Todd Hicks family and friends are coming together to raise money to help with medical and travel expenses for he and his wife Lori.

I met Todd when I was 16 years old. I just knew he was meant to be mine forever. Even at 16 I knew this.Todd was so calm, and kind, and quiet. I was rowdy, loud, and busy. We were two total opposites. He was the calm and I was the storm. He listened to rock music, I listened to country. He wasn't much of a talker, and I can't shut up. He was happy just working on his car on a pretty day, but I had to be playing softball. He was the other half of me, as I was the other half of him. He could calm me down, and I could rile him up. Our complete differences are what completed us. Todd and I got married in March of 1988. No one thought we would make it. I wish I had a dollar for every bet that was made that this marriage would fail. I would be a very wealthy person. We had our first son in September of that year. Yes we were a young couple but we fought and we fought hard to be good parents. I was told I probably would not be able to have more children due to endometriosis, so if we wanted another child we better do it now. I had 2 surgeries to get pregnant with our second son. So now we are a young struggling couple with 2 children. It just made us that much stronger Todd worked hard so I could be a stay at home mom. We raised 2 wonderful boys, and now we can finally have "our" time. I knew as long as we were together everything would be ok. It is now September of 2013 and our world just fell apart. 
Todd was 47 in June of 2012 when diagnosed with colon cancer. He Was having very minor symptoms, but it was time for a physical any ways. So we made an appointment with his Dr. After going through all the symptoms, the Dr. Said let's do a colonoscopy just to be on the safe side. As I was in the waiting room our Dr. Came out and I knew something was wrong. He didn't come talk to me like he had the other people waiting. He asked me to follow him to a private room. He said Todd has a very large mass in his colon, and he had seen enough in his years to know that this was cancer. So the whirlwind began. Our first CT scan showed a 12 cm tumor in the lower colon, it was cancer. But Thank the Lord the rest of his CT scan was clear. Our next step was to get into the oncologist. With in a week we met Dr. Mac. He had a plan and we were ready to work it. First things first you need a port for the chemo. Went in for a port, and something was not right. The next day we had to go to the hospital. Had to have another CT scan. Well guess what, you now have a blood clot in your arm from the port. Port was removed right there on the spot. Todd had to be put on blood thinners. We started chemo anyway's. He did 5 fu in combination with radiation to try to shrink the tumor. We did 6 weeks of chemo and radiation. During this time they put a port on the other side of his chest, and that was a success. After letting Todd heal for 6 weeks, we were ready for surgery. In October of 2012 we had surgery. The Dr. Said it went perfect. He removed all of the cancer, which had shrunk to 2.5 cm and 17 lymph nodes. He gave Todd a temporary colostomy to let the colon heal where they reconnected him. Hospital stay should be 3-5 days. While in the hospital Todd got an infection in his incision. They had to remove the staples to let him heal from the inside out. On day 11 they let us come home with home health care to care for the wound. After a couple of weeks the incision was not any better. We ended up back in the hospital for 5 days due to infection. We were sent home with a wound VAC. And more home health care. Finally incision was healed. We can now go back in and and reverse the colostomy. That surgery went well. But after all the infection Todd had lost about 25 pounds. We are now 3 months behind on follow up chemo. We finally start our new chemo. FolFox 6. Todd was not doing well on this chemo. Lots of side effects. Todd developed a hernia from the incision. SO back to the surgeon we go. While visiting with the Dr. Todd was telling him he was having trouble going to the bathroom. So we had a CT scan done and it showed narrowing of the colon. Decided we should go in a dilate the colon. Dr. Came out said it looked like post radiation thickening. Nothing looked out of the norm. But did biopsy to make sure. Well pathology came back showing cancer. But we just had a CT scan, how can this be cancer. Our oncologist said that " stump recurrence does happen" so Dr. Mac got us set up on a new treatment plan. FolFiri. After 3 rounds of that we decided to do another scope. Yep still cancer. So with our oncologist we decided to stop chemo and just go in and remove the infected part of the colon and go with a permanent colostomy. We had a pet scan done and it showed cancer in the liver. What the liver, this is new...and possibly in the pelvis. We just had 2 CT scans in a 3 month period. OK how is this possible. This was suppose to be a cut and dry process. So once again we had the rug pulled out from under us. We had new decisions to make. We received a call from our oncologist that he would like to refer us to MD Anderson in Houston, Texas for treatment. He said our small town just doesn't have the resources we need to help Todd fight this. So what do you say? Of course we will go to Houston. We will go anywhere to give him the best shot of beating cancer. The only problem is we are 14 hours away from Houston,and we are about to be first time grandparents in November. We will have to live there for at least 6 months or more. Now MD Anderson does have a hotel attached to their hospital that is 135.00 a night. Well who can afford that. So we now have to think of other lodging options. Besides who wants to live in a hotel and have to eat out every meal for that amount of time. So other options are finding a small apartment, where we can at least have family come visit, and try to live somewhat normal. I married Todd when I was 18 years old. We have been married for 25 years, and have 2 boy's. Well now grown men !! I am not ready to plan my husbands funeral, and I want our granddaughter to know her grandpa! This is suppose to be "our" time. This is what we have worked so hard for! Our oldest son just got his first teaching job, and is going to propose to his girlfriend of 4 years. Our youngest son is about to make us grandparents. Yet here we are faced with another battle. But I still believe as long as we are together we will win this battle to. He will calm my storm of emotions, and I will rile him up to win this fight. Just like we did all those years ago.