My name is Michelle and I am the proud mother of 2 amazing human beings: my daughter Megan and my son Julien. This LFEBridge is about my baby boy, Julien, who in December of 2024, found out he had testicular cancer. By law, at 26, you are no longer able to stay on your parent's medical insurance plan, so his dad, Jimmy, looked for a plan that he could afford (back in August when he turned 26) and this was the plan he was on when he found out about the cancer. We took action right away and decided to be as aggressive as possible. In January 2024, my son had his testicle removed, but the next scan showed it had spread to his lymph nodes and chemo was the next course of action. My son had a port put into his body in February and chemo started in March. The doctor recommended chemo which would be every 3 weeks for 5 days straight. His father, Jimmy, and I took turns taking off from work so one of us would always be there with him throughout the treatment. At first, we thought he would be one of the lucky ones and would get through this with minimal side effects, but we were wrong. By the 2nd round of chemo, his hair started falling out and he decided to shave his head. He was also extremely nauseous, tired, and could barely get himself out of the treatment chair. In addition, his white blood cell count dropped to a dangerous number and extra medicine had to be administered to help him be able to continue with the chemo. His body was fighting hard to keep this poison out. We went through the next 3 months just like this, repeating the 6+ hours of sitting in the hospital for 5 days straight, my poor son throwing up everything he ate, and being listless for days on end. In April 2024, in the middle of his chemo treatments, we received a letter from his insurance company saying they were not going to be paying for his treatments because Julien had a pre-existing condition. I couldn't understand what pre-existing condition they were talking about that had to do with cancer, but when I read further we discovered it didn't have to do with the cancer. They were using Julien's weight against him and saying that it was above their limit for coverage. I couldn't believe that 8 months after accepting his enrollment, they were now saying he was over their proclaimed limit for coverage. They would not be paying any of the costs for any of his treatment. We were devastated! All along thinking we were good to go and would have just the extras, which there always are, to pay at the end. We quickly reached out to the social worker at Advent Health and she referred us to a company that would help us find insurance that would cover the rest of his treatment, albeit very expensive insurance, because now he really did have a pre-existing condition. Julien was covered by a new insurance as of May 1st, thank God, but none of the costs from December through the end of April are being covered by insurance. We were warned that a huge bill was coming at the end of all of this, but our concentration was on getting our son well, not on the bills. We continued to go through the chemo cycles with him until he had his last one at the end of May. Two weeks into June he had his first post-chemo scan and it was the happiest day of my life so far! The scans showed that he was cancer free and officially in remission. During the first week of July, they removed his port and he now has follow-up scans every 3 months for 3 - 5 years to make sure the cancer does not come back. Although this story has a happy ending, there is a caveat. My poor son, who has worked so hard all his life NOT to be in debt or put us in debt (he graduated from UCF with full scholarships) was handed the final bill from the hospital for almost $70,000 for all his treatments the insurance didn’t cover. He was still recovering from the chemo and trying to keep his mental and physical health in mind, so his father and I took on the mission of figuring out how to pay for this outstanding bill. We began applying to all kinds of charitable organizations. I am not the kind of person to ask for help, but that's what it had unfortunately come to. His dad has been a policeman/deputy for over 35 years and I've been a teacher for over 28 years. We do not have the funds to pay this kind of medical bill and of course, our 26-year-old definitely does not. We were fortunate enough to have one of these organizations pay off $50,000 of his debt thank god! But we are still not out of the woods and that is why I’m starting this GoFund Me! We are asking for help from all of our friends, family, and anyone who has had someone go through this. If you've gone through cancer and especially the chemo treatments, which they should call poison, you know how devastatingly hard it is on everyone. Then, on top of that, you are left with all the finances to figure out. Any donation, big or small, will be VERY much appreciated by our family. Just as we're in the business of public service, we are now asking the public to help us. Thank you.
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