Scrapping Cancer

I remember I was at my daughter's parent teacher's conference.  I got a call from my sister, who through her tears, told me that my nephew had been diagnosed with cancer.  I'm pretty sure getting hit in the head with a brick would have been less surprising.  My 15 year old nephew, my brother's son, has cancer.  No one else in our family had cancer.  Ok well, melanoma.  We're all of northwestern European descent - Irish, Scottish, English, German.  We don't do sun.  But melanoma caught early almost never kills you.  But this was different.  This was lymphoma and that definitely could kill you.  And that's what rang through my head when I heard the news - No one in our family has cancer!  We don't have risk factors for cancer (except melanoma)!  What is going on?

We still don't know what is going on for sure.  At this point we know its T-cell lymphatic cancer.  It hasn't spread to his bone marrow, his spinal fluid looks good, and the doctors were pretty sure that it was contained to the lymph nodes under his jaw.  That's all fine and well - all that stuff. But as anyone who has had or has known someone with cancer, cancer's only the tip of the iceburg.  He's dealing with fluid around  his heart and lungs, with kidneys that are malfunctioning.  Having to get naked in front of female nurses!  Its all so overwhelming to me, I can't image what its like for him.  The doctors that have seen him have all had encouraging words for us.  Its as good as it could be if its going to be cancer, which to me really is like them pointing up to a mountain peak where the sun is peeking over and saying, "Once you get to the top, you'll be fine."  Its great that you can see the peak, the sun.  But you still have a long way to get there.  And its going to be hard, frustrating, terrifying, hurtful, and altering that as you go along you just hope its all worth it.

For about the next month or so, any bit you donate, or any direct donation made to my PayPal will 100% go to Gabriel's hospital fund.  I'll donate it for as long as he's in the hospital, which from optimistic estimates will be for at least a month.  Let's mitigate the nausea my brother and sister-in-law will feel when they get the bill for the hospital when he gets better.  If you'd rather go a more direct route I've also included a link for his YouCaring fundraiser below.  Any little bit helps - seriously.

Team Gabe You Caring Fundraiser

~~~   Scrappywheelz   ~~~