Welcome to our family!

Hello, friends and family! Thank you so much for stopping by to support our son, Ben, as he fights stage 2 cancer. For those of you who don't personally know Ben, I'll just tell you that he's the son of my heart. Ben is an amazing talented artist who's usually liked by everyone who meets him. He's adored by his 10 year old brother, Daniel, more than words can say. Ben's the child I found on top of the refrigerator at 4 years old and the same one who at 23 I had to fuss at to stop playing with the medical equipment in his hospital room. He's funny, kind, and has a smile and blue eyes that make your heart stop. Simply said, he's our boy.

In August, Ben was rushed to Regions Hospital for an emergency appendicitis. The surgery went well, but they found a cancerous tumor (2.6 cm neuroendocrine carcinoid) in his appendix. After some additional testing including a colonoscopy, the doctors have determined that the best course of action will be to remove the ascending right portion of his colon along with the surrounding blood cells and nymph nodes/glands. After surgery the pathologist will check to see if and to what degree the cancer has spread. His surgery is scheduled for Oct. 5, 2009 at 7:30 am here in Minneapolis. He'll be in the hospital for a week and will be out of work for 6 weeks (baring the need for any additional surgery).

If the surgery doesn't show any additional cancer and there aren't any complications, Ben will follow up with the oncologist to plan for the future. We don't know anything about potential chemo or radiation yet except that chemotherapy hasn't been found to be effective for this type of cancer. We do know that he'll have to "make friends" with the idea of frequent colonoscopies.

Currently Ben has insurance through Health Partners at his work. Although we're thankful for having something, his plan is a minimal one and has recently been changed so that many tests (ex. MRI's, CAT scans, bloodwork...) are 100% out of pocket. He currently owes over $5,000 just from his appendix and pre-op procedures. We're trying to raise $25,000 to cover this, the cost of the upcoming surgery, living expenses, and some future treatments.

If possible, please pass Ben's site along. People can visit this site to make financial contributions. The contributions are made through Chip In and Pay Pal and are totally secure - no amount is too small, and everything is appreciated. If you would like to help, but have concerns about online payments, please contact me at bethhein@aol.com. For facebook fans, visit Ben's cause at http://www.facebook.com/groups/edit.php?gid=131817074247

I'm sorry if this sounds like begging, but we're just a simple parents who love their son and want him to be healthy without the fear of finances.

Thank you in advance for all of your prayers, words of encouragement, financial support, and for spreading the word about this site. God bless you, Beth & Mark Hein (aka Ben's mom & dad)