Support Dave's Battle Against Stage 4 Cancer
Hi I am Diana Groome, Dave's wife. We started the journey with Dave in April 2024 when he was first diagnosed with TMJ. By the time they realized it was cancer it had progressed to Stage 4 tongue and throat cancer with a tumor wrapped around his carotid artery and jugular vein.
He was taken to Pittsburgh Hospital for a trach and a feed tube then to Williamsport at the beginning of August 2024 for 35 radiation and 6 chemo treatments. We spent the weekdays in Williamsport and weekends home.
Since then, he was home 2 weeks first part of November and caught pneumonia and spent 2 weeks at UPMC Cole in Coudersport for treatment, at that time he rolled over on his feed tube and it came out so they had to replace it. It was leaking so they sent him to Williamsport. Then after a few weeks there they discharged to home, but he was too weak to go up our stairs to get into the house so that night was taken to Penn Highlands Elk in St Marys where he stayed for more time and then transferred to Pittsburgh again to check the feed tube. From there he spent time at Sweden Valley Manor for rehab. He was discharged in mid-January and last week was taken to the ER again in Coudersport for Pneumonia, severe dehydration, sodium levels 172 sky high and then discovered MRSA in his blood stream, yesterday they put a separate port in to administer another antibiotic for the MRSA for 4 weeks.
At present he is being taken to Sweden Valley Manor again for MRSA treatment and rehab. At the moment we owe $5,000 to UPMC and they tell us that he has used his time allowed at Sweden Valley so they will bill us $214 a day for the time he needs to stay there at present. A lot of money and we don't qualify for any benefits. We are traveling, doctor appointments etc.
I'm sure a lot of you know all this that have been through it. If you can help at all, we would appreciate it. What you see in the picture on the page is Dave ringing the gong following his radiation and chemo treatments. He has a final pet scan this coming week to determine his cancer is all gone. So far 2 tests indicate that it is, but this is the for sure thing.
Diana Hastings Groome
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