My name is Hayden, I’m a 50 year young married father of 4.

Back in November, my wife purchased us body scans as a preventative measure, intending the to be Christmas gifts. But she was unable to contain her excitement and spilled the beans and we decided not to wait until after Christmas but to go ahead and get them done before Thanksgiving.

Her scan was pretty clean, just a few tiny kidney stones.

MY scan on the other hand unveiled a 3.6cm mass in my right lung lower lobe. At that moment, we held our breath but quickly decided to be optimistic about it with a lot of prayers that it will turn out to be benign.

And so began a 60+ day journey, several appointments, different specialists, multiple scans, pokes & prods and surgery #1, biopsy.

The Biopsy determined that I had Stage 01B Adenocarcinoma.

Surgery #2, Right Lower Lobectomy (Removal of entire right lower lobe).

Once recovering in ICU, my stay extended a little more than expected due to the fact the chest tube could not be removed without the lung collapsing. So eventually I was sent home with the chest tube still in me for another week.

Several weeks later came Surgery #3 to install Chem-Port in my chest to start Chemo. 

 

To date I’ve had 1 round of chemo and it was not pleasant :( . They started me with 4 sessions, 21 days apart, so 1 down 3 to go and I hope that wraps it up for awhile. Chemo round 2 is April 20th.

From my perspective, the saddest part of all this was what my wife and children silently but bravely experienced.

It was December when I had my Biopsy procedure. 
Our anniversary is late December (this being our 18th year). 
Her birthday is the day after our anniversary, which also just happened to be the day we got confirmation it was indeed malignant. 
In an effort to lighten the mood, upon hearing the news I said “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” (didn't think that through). 
Oh and not to mention Christmas in the thick of it all as well.

Needless to say those all had to take backseats to my cancer…which absolutely crushed me. After all, this woman SAVED MY LIFE!! If not for her gift, I wouldn’t have known until it was too late.

My mother passed in Feb 2020 from stage 4 lung cancer, she only found out when she started getting chronic neck pain, because the cancer had spread everywhere. she was given 6-8 months but barely lasted 30 days. And now I’m being treated in the very same cancer center I was taking her for her radiation.

I’m a very private, proud, and humble man that has never asked for anything. But at this point I must swallow my pride and ask for help. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your consideration.