My name is Martin and I was diagnosed with Polycythemia Vera, an incredibly rare form of chronic blood cancer that is non curable and only medically manageable. 

Now, as a lot of you already know that I have had other numerous underlying medical issues within the last several years and we could never get a clear picture from any competent doctor of what was really happening to me and it only took one particular doctor to see between the gray lines that something was not adding up correctly. My family and I owe her our lives!!

On July 21st of this year I had another major heart-attack and that's when doctors started seeing a bigger picture that was not clearly normal, which lead them to investigate further with the help of specialists.

When doctors state to you that they can't even do anything more surgically to start fixing other issues like the gallbladder removal, kidney surgery, liver, bypass surgery or stenting due to the potential of survival rates are very questionable due to this. 

As of this moment, unfortunately a countdown clock on my life is ticking fast and I want to do whatever I can to slow that down. It's scares the hell out of me and I would love to continue to watch my children and grandchildren grow-up. 

Unfortunately, I just lost my mother to Stage 4 Cancer on October 30th who was one of my lifelines backing me financially with out of pocket expenses amd helping my family and me.

Now with no longer having this extra financial backing, it is very hard. I have been battling with Medicaid and United Healthcare Insurance nonstop and even had to get a disability attorney involved, but this takes sometime.

Just most recently, we had a Physical Therapist come to our home for evaluation as it has been very hard on me to be able to walk these days without almost collapsing. I was listed as 100% disabled based on all of my underlying medical issues and will now be using a Motorized Wheel Chair Seat to get around. We will now have to have a accessible ramp be built onto the home and also will need a lift/ramp for our vehicle to transport this with me when I need to go out to appointments. The cost of this will run nearly $3000 alone.

Now, there's a way that they can slow this down through so medical management called Therapeutic phlebotomy, which is a procedure used to reduce the hematocrit in PV patients and prevent further complications. This would be performed every few weeks or even months until the hematocrit reach to lower levels to manage PV effectively. There's no cure, only the ability to extend life, which is our goal. There is several other treatments they are going to attempt as well, but we have to take baby steps to see how my body can handle this first steps.

Between that, the mountain of medical co-pays for what insuranc is not covering, medical equipmen needed and being out of work since March with these ongoing health issues, money has been a little tighter for my family and me than my pride has allowed me to admit. We have been fortunate to get over some of the obstacles, but now it is even harder.

We humbly and sincerely share our gratitude to all of those of you who are willing to join with me in contributing to this cause. Your generosity is appreciated at levels we're unable to express.

Benefits process has been started, but it is not very easy in an immediate position.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.