As an aside, do you need to set things up with Paypal to prevent them from suddenly freezing/returning the money on the assumption that it's some sort of scam? (They seem to have previous history of this.)

In the longer term, Paypal has a "subscriptions" service which might work for something like this. I use it for my contribution to John Allison's Scary Go Round/Bad Machinery web-comic.

His description of what you get for the subscription:
STANDARD - £2 / $3 every year - receive nothing*
BRONZE - £10 / $10 every year - receive nothing*
SILVER - £25 / $25 every year - receive nothing*
GOLD - £50 / $50 every year - receive nothing*
PLATINUM - £100 / $100 every year - receive nothing*
*but my gratitude
seems appropriate for this case.

http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraising

(It's possible they charge a transfer fee later (if you want to move the money to a bank account), though. I have no experience of that end of the transfer process.)

(For subscription billing, Recurly and Stripe are both worth looking into, though for something at this scale a person can probably do it okay.)

*yes, I already had the envelopes, but at some point I will need to buy more

http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/chris-punches-cancer-in-the-face-/68682

Patrick said in email to me, "Go humans!" and I concur.

I wonder if my post at #3 has come to pass.

He's got a form to fill out, here.

Check with your credit card company to see if there are any restrictions. The Ghu knows cc companies do shit "to protect you" in ways that just piss you off.

Otherwise, wait a day or two and try again. If you still get bounced, PayPal is being a snot. Send a check.

Summary from Scraps (aka Soren)'s mother:
Velma's surgery lasted about six hours. Three smaller fibrous tumors. One large tumor. Removed 12/16 inches of intestine, part of right side of the colon and her gallbladder. Couldn't remove tumors completely. Clean cut would have been ideal but that would have taken too much of organs. After they examine removed tissue they will know more on course of action, be it chemo, radiation or whatever. Apparently no pneumonia. Anyway, she will be here for at least a week. She's a trooper. Opened from pelvis to under sternum.

And the bottom line from Scraps:
Velma's up and weak but basically fine, certainly better. Now comes rehab.

I hope Velma has an easy time with whatever the next step is and that she gets better soon.

Velma (sister-in-law) update - This is what I know: (Apologies if it’s too long. I’m trying to keep a balance between too much information and not enough.)

1st surgery = Wednesday of last week. (July 23; details about that in one of my previous posts)
Velma went into that surgery in a less-than-ideal physical state – very weak, hadn’t gained back weight she had lost in the previous month. (Hospital decided to do surgery even though Velma wasn’t where they wanted her physically because Velma had been losing ground in terms of getting to a stronger place, and because one of the tumors was growing rapidly.) Although weak, Velma seemed to be recovering appropriately. (I had a good conversation with her that Friday before I went back to Portland.) At some point she was moved out of ICU.

Yesterday I received three emails from Scraps.
First: A bad news and good news kind of email.
The bad; This is from Scraps’ email. “Last night was very hard. Velma was in excruciating pain. Her time for the epidural was ended, so that came out, but her heart and lungs were still weak, so the doctors were concerned with giving her too much pain medication and having her heart stop. Unfortunately, they stopped short last night, and while they adjusted, Velma suffered.” Her pain medication was increased; doctor explained that they wanted Velma to be pain free, but they needed to be careful.
The good, again quoting Scraps: “Today she walked almost twice as far, two times. She was glowing; that was good. And the pain is definitely down. She's been drowsy, but they've been watching.”

Second: A short email titled “bad update.”
In intense pain. Moved back to ICU. Temporarily put out and tubes (breathing, etc.) reinserted. (my summary)

Third: She had fluid in her belly.

Today, received three texts from my Mom. Velma had emergency surgery this afternoon, because of an infection. (Don’t have any more details than that.) Quoting Mom here: “Dr says hour by hour to pull through on this part … very low blood pressure … Reason touch and go right now is she so weak after last surgery… Crucial next few hours.”

That’s what I know. Haven’t heard anything from Mom for over three hours.

Prayers and strong healing thoughts for her please. And for my brother.

Thank you for the update. Please let us know if you hear any more. And if it helps, I'm thinking, not just of Velma and Scraps, but of everyone affected by this.

The Velma I know is too ornery to let this beat her. I hope that this is still true.