Karl's Battle Post Cancer Surgery
Donation protected
Hi, my name is Karl, and this is my story.
A little over a year ago, I remember being rushed to the hospital by my daughter. This was after I had just gotten home from having a CT scan by order of my urologist. Apparently, my bladder was being obstructed & was 3 times the normal size. I had a catheter put in and they drained 5000ml of fluid from my body, losing 35lbs in the process. I remained living with a catheter for the next 31 days. My urologist suggested a procedure that would allow me to have the catheter removed during this time & would perform a biopsy of my prostate at the same time. Unfortunately he didn’t perform the procedure properly, so I had to remain living with the catheter because of his error. Towards the end of February, my biopsy results came back and the cause of the obstruction was prostate cancer. He removed the catheter, but I still had to self-catheter every time I needed to pee. The urologist was promptly fired as he gave no real solution other than “many people live like this.”
Finding another urologist, his eyes grew wide in disbelief when I told him what I had been through so far on my journey with cancer. He performed the procedure again, this time properly & came up with a battle plan to treat my cancer. I started hormone suppression therapy & was scheduled to have my prostate removed by robot. All this time, through what would be 5 hospital stays & 3 surgeries, hormone suppression therapy and an 8 week course of radiation therapy, I hadn’t given a thought to what the bills would be because we had health insurance. Silly me. The bills came pouring in, with a tally of $12,000...that I had to pay...with health insurance. Some of the bills would allow payment plans, and we took advantage of that right away, but that was a small portion of the total debt we owe.
All through this, I was finding, with the treatment post surgery, I was becoming weaker, not able to sit very long, or stand, or lift things I was once able to lift, which made working very difficult. I’m a graphic artist/cartoonist, so sitting for long periods of time is part of the job. But I was unable to sit for long & so was not able to work, which isn’t very good when trying to run a business.
Turns out a side effect of the hormone suppression therapy was a loss of muscle mass. And with a loss of muscle mass, my knees began to hurt, now I’ve always had bad knees, but they would ache for a few days to a week, but then get better. But with the loss of muscle mass, my knees went from hurting once in a while to all the time, making it difficult to walk or move around. Xrays revealed I now have advanced arthritis in one knee & moderate in the other. Doctor said right away, knee replacement surgery. I said, nope, I’ve had enough of hospitals for now & would try to regain my muscle mass in my legs via exercise.
I’m able to sit for longer periods of time, but not as long as the job demands, which leads to a loss of income, which doesn’t help when you have a large pile of medical bills to pay. Throw in 2 of my dogs having health issues (to the tune of $2000) and then my wife’s car having issues. With all this happening, we also face the home owners insurance renewal coming due as well as the property taxes next month ($5000 combined). Needless to say, we just don’t have that kind of money to spend as we’re pouring all income to pay the medical bills, plus the many other bills we had, and feed ourselves and our dogs. Which is why I’m starting this gofundme campaign.
Our goal is $20,000. This would allow us to pay the home insurance & property taxes, so we can keep our house, have my wife’s car repaired so she can get to and from work reliably, and to pay the medical bills that have piled up to date. 2019 is a year I would like to put behind me, and your kind contributions would help me kick it to the curb.
Battling cancer, as you know in this country, is not cheap, and I have 1 more year of the hormone therapy that I know of, but don’t know what else I will encounter on this journey. But this goal will help us now, we’ll worry about the future later.
Please help if you can, and spread the word. Thank you so very much!
A little over a year ago, I remember being rushed to the hospital by my daughter. This was after I had just gotten home from having a CT scan by order of my urologist. Apparently, my bladder was being obstructed & was 3 times the normal size. I had a catheter put in and they drained 5000ml of fluid from my body, losing 35lbs in the process. I remained living with a catheter for the next 31 days. My urologist suggested a procedure that would allow me to have the catheter removed during this time & would perform a biopsy of my prostate at the same time. Unfortunately he didn’t perform the procedure properly, so I had to remain living with the catheter because of his error. Towards the end of February, my biopsy results came back and the cause of the obstruction was prostate cancer. He removed the catheter, but I still had to self-catheter every time I needed to pee. The urologist was promptly fired as he gave no real solution other than “many people live like this.”
Finding another urologist, his eyes grew wide in disbelief when I told him what I had been through so far on my journey with cancer. He performed the procedure again, this time properly & came up with a battle plan to treat my cancer. I started hormone suppression therapy & was scheduled to have my prostate removed by robot. All this time, through what would be 5 hospital stays & 3 surgeries, hormone suppression therapy and an 8 week course of radiation therapy, I hadn’t given a thought to what the bills would be because we had health insurance. Silly me. The bills came pouring in, with a tally of $12,000...that I had to pay...with health insurance. Some of the bills would allow payment plans, and we took advantage of that right away, but that was a small portion of the total debt we owe.
All through this, I was finding, with the treatment post surgery, I was becoming weaker, not able to sit very long, or stand, or lift things I was once able to lift, which made working very difficult. I’m a graphic artist/cartoonist, so sitting for long periods of time is part of the job. But I was unable to sit for long & so was not able to work, which isn’t very good when trying to run a business.
Turns out a side effect of the hormone suppression therapy was a loss of muscle mass. And with a loss of muscle mass, my knees began to hurt, now I’ve always had bad knees, but they would ache for a few days to a week, but then get better. But with the loss of muscle mass, my knees went from hurting once in a while to all the time, making it difficult to walk or move around. Xrays revealed I now have advanced arthritis in one knee & moderate in the other. Doctor said right away, knee replacement surgery. I said, nope, I’ve had enough of hospitals for now & would try to regain my muscle mass in my legs via exercise.
I’m able to sit for longer periods of time, but not as long as the job demands, which leads to a loss of income, which doesn’t help when you have a large pile of medical bills to pay. Throw in 2 of my dogs having health issues (to the tune of $2000) and then my wife’s car having issues. With all this happening, we also face the home owners insurance renewal coming due as well as the property taxes next month ($5000 combined). Needless to say, we just don’t have that kind of money to spend as we’re pouring all income to pay the medical bills, plus the many other bills we had, and feed ourselves and our dogs. Which is why I’m starting this gofundme campaign.
Our goal is $20,000. This would allow us to pay the home insurance & property taxes, so we can keep our house, have my wife’s car repaired so she can get to and from work reliably, and to pay the medical bills that have piled up to date. 2019 is a year I would like to put behind me, and your kind contributions would help me kick it to the curb.
Battling cancer, as you know in this country, is not cheap, and I have 1 more year of the hormone therapy that I know of, but don’t know what else I will encounter on this journey. But this goal will help us now, we’ll worry about the future later.
Please help if you can, and spread the word. Thank you so very much!
Organizer
Karl Kleese
Organizer
Hollywood, FL
