This story begins last summer. My father, John Alukonis, was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer was contained in his mouth, on his tongue and his cheek, as well as the back of his throat. After a long surgery, the doctors removed all of the cancerous masses out of the region as well as a number of lymph nodes from each side of his neck to ensure that the cancer had not moved into his lymphadic system. This is the reason for his new scars which are pictured. The doctors believed that they had removed all of the cancer, gave him a clean bill of health and told him that he had nothing to worry about.Fastforward a couple months and my dad starts to have symptoms similar to before he was diagnosed the first time. He went to the doctor again and found out that the cancer was back. This time it was in the area around the back of his jaw. In the middle of September, he had another sugery to remove the cancer again. This time they removed a mass over an inch and a half long, numerous other masses and a tooth to get to the mass that was located below it.The first time they thought that they got it all and it came back but this time though they wanted to do things differently and make sure that they got all of it. They decided to do radiation therapy 5 times a week for 7 weeks along with chemo therapy once a week. On October 29th he had his first radiation treatment(pictured below), followed by his first round of chemo therapy.As you can see from the picture, my dad's will is strong and he is ready to fight this cancer. We are very hopeful that this time around that we will be able to get through this and never have to go through this again.Which comes to why I have turned to this website and all that I have seen it can do to help people. With the amount of time that my dad has already had to take off of work for his surgury alone, the bills are starting to back up. Now that the radiation and chemo have started, he is going to have to miss even more work. The doctors said that the radiation treatments will not start to affect him until about the 2nd or 3rd week of treatment. The chemo therapy though, he already missed two days of work because of it and that was just the first time. He has chemo every Thursday and a follow up appointment on Friday since the chemo treatment he gets really dehydrates the body. Along with having to pay for 30% of the medical bills, they are in need of any help that they can get since they are only going to get farther behind.If you can help my dad and mom in any way possible, they, along with the rest of our family, would be eternally greatful to you. Any little bit would help but if you cannot afford to help, we completely understand and ask that you could keep my dad in your thoughts and prayers.Thank you for reading my dad's story and thank you for all of your help, kindness and generosity.
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