Day: January 22, 2023

Fig’s Fight Go Fund Me Link

FIGS FIGHT Friends and family of Rich Figurido is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Richard Figurido.

***THE FIG’S FIGHT TEAM- friends and family of Rich Figurido, have created this fund to support our amazing friend Rich and his family, during the fight for his life against stage 4 Melanoma****

Most people have not been aware that Rich is even sick. He has been working, performing and looking/sounding great but has had many struggles in the background.

This is the history up to where he is at today:

⁣In September of 2019, Rich was diagnosed with stage 3b melanoma. He began his journey at Mass General Hospital with Dr. Howard Kauffman and his team at the cancer center. They removed large tumor on his back and a few axillary lymph nodes (armpit). 2 nodes came back positive for melanoma. 

He then began targeted at home treatment.
2 weeks later, he was experiencing high fevers and shakes. He was instructed to stop his treatment. They started him on Keytruda, an intervenes immunotherapy every 3 weeks that had to be done at MGH.

He continued to have scans every 3 months while receiving treatment until a tumor showed up in his axillary lymph nodes again. He had surgery to remove 27 lymph nodes around the large tumor. After a brutal recovery, Rich had clear scans for almost 11 months.

Then the cancer returned; and this time it hit an organ (his left kidney) and was diagnosed as  stage 4. They removed the tumor and began a different intervenes treatment. 
He had one infusion and got very sick. It took 8 weeks, multiple ER visits, and many medications to get him back to feeling “normal”.  When they rescanned, the tumor on his kidney was back, so his team decided to try and shrink it with a clinical trial treatment that his oncologist was very hopeful for.

Rich was the first human infusion of this new trial, and he felt great the first 3 months he was receiving it. However, when they rescanned, the tumor had grown. The trial was unsuccessful and he was taken off of it. They were afraid if they tried to remove the tumor again, they would spill more cells and make it worse, so his team tried the last FDA approved treatment option they had.

This was a treatment similar to first one and he could take the medication at home. 2 weeks into it he spiked a 106.4 fever and became very sick. They were hoping they could lower the dose and keep him on a low steroid to prevent the fevers, but after multiple dosage changes they knew it wasn’t going to work.

Rich woke up one morning in a ton of pain and ended up in the hospital for 4 days. The tumor on his kidney had grown so large, it was hemorrhaging and causing all sorts of problems. They decided the only option was to remove the whole kidney and Rich had the kidney removal surgery on October 31st of 2022. ⁣ ⁣

Unfortunately, Rich is out of preventative treatment options. Because the tumor was bleeding, they believe the cancer cells are traveling somewhere in his body, looking for another place to call home. There are more trials he can qualify for, but he needs a tumor to do so. Moving forward, the only option he has is to rescan every couple months and wait for a tumor to pop up and treat it. His oncologist has one particular trial in mind that has been very successful and we are hopeful he will qualify for when the timing comes.

***Our goal is to raise funds for Rich and his family to cover medical expenses, as well as catch up on any financial needs. With his conditions, treatments, and surgery, Rich has been unable consistently work over the last 3 years, and we all want to support him the best we can! ***

Gary Dubinsky Submits:

Topsy-Turvy…

Cape Ann Museum was alive yesterday with lots and lots of families enjoying crafts, listening to and singing along Sea Shanties with Three Sheets singers, and exploring the Museum with the sea serpent Cassie guidebook .

The ice sculptures in the CAM’s gardens were amazing .

What a successful and fun program . It all continues today .

Alice Gardner

We took a grey-day drive over to the Gloucester Marine Railways at Rocky Neck for a look-see. It was wet, windy and dreary but the sight of familiar vessels under rest and repair cheered me up.