Mike's Fight: August 2015

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Fundraisers and items for sale!

Here are a few upcoming events I wanted to share about spread the news about!

1. On Saturday, October 3rd we will be hosting the “2^nd Annual Michael Howell Softball Tournament”. The tournament will be held at Haverhill Stadium in Haverhill, Massachusetts. The softball tournament will include 16 teams this year. Last year’s event was very successful, there was a tournament during the day and an after party at night. This year we will only be hosting the softball tournament during the day

If you would like to put in a team please have a team captain email us at mike.stephanie.howell@gmail.com with your team name. Entry fee is $250 per a team.

Please see the flyer for more information.

I am also looking for donations such as water, soda, snacks, candy and donation items for raffle baskets. If you would like to donate something please email me at mike.stephanie.howell@gmail.com

2. On September 12th Mike and I along with my parents with be participating in The Marino Donnelly Foundation Corn Hole tournament. The event is hosted by the Marino Donnelly Foundation (a local pancreatic cancer foundation). The co-founders have both been affected by the disease. Joe is currently bating the diseas and Jackie lost her father two years after he was diagnosed.

For the tournament the price of admission includes one T-Shirt per player, free drinks (including beer) and food. The winning team receives a set of custom made Cornhole Boards.

Come give Mike and I some corn hole competition!

See below for more details!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/marino-donnelly-foundation-cornhole-tournament-tickets-17322702670

3. On September 26th Mike and my family will be participating in the 2015 New England Pancreatic Cancer Research Walk hosted by the Lustgarten Foundstion. We are still accepting donations to sponsor us. To donate to our team click below!

http://2015newenglandwalk.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1131269&lis=1&kntae1131269=202644763C0C489890740FCFD4C5AB0B&supId=423241843

4. We are selling our photobooth and trailer... you can find the information on it here at this Craig's list listing http://boston.craigslist.org/nwb/for/5185045032.html

5. Mike's Fight T-shirts for Sale...

KIDS sizes are also available!

Kids Small- Large $15

Adult Small-XL $15

Adult 2XL- 3XL $17

I will be putting an order in on September 1st. All the money goes towards Mike and I to support our fight with pancreatic cancer.

Email me with the size you are interested in. Mike.stephanie.howell@gmail.com

Thank you 💜

Lately we have been very involved with pancreatic cancer fundraisers, selling tshirts and looking for donations. All the money goes towards our family battle with cancer. Needless to say we are very thankful for EVERYTHING that EVERYONE has done for us. It has been a very difficult journey and we have been trying to keep our heads above water.

Donate to Mike's Fight... all donations go directly to Mike & I.
Click Here

Each Bravelet that is purchased through this site donates $10 to Mike's Fight.
To purchase a Bravelet Click Here

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Update

Mike has seemed to pull through his rough patch! He has completed his first round of gemabraxine which consisted of 3 weeks on and 1 week off of treatment. His bowel obstruction has passed and has been overall feeling very well. We are gearing up for his 2nd round on this new treatment this Thursday. People often ask how many treatments does he have left? It's a tough question to answer... Along with the usual question of "how are you feeling?" To answer the first question... his treatments do not have an end date. He will continue treatment until there is a cure... He is what many would call a "lifer". It hard to answer when we get asked. It's not anyone's fault because people don't always understand the specifics of his disease. To anyone who has been affected by Pancreatic cancer it's a big deal to us that people don't know about the disease. It's a disease that remains in the shadows behind all the others. There's not enough research, knowledge, early detection, or treatments for the disease...

I'm going to take this as an opportunity to education others...

An estimated 48,960 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the U.S., and over 40,560 will die from the disease.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the few cancers for which survival has not improved substantially over nearly 40 years.

Pancreatic cancer is the 4th leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States.

Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of all major cancers. 94% of pancreatic cancer patients will die within five years of diagnosis – only 7% will survive more than five years. 74% of patients die within the first year of diagnosis.

The average life expectancy after diagnosis with metastatic disease is just three to six months.

Treatment options for pancreatic cancer are limited. Surgical removal of the tumor is possible in less than 20% of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Chemotherapy or chemotherapy together with radiation is typically offered to patients whose tumors cannot be removed surgically.

Pancreatic cancer is a leading cause of cancer death largely because there are no detection tools to diagnose the disease in its early stages when surgical removal of the tumor is still possible.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) spent an estimated $105.3 million on pancreatic cancer research in 2012. This represented a mere 1.8% of the NCI’s approximate $5.8 billion cancer research budget for that year.

The statistics are hard to swallow and difficult for us to comprehend. We try not to think about it and hope we will be one of the very few to break that statistic. It's hard to do when everything seems so white and black. One of the hardest things about cancer is having to live everyday despite knowing the outcome. We've met friends along the way that share this dreadful disease. We've also lost friends to the disease... It's devastating and leaves us with heavy hearts. I've been watching my good friend suffer the loss of her husband and It's heart wrenching. However we are each other's greatest support system. No one else gets it like we can get each other. One of the things we often talk about is we were one of the lucky ones to find such a great love. We were blessed with a relationship of communication, loyalty and honesty. So why our husbands? We will never know... no one can answer that for us.

