Tom Cardwell celebrated his 32nd birthday, January 2013. He celebrated with is wife of 7 years, Heidi, his 3 year old daughter, Bristol and their unborn child who is due to arrive June 28th. Tom had been experiencing back pain regularly all Fall and Winter, but chalked it up to just working hard. The first weekend in February he began passing blood in his urine. Tom went to the emergency room in Douglas, Wy. There they took a CT scan and found some irregularities with his kidney. Tom had already scheduled an appointment with a kidney specialist in Casper for the following day. So, he took the copy of the CT scan with him to see the specialist the next day.

After seeing his kidney specialist, they then determined that Tom had a tumor on his kidney and should have it biopsied right away. After several days of waiting for the results, it was confirmed that Tom did indeed have Renal Cell Carcinoma. A surgery was scheduled right away to have that particular kidney removed as well as anything else in the area that seemed to be infused with cancer. The surgery went well, the kidney was extracted. The size of the tumor that had taken over his kidney was the size of two fists of a grown man. It was also known then that some lymph nodes in the area were also known to have cancer. However, due to the location of these particular lymph nodes it was deemed too risky for Tom to have them removed during this particular surgery.

Tom healed up pretty quickly from the surgery, considering he had had a major organ removed from his body. Having know that he still had lymph nodes that were infected with cancer, the Casper oncologist referred Tom to the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, CO. The team in Casper felt he would be better taken care of down there as there are doctors that specialize in the particular cancer that Tom has.

Tom's case was brought before a tumor board down there and it was determined that the best route for Tom at this time is to undergo chemotherapy first. The idea is to shrink these lymph nodes in the area enough to make surgery a little less risky. A date has note been set for this at this time, as the doctors want him to completely heal from his surgery before beginning chemo therapy.

Tom and his family are very determined to beat this cancer and come out stronger on the other side.

A fundraiser is in the planning stages to help this wonderful family with the added expense of traveling out of town for medical care.  The event will be held on May 24th and will include an auction in conjunction with a dance at the Shrine Club in Casper.  More details will be coming soon.

So save the date and if you or anyone you know has something they would like to donate to the auction  you can let us know by calling one of the following:

Peggy Price  -  265-2818
Casey Price  -  267-1505
Jamie Harkins - 267-4944
Kim Furnival  -  234-7834

Thank you for your prayers and support of this family.

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