Hi Everyone! Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated on Todd's Fierce Fight with Colon Cancer in one place. We appreciate your prayers, support and words of hope and encouragement during this very difficult time. Thank you for visiting.
As many of you know, after a CT Scan and Colonoscopy Todd was diagnosed with Stage 3 Colon Cancer in early February of this year. He has a large, 13 cm (size of a grapefruit) tumor in his lower (Sigmoid) Colon. Due to the size of the tumor, the doctors decided a more involved chemo, radiation, and surgical treatment plan was necessary. On March 3rd, Todd had surgery to place a temporary diverting ileostomy bag as the tumor is blocking the majority of the flow through the colon. Although, uncomfortable and cumbersome the ileostomy bag allows Todd to eat foods that will help him gain some weight and give him the much needed nutrients during chemo.
Todd then started his 4 months of I.V. chemo on March 17th, with the hope that this would start to shrink the tumor immediately. However, after 6 weeks of Chemo a MRI indicated that the cancer had actually now spread to two very small spots in the liver. This was devastating news as now the cancer had spread to another organ and was now considered Stage 4 Colon Cancer. Thankfully, the doctors concurred that the spread of cancer to the liver is minimal and they are confident that the cancer can be surgically removed without affecting liver function. However, before they can do any surgery Todd needs to start his long and difficult treatment plan all over again.
His new treatment plan is as follows; On May 4th Todd started over with 4 months of very aggressive I.V. chemo that causes vomiting, immense fatigue, hair-loss etc. with the goal of stopping the cancer from spreading further and to shrink the tumor in his colon, The hope is in 8 weeks or so that he will take a break from chemo and have surgery to remove the cancer from his liver. Once he has recovered with the liver surgery he will resume the I.V. chemo and then 6 weeks of Radiation (M-F) and a chemo pill. The doctors are hoping that the chemo and radiation will have stopped the spread of the cancer and shrink the tumor in his Colon by 70-80%. Once the tumor has reduced in size, the surgeon will go ahead with the Colon Resection surgery. They will completely remove the Sigmoid Colon and the enlarged lymph-nodes in an effort to completely remove all of the cancer. After a two month recovery, Todd will then have a final surgery to remove the ileostomy bag and reattach the colon.
As you can see, Todd has a very long and difficult fight ahead of him but it is a Fierce Fight that he has every intention of winning!!! We ask that you please continue to pray for healing , strength, and peace for Todd, the kids, and the entire family during this unbelievably difficult time. Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you all. We love you!❤️
On a side note, we have had several people ask how they can offer financial support to Todd and the kids. Some have asked about the tribute button on the caring bridge page. The “Tribute” button donations go directly to Caring Bridge.com to support their web site, it does not go to support Todd. You are welcome to support Caring Bridge in that way, however we have set up a GoFundMe Campaign link below if you would like to support Todd directly. Thank you!
https://www.gofundme.com/f/todd-johnsons-fierce-fight?utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&rcid=1edae329cdca4ff982b38d8ee40fa50b 
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