By the time the pain in Julio’s abdominal area had gotten so bad that he rushed to a Chicago emergency room, doctors diagnosed him with third stage stomach cancer.
He remembers his wife crying when they got the news in late 2022. Julio, who asked that his full name not be published, started to go through the math of the diagnosis.
“Maybe she was thinking it was a terminal illness for me, that she could lose me,” Julio said in Spanish. “But I was thinking about the doctors, the payments, how were we going to pay for rent, food.”…