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Imagine feeling a dull pain under your armpit that won’t go away. You make an appointment to see the doctor. Initially he diagnoses it as a pulled muscle, but decides to schedule an ultrasound to be sure. Your employer covers you under workers’ compensation, so for the time being things are running pretty smoothly in terms of getting the medical appointments you need.

The following week, you become a bit concerned when your doctor tells you that the ultrasound shows it’s a solid mass, not a pulled muscle. You undergo a painful surgery and the mass is removed and biopsied.

During your post-op appointment with the doctor, your worry turns to fear when he shares with you

The Code 3 Crew will never forget.

The Code 3 Crew salutes the brave

men & women of the U.S. armed forces.

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We added this hit counter to our site on May 6, 2008. Thanks for visiting and we hope you will find the site informative in describing our mission. If you have any questions or comments, please contact our webmaster at code3foracure@hotmail.com. Wishing you good health and peace,

 

- The Code 3 Crew -

the biopsy results: It’s CANCER. Not just any cancer, but a rare, highly aggressive one called leiomyosarcoma. Your doctor also tells you he needs to schedule you for a second surgery right away to make sure he’s removed all the cancer, due to the highly aggressive nature of your particular cancer. Your whole life and career pass before your eyes. “Is this really happening to me?” you ask yourself.

Just when things couldn’t get any worse, your employer denies your claim for workers’ compensation benefits once they find out it’s cancer and not a pulled muscle, claiming the cancer is not job related. Now, on top of fighting for your life, you are forced to begin a secondary battle against your own employer to try to prove that your cancer is job related in the hopes that you can receive the timely medical care you need.  In the meantime, now that  your employer has denied your claim for benefits, you have to rely on your HMO insurance for the surgery, and a whole month passes before you finally get through the medical red tape and receive the HMO’s approval for the surgery you so desperately need; by that time, the tumor has grown back to the size of a golf ball and has spread. 

Following your second surgery, you receive a recommendation from one oncologist that your right arm and part of your chest wall be removed because the pathology report shows that the surrounding tissue has been been infiltrated by satellite cancer cells.

Sound like a nightmare? Well, that’s exactly what happened to Firefighter Lorenzo Abundiz, two-time cancer survivor and CODE 3 FOR A CURE Founder. Cancer cut short his childhood dream, but Lorenzo is determined to continue helping others by organizing this mission of hope. Read more about the mission at About Code 3.