Kevin's battle against cancer

If you know someone who has been diagnosed with cancer, then you know the physical toll it can take on any person.

My husband, Kevin, is a big teddy bear to me, but he is a United States Navy veteran and a strong man; he worked as a Navy Aviation Support Equipment Mechanic. This is why I am not surprised at how he has been able to work sporadically even while going through chemo treatments.

Kevin has been working while toughing it out for a long time. That came to a halt recently.

Not long ago, Kevin parked his car at the hotel garage as usual and walked up to the kitchen where he works as a cook at Giada’s Italian restaurant inside the upscale Cromwell Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. The normal walk from his car to the restaurant was more than he could handle. He was exhausted. He had to rest for an hour before attempting to work. He was not able to complete his shift.

In the fall of 2016, my husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. The cancer was already beyond the colon and into his lungs and liver. Kevin began treatment immediately and had one foot of his colon removed along with the cancer lesion. There was quite a long recovery and Kevin was in the hospital over Thanksgiving.

As soon as Kevin was healed enough, his oncologist ordered chemo treatments. Over the course of 18 months, Kevin had four different kinds of chemo. His markers would drop but come raging back. I started to dread Fridays and his marker tests. Finally, his oncologist suggested that Kevin look to City of Hope in Pasadena, California because they are on the cutting edge of cancer treatment.

We were excited and took the first appointment that we could get. They planned to put Kevin in a research study that would fill his liver with radioactive beads and add two immunotherapy drugs into his system, hoping they would use his immune system to deal with the lesions on his lungs.

Well....because Kevin has Culinary Health Fund insurance and they normally do not cover anything outside of Las Vegas, we spent several weeks fighting to get him okayed for treatment in California. FINALLY they approved, but he had already gone nearly two months without treatment.

The radioactive beads have created severe flu-like symptoms causing Kevin to be in bed or on the couch for days at a time. He is short of breath; we expect him to be on an oxygen machine if they do not get him onto immunotherapy soon.

Kevin is now on his third week without working and his fourth trip to City of Hope. Each trip requires a minimum two to three day hotel stay along with the normal cost of travel (gas, food, etc). As you can imagine, California is expensive. Kevin is now worried about bills and household expenses, when all of his energy should go toward fighting cancer, not worrying about me and our teenage son.

Kevin is only 49. Up until now, he has not had any major health issues. This diagnosis was unexpected. We weren’t prepared for it mentally or financially.

Kevin is a fighter; I expect him to get through this tough battle with the help of family and friends. I want him to focus on getting better instead of stressing about bills. The results of this campaign for help will make such a difference.

We can’t do it alone.

Please pray for Kevin and consider giving a donation of any size; please share the link to this page on Facebook, Twitter, via email, and by text message. Anything helps. Please share this campaign with as many people as possible. Thank you for reading Kevin’s story. May God bless you.