#LADWIGSTRONG
Donation protected
On December 22, 2016, Josh Ladwig married his longtime girlfriend Michelle Nelson. Yay! This should be a happy time. We should all be celebrating and enjoying the honeymoon and throwing rice in the air. That wasn’t the case for them. The new Mr. & Mrs. started noticing more and more that Josh wasn’t feeling well. Symptoms persisted from fall of 2016 until January 20th, 2017 they decided it was time to get him checked out.
They kept telling him that it wasn’t much of anything and that he should exercise and diet, but Michelle persisted. She checked every medical page and typed in his symptoms. Finally, something came up. She suggested to the doctor’s the possibility of Cushing’s Syndrome. This condition becomes a problem because of high cortisol levels over a long period of time. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands.
On May 31st, 2017 Josh had a blood test that confirmed his high cortisol levels. Their next concern is that with this condition it’s common for the patient to develop tumors. Josh underwent MRIs and PET scans. From this moment on I cannot even fathom the feeling that these two newlyweds were going through.
June 8th, 2017, they received the awful news that Josh had a Malignant Neuroendocrine Tumor on his Pancreas. This tumor was not carcinoma, but it did mean that he has cancer, stage 2. At 37 years old, he was being told that he would have to have surgery to remove the pancreatic tumor.
During the surgery they believed they got the tumor, but didn’t have good enough margins and had to remove his pancreas, making him diabetic. This was very hard on Josh, but just days later they were ready to discharge him from the hospital to go home and try it on his own. During this time Michelle has been off of work from Mayo to take care and stay with Josh. Josh’s parents have been very supportive with everything.
A few weeks after returning home for recovery, Josh began to feel off. Over the night of July 16th, he began throwing up and couldn’t keep anything down. July 17th, they took him back to Rochester to be readmitted for testing. He showed signs of having fluid in his stomach and was started on Antibiotics to try and kick an infection if one was present. Blood tests showed a couple bacterial infections.
At this present time, Josh is still in Rochester St Mary’s. His white blood cell count rises each day. Although, Josh is in low spirits at this time and isn’t up for company, they sure could use prayers and good thoughts. They will meet with Oncology in August.
During this time they have accrued quite the bill. Hotel bills alone are acquiring large costs for them. They also have gas bills, hotel rooms, food, regular bills for at home & the farm and eventually the bill from the hospital.
Eventually we will try to put on a benefit or a silent auction to help with costs, but for now your generosity of even just $1 would help them. We appreciate everything that people have done and continue to do to help out while they endure this awful time.
Thank you so much for reading this and taking time to think of them. My name is Nikki Prins. My coworker, Beth Lindenfelser, and I have been blessed to have known Michelle for over a year now, if not more. We have become close through our work, but more importantly to have each other’s backs. Each person on our work team has been praying and thinking of them through this. We want to help contribute in anyway that we can. God Bless the Ladwig family. We intend to keep our spirits high and make sure they know we are with them in being #LadwigStrong .
They kept telling him that it wasn’t much of anything and that he should exercise and diet, but Michelle persisted. She checked every medical page and typed in his symptoms. Finally, something came up. She suggested to the doctor’s the possibility of Cushing’s Syndrome. This condition becomes a problem because of high cortisol levels over a long period of time. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands.
On May 31st, 2017 Josh had a blood test that confirmed his high cortisol levels. Their next concern is that with this condition it’s common for the patient to develop tumors. Josh underwent MRIs and PET scans. From this moment on I cannot even fathom the feeling that these two newlyweds were going through.
June 8th, 2017, they received the awful news that Josh had a Malignant Neuroendocrine Tumor on his Pancreas. This tumor was not carcinoma, but it did mean that he has cancer, stage 2. At 37 years old, he was being told that he would have to have surgery to remove the pancreatic tumor.
During the surgery they believed they got the tumor, but didn’t have good enough margins and had to remove his pancreas, making him diabetic. This was very hard on Josh, but just days later they were ready to discharge him from the hospital to go home and try it on his own. During this time Michelle has been off of work from Mayo to take care and stay with Josh. Josh’s parents have been very supportive with everything.
A few weeks after returning home for recovery, Josh began to feel off. Over the night of July 16th, he began throwing up and couldn’t keep anything down. July 17th, they took him back to Rochester to be readmitted for testing. He showed signs of having fluid in his stomach and was started on Antibiotics to try and kick an infection if one was present. Blood tests showed a couple bacterial infections.
At this present time, Josh is still in Rochester St Mary’s. His white blood cell count rises each day. Although, Josh is in low spirits at this time and isn’t up for company, they sure could use prayers and good thoughts. They will meet with Oncology in August.
During this time they have accrued quite the bill. Hotel bills alone are acquiring large costs for them. They also have gas bills, hotel rooms, food, regular bills for at home & the farm and eventually the bill from the hospital.
Eventually we will try to put on a benefit or a silent auction to help with costs, but for now your generosity of even just $1 would help them. We appreciate everything that people have done and continue to do to help out while they endure this awful time.
Thank you so much for reading this and taking time to think of them. My name is Nikki Prins. My coworker, Beth Lindenfelser, and I have been blessed to have known Michelle for over a year now, if not more. We have become close through our work, but more importantly to have each other’s backs. Each person on our work team has been praying and thinking of them through this. We want to help contribute in anyway that we can. God Bless the Ladwig family. We intend to keep our spirits high and make sure they know we are with them in being #LadwigStrong .
Organizer and beneficiary
Nikki Raelynn
Organizer
Albert Lea, MN
Michelle Ladwig
Beneficiary