On a more positive note lately we have taken advantage of Mike feeling well. Mike and I went away to a resort on the ocean in CT this past weekend. We had a great time.

Today we took Ava to Water Country.

Ava has been having a hard time lately. She's getting older and realizing the severity of Mike's cancer. We have been making lots of fun memories with her which makes her feel a little better.

Mike and I have just started planning the 2nd Annual Michael Howell Softball Tournment on Saturday, September 5th. https://www.facebook.com/mhsoftballtournament

Anyone who would like to put in a softball team please contact us at mike.stephanie.howell@gmail.com

We are also looking for donations of supplies like soda, water, snacks, candy, and business sponsors. Please email me if you would like to make a donation. We greatly appreciate it.

Donate to Mike's Fight... all donations go directly to Mike & I.
Click Here

Each Bravelet that is purchased through this site donates $10 to Mike's Fight.
To purchase a Bravelet Click Here

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Hoping for better days

Thursday, Mike and I went into Dana Farber for treatment # 25. Where did the time go? 25 chemotherapy treatments... to think back it is insane. September 2nd was a year to date that we went into the hospital for the first time. Since then we have had 5 hospital visits, 2 that were overnight for 3-5 days at a time. He's had countless days of not feeling well. Emotional break downs, chronic stomach pain, struggles to make events with family and friends. Over 25 different types of prescriptions, a 8 year old daughter that hasn't been dealing with things well... a wife that has been pushed beyond her limits that has been stronger than she ever has been. It's been so hard. People can't even imagine how hard it is. I am on the battle front every day with Mike. When he goes down I hold him up. I try everything I can to help make him feel better.

No one understands it... unless you have been there. My friend Pam who lost her husband Matt to this messed up disease back in July, put it perfectly. You don't choose your family, mom, dad, brothers, or sisters... (luckily for me I got lucky with my family) you may choose some friends who come and go through out your life. What makes it hard is that we chose our husbands... I choose Mike through sickness and health, for better or worse. I chose to spend the rest of my life with him... to share his beautiful daughter with and to hopefully start a family of our own someday... This past year has been the hardest thing I have ever had to face... It's obvious that nothing about this is easy. None of it makes sense, every single bit of it hurts. It hurts so deep in a way that I could never explain...

Back to Thursday morning I feel like I jinxed us because that morning I was rushing around trying to get paperwork filled out and get things in order. I stopped myself in the moment and thought that things seemed "too" normal. When I say normal I use the term lightly because our lives are nothing but normal. It crossed my mind that maybe things wouldn't go as planned. I reassure myself that it's not like we were getting scan results it was just a normal treatment day. I quickly shook the thoughts out of my head and moved on with our jammed pack scheduled day.

We got to Dana Farber on time. He got his bloodwork done and his port worked just fine which was good since the last few treatments his port didn't work and had to be flushed, medicated and fixed.

We met with his oncologist. Mike and him had their typical banter between their football teams Mike (Patriots) his oncologist (Jets). We were all laughing and joking like we weren't sitting in a cancer treatment facility or in a cancer patient room being seen by an oncologist. Things were going well his labs were looking good until his oncologist paused.... my heart sank... his oncologist said his platelets were too low. They were not safe enough for him to have treatment. All the football banter and jokes came to a stand still. I asked why this had happened. His oncologist said that many patients that switch from Folfirinox to Gemabraxine often have this reaction. He said that Folfirinox is a heavy hitter chemo and breaks down the bone marrow where the platelets are produced. He wasn't sure if his platelet numbers were still on their way down or on their way up. Either way he could not have treatment. Mike is at risk for internal bleeding. When the platelet counts are low his blood is not able to clot normally. We have to watch out for any hits, falls, or accidents to make sure he does not have any injuries. Mike's liver enzymes were high as well. They said it could be because of the chemotherapy.

We left Dana Farber not knowing what to think... we were scared.

Mike went to bed Friday night very congested and not feeling well. It sounded like he was coming down with a cold. I called the doctor in the morning and they prescribed him an antibiotic. Hopefully this will help him feel better soon. Tonight he was battling some stomach pain. He went to bed and hopefully he will be feeling better by tomorrow. We plan to spend the day together and we're looking forward to it!

Wednesday night Pam came to visit. We brought her out to dinner at Brown's and then hung out at our house for the night. It is so nice to be able to spend time with her.

We also has a family cook out this weekend.

Just a reminder Mike, myself and our families are participating in the 2015 New England Pancreatic Cancer Research Walk. I am $85 away from reaching my personal goal of $500. If you would like to donate to my page please click below to donate.

Stephanie's Donation Page

Reminder

We are looking for more teams!

On Saturday, October 3rd we will be hosting the “2^nd Annual Michael Howell Softball Tournament”. The tournament will be held at Haverhill Stadium in Haverhill, Massachusetts. The softball tournament will include 16 teams this year. Last year’s event was very successful, there was a tournament during the day and an after party at night. This year we will only be hosting the softball tournament during the day