accident that I will explain later. Or you can read it in the team thread.   We have since been fortunate enough to end up in the care of some amazing doctors in a fantastic hospital.

Mila is 7 weeks into 10 weeks of chemotherapy.   There are 6 sessions in these 10 weeks, and we spend 3-5 days in the hospital for each session.  She is receiving the MAP protocol for those interested in knowing.

She is responding well to the treatment. Very minimal nausea, she's still eating well and keeping her weight up and hasn't developed a fever or needed a blood transfusion yet.

Mila will need surgery to remove the tumor, though. This kind of cancer can't be treated by chemo alone and doesn't respond to radiation. The surgeons are confident that they can save her arm, but she's going to lose a lot of function and there is still a risk of amputation.  They really won't know until they get in there.  

We're struggling to decide on an approach. The prevailing recommendation is a called a vascularized fibular head graft.  @xanadu had it right. They'll probably need to harvest her fibula with the growth plate from her leg and transplant it to her arm.  The other option is mover her ulna to where her radius is.  The whole radius needs to be removed.  Two of the best surgeons in the world have made contradictory recommendations, so its making the decision difficult to reach.

After surgery Mila will need another 6 rounds of chemo in 10 weeks, and it's not uncommon to need another 9 weeks after that.

Our son's situation is a little more straightforward.  He has a growing tumor on his cheek near his jaw.  It looks benign and appears to be in superficial tissues, but it needs to come out (and be biopsied) before it grows into nerves or important blood vessels.

Tony wasn't wrong either.  The costs are significant.  We almost hit our family OOP max in 6 weeks at the end of the year.  And the insurance just reset, so we're on the hook for the entire OOP max again this year. And that's just for the direct Healthcare costs. This ordeal has had a financial impact in many other ways that we couldn't imagine before.

Beyond that,  this whole situation has been extremely stressful, heartbreaking, and an emotional roller-coaster. At one point, Mila looked me in the eye an asked me if she was going to die from cancer.  And I had to stay strong at that moment, smile and say no, absolutely not.  It was the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life and I hope nobody else here ever has to deal with something like that (or deal with that again).

Team - we appreciate your support more than we can communicate.  And we are absolutely convinced that Mila is doing so well because of all the prayers, good vibes, and support being sent her way, so please keep it up!

One more thing - I want to reinforce something very important that Tony said in the GFM post.  Your support will go exclusively to the family's Healthcare costs and expenses directly related to their care. If there is anything left over after this ordeal, it will be paid forward to another worthy family or organization like St. Judes.

If you have any questions just ask.  My wife will be along shortly to say a few words of her own as soon as her account is approved.

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/276753/20220107_233527_jpg-2232546.JPG

ETA: Fuck Cancer

Quoted:
Wow.

I don't know what to say right now.  The wife and I are both floored to be honest.  She really wants to post something from her own account and we are in the process of creating one. We just need site staff to approve it and she'll do so.

In the meantime, I want to take a moment to thank you all. This post might be a bit long, so I understand if you skip it.

TLDR: Just know that we appreciate you. Seriously and sincerely.  Thank you most for the good wishes and prayers.

NOT TLDR:

Ok, here goes - I have to be honest with you - this whole thing makes me incredibly uncomfortable.  I am not one to ask for help and am usually the one who does the helping. I know many of you understand how I feel. But my good friends @AZNetEng  @RINO_Hunter spent the better part of the day talking sense into me.  I was preparing to go at this alone and to sell, mortgage, and liquidate whatever I had to in the process.  They helped me understand that to be hard headed and go about things that way would be selfish to my family and self-serving to my ego. So I relented and let them run with this project.

I'm just going to try to be gracious about this blessing and say thank you - on behalf of my entire family.  You guys are relieving a lot of pressure with your generosity and I'm absolutely floored by the response.

Theres a lot more information about Mila's case in the team thread, but for those of you without access, here are the details:

Mila is 8 years old. She was diagnosed with Stage 2B Osteosarcoma on November 18th. We are fortunate that we caught it before metastasis, because this cancer tends to go to the lungs, and once it gets there.....please just pray it doesn't go there. I don't even want to think about that. Once that diagnosis is made, parents have to start thinking about "making arrangements" for their kid. The kind of arrangements that no parent should have to make.

We found her tumor by a miraculous accident that I will explain later. Or you can read it in the team thread.   We have since been fortunate enough to end up in the care of some amazing doctors in a fantastic hospital.

Mila is 7 weeks into 10 weeks of chemotherapy.   There are 6 sessions in these 10 weeks, and we spend 3-5 days in the hospital for each session.  She is receiving the MAP protocol for those interested in knowing.

She is responding well to the treatment. Very minimal nausea, she's still eating well and keeping her weight up and hasn't developed a fever or needed a blood transfusion yet.

Mila will need surgery to remove the tumor, though. This kind of cancer can't be treated by chemo alone and doesn't respond to radiation. The surgeons are confident that they can save her arm, but she's going to lose a lot of function and there is still a risk of amputation.  They really won't know until they get in there.  

We're struggling to decide on an approach. The prevailing recommendation is a called a vascularized fibular head graft.  @xanadu had it right. They'll probably need to harvest her fibula with the growth plate from her leg and transplant it to her arm.  The other option is mover her ulna to where her radius is.  The whole radius needs to be removed.  Two of the best surgeons in the world have made contradictory recommendations, so its making the decision difficult to reach.

After surgery Mila will need another 6 rounds of chemo in 10 weeks, and it's not uncommon to need another 9 weeks after that.

Our son's situation is a little more straightforward.  He has a growing tumor on his cheek near his jaw.  It looks benign and appears to be in superficial tissues, but it needs to come out (and be biopsied) before it grows into nerves or important blood vessels.

Tony wasn't wrong either.  The costs are significant.  We almost hit our family OOP max in 6 weeks at the end of the year.  And the insurance just reset, so we're on the hook for the entire OOP max again this year. And that's just for the direct Healthcare costs. This ordeal has had a financial impact in many other ways that we couldn't imagine before.

Beyond that,  this whole situation has been extremely stressful, heartbreaking, and an emotional roller-coaster. At one point, Mila looked me in the eye an asked me if she was going to die from cancer.  And I had to stay strong at that moment, smile and say no, absolutely not.  It was the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life and I hope nobody else here ever has to deal with something like that (or deal with that again).

Team - we appreciate your support more than we can communicate.  And we are absolutely convinced that Mila is doing so well because of all the prayers, good vibes, and support being sent her way, so please keep it up!

One more thing - I want to reinforce something very important that Tony said in the GFM post.  Your support will go exclusively to the family's Healthcare costs and expenses directly related to their care. If there is anything left over after this ordeal, it will be paid forward to another worthy family or organization like St. Judes.

If you have any questions just ask.  My wife will be along shortly to say a few words of her own as soon as her account is approved.

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/276753/20220107_233527_jpg-2232546.JPG

ETA: Fuck Cancer

Quoted:
Donated in honor of my daughter, and her mission, expressed on her coffee mug:

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/211357/tiny_humans-2232802.jpg

Keep it rolling, Arfcom!

Quoted:
Every donation counts - I personally have sworn off eating $50 worth of Milky Way Midnight bars in order to make a second donation to this VERY WORTHY CAUSE.


BUMP

Quoted:
Wow - Thank you Anon. What an awesome gift!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-parents-worst-nightmare-children-with-cancer?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

Quoted:
Wow - Thank you Anon. What an awesome gift!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-parents-worst-nightmare-children-with-cancer?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

Quoted:
Wow - Thank you Anon. What an awesome gift!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-parents-worst-nightmare-children-with-cancer?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet