Help Hummer Battle Aggressive Cancer

Boozhoo family and friends,

My name is Mercedes, I live in Red Cliff, Wisconsin. My siblings Nadine, David and Dane would like to start a GoFundMe for our Dad, Roland (Hummer) Gordon. Dad was a Firefighter for 30+ years working for our community, worked at Gordon Auto for many years, helping everyone even if they didn’t have the money, he would somehow make it work. The family is asking for financial assistance as he goes through something very difficult. You know Hummer, he would give them the shirt off his back which I have literately seen, he helps anyone and everyone when he can, now its our turn, he needs us.

Many of you have no idea what’s going on with Hummer. We didn’t want to share anything or jump to conclusions until we knew exactly what’s going on. Around this time last year, our parents Hummer & Heidi Gordon moved to Bemidji, MN. Things were going great until they weren’t. Last fall dad had a “lump” on his leg and decided that he should go have it looked at. He went to the local Dr’s. in Cass Lake, who in turn said it was a lump and nothing to be worried about. Well, that “lump” grew and grew (to the size of a golf ball protruding from his shin), and then went back to the Dr. and this time they referred him to Sandford in Bemidji to ‘take a look’. They said it didn’t look like too much and said it probably should be removed. Before removal they ran a lot of blood work, I mean a lot of bloodwork because his counts were way off. He had multiple scans, MRIs, CT scans and still said, it just looks like a mass of some sort. He had surgery to have it removed and all seemed good, until it wasn’t.

Dad was referred to a “cancer” Dr. to take a look at the bloodwork and see what was going on. When he got to the appointment dad found out he in fact had cancer. Dr. said without having the cancer taken care of it will only get worse. He explained that this type of cancer grows fast and doesn’t care what or who it takes. The Dr. said that it’s a type that likes to “hide” in the lungs. Well, we all know that the Hanson family, as sadly as it is, has taken the lives of his mom Dorothy, aunts and uncles. Knowing that, they knew it wasn’t anything to mess around with or to take lightly.

They were now ruling out what it could be, They said it wasn’t blood cancer, but lets look at bone cancer. The cancer Dr. decided to have dad do a bone marrow biopsy which was done in Fargo, North Dakota. After the results came back, it was said that the “lump” in his leg was Sarcoma.

Sarcoma is a type of cancer that originates in the body's connective tissues, including bone, muscle, fat, and blood vessels. It can be further categorized into bone sarcomas and soft tissue sarcomas. Sarcomas are relatively rare, accounting for only a small percentage of all cancer diagnoses.

We all know that IHS is there for us when we need them, but only if we live on the reservation. His cares were taken care of when he went to the Dr. in Cass Lake but as soon as they referred him out, it’s not. We thought that if you are referred to another Dr. that IHS will take care of it, they don’t and now the bills are growing fast, with no end in sight.

Dad wanted to move home, but then would have to establish care, be referred, and referred, again, retake all of the tests and because its an aggressive cancer, dad said lets just have it done in Bemidji, I don’t want it to wait any longer, you know the “Hanson curse”. I don’t want to be gone at 53 like my mom, Dad will be 52 this year.

Dad will be out of work for 6-8 weeks mending with what the Dr’s have planned. The plan so far is to have 25 rounds of radiation. Once that is completed, he will go to Fargo for surgery ensuring that they “got it all”. They will cut the same area of the first incision but will have a much wider margin to remove. They would have done that the first time, but they removed it because they said it was a lump…..not cancer. They will go down and scrape the bone where the cancer was, just to make sure its all gone and then have skin grafting done which will be around 6in x 6in removed from (his bum) and placed back onto his shin. Dad will be off for recovery about 6-8 weeks. Please keep him in your prayers, and anything you can do to help, would be an immense help for them as they try and figure what they are going to do next.

We are asking for prayers for my dad in this journey none of us thought would happen. Please consider making a donation to help him with the medical bills he has now and will continue until after his surgery. Dad said you can contact him if you have more questions.

Miigwech

Thank You

.