For those who know Collin, just the thought of him puts a smile on your face. And if you haven’t met Collin, you’re missing out!! He’s a gem!!! He's a smart, loving, wonderful husband and father, and lover of nature!

Therefore, it pains me to write this, Collin was diagnosis with Stage 3b intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) and more commonly known as bile duct cancer after identifying two lesions in an April 2022 MRI that was tracking his long time existing liver disease. Collin has been under medical care at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) ever since and has undergone many tests and procedures including MRIs, CT scans, EKG, ultrasound, X-ray, biopsies, endoscopies, colonoscopy, portacath install, PET scan, audiogram, targeted radiation (TARE), chemotherapy and immunotherapy. None of these procedures occur near Collin's home, they are all downtown Chicago. Ever since April, Collin has continued to work to the best of his ability when he is not undergoing treatment. 

The goal is to reduce the size of the tumors, stablize the cancer progressions, lower the cancer markers and qualify for a living donor liver transplant (LDLT). Unfortunately UIC does not currently have a program that considers transplant for patients with iCCA; therefore, Amber and Collin have sought a second opinion after reading an article about a woman with the same cancer getting a transplant at the University of Chicago (UC). Collin is currently being monitoring by UC and based on scans coming up at the end of the year, might be approved for a formal evaluation for transplant. 

The road ahead will be filled with many more doctor visits at UIC, tests, multiple treatments, possible hospital stays, days off recovering and resting and when he’s kicked the cancer, he’ll get a liver transplant, which means a 4 to 6 month recovery out of work, anti-rejection meds for the rest of his life, continuing scans and tests and added costs for his liver donor. As you can see Collin & Amber will have a large financial burden ahead of them, all while raising their beautiful daughter Coral.
 

If you can make a donation to help them in the months and years to come, our family will forever be thankful. If you can’t, we completely understand, instead please send positive thoughts, pray for him, add him to your church’s prayer list… any little bit of good will help. 

Below are details that Collin and Amber wanted to share. From my whole heart, thank you all so much for your support! The crowdfunding platform we chose has the lost costs to donors, if you'd prefer to send money directly to the Verbicks please DM me.