Help Gunnar with a Terminal Diagnosis

This is Gunnar, my husband. This is his story from my point of view. I met him while working at a restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan. One evening, after almost two years together, I was frying sweet potato slices on our stove when Gunnar suddenly pushed past me and coughed into the kitchen sink. Mixed into the mucus from his lungs was bright, red blood. He looked at me and said, "We need to go."

Gunnar was born with a rare heart condition called "transposition of the great vessels," which in simple terms means he was born with half of a working heart. This is something doctors know much more about nowadays, but in 1992 odds of surviving with a condition like this were slim. Doctors predicted he would die before his 3rd birthday. But against the odds Gunnar survived and, after a childhood spent in hospitals, he lived a relatively normal life by the time I met him.

I knew of his heart troubles in the past, so we quickly went to the nearest Emergency Room. They ran an echo on his heart and sent us home after a few hours. Over the next week, he continued to cough up small amounts of blood and eventually, he returned to the ER so they could perform a CT scan of his lungs. Gunnar was admitted to the hospital and we were hopeful it would be a simple problem to fix.

In June 2022, he was diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma, a form of liver cancer that is difficult to detect until it reaches later stages. He had a tumor growing in his liver the size of a human hand; it had taken over half of his liver. We slowly learned, over the next few months, cancer had metastasized by spreading into his lungs, his bones, and many parts of his body. The main tumor itself was too big to remove, so he began immunotherapy to prevent cancer from spreading. This only lasted a few months, however, after he had a rare reaction to the immunotherapy in October 2022 and was hospitalized due to the almost deathly levels of bilirubin in his body.

Next, Gunnar began a new treatment (in the form of a pill) with his team at the University of Michigan. We also drove to the Mayo Clinic, but the consensus among the doctors was the same: there was not much they could do to help him. They predicted he would only have a few more months to live and I thought he would not make it to his 31st birthday.

But my husband is a sturdy man, as he likes to say, who has surpassed many odds before. He just celebrated his birthday on April 17th with his friends and family on a weekend trip up north to Lake Huron. His hair is turning white due to the cancer medication he is currently taking; he has lost an enormous amount of weight; and every day he has intense pains in his back, neck, and hips. What amazes me is his incredibly strong resolve to keep living.

Throughout the entire cancer journey, Gunnar has remained hopeful for every new medication, procedure, or treatment. He continues to keep thriving despite all of his symptoms. In August, we traveled to Maine, and in December we flew to Orlando. In January we were married, and in May we are planning a trip to Boston. Gunnar is fueled by traveling to keep going, even with the pain he faces.

Cancer is expensive, and so is travel when you are on long-term disability pay. We are very fortunate to have been on as many trips as we have, but this can no longer continue without funding. Gunnar needs reasons to keep the fight going. He has incredible friends, family, and a dog named Arthur that cheers him on every day. I want to be able to give him more trips to look forward to and to help pay the medical bills that are piling up. I don't want him to worry about money for the future, I want him to simply live the life he wants while he can.

At a recent doctor's appointment, Gunnar's doctor told him she expected him to die last November. I don't know how a person is supposed to keep on keeping on after hearing something like that. But Gunnar does it every day, and with your help, he can continue to thrive, no matter how limited his time may be.

Thank you for reading.

Alexandra