Matt Palacios's Fight Against Cancer and Keytruda

Hello All,

My name is Dawn and Matt is the love of my life and my best friend in the universe. He just turned 43 years old on August 1st. He loves nature, hiking, kayaking, road trips, bonfires, eating delicious food and cooking for people, creating cocktails and watching movies or playing games with his family. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October 2018. He was really strong and brave in his fight to shrink the tumor with a year of extensive chemotherapy and he was getting better after a successful whipple surgery to remove the tumor in December 2019. I have been right beside him all the way along with our two daughters, August and Sierra.

In early May 2020, Matt was retaining fluid in his belly and it turned out that a vein in his liver area was healing "too well" and was closing the vein. He underwent another surgery and a stint was put in the vein. That seemed to work well and he slowly healed up again. Throughout the rest 2020, we watched him get stronger everyday as he healed and eventually he started hiking, kayaking and traveling again. Matt even took up a new hobby of refinishing old, used furniture (sometimes found in others trash) and flipping it for a small profit! He discovered a talent we didn't know he had! We were starting to feel like our lives were getting past this battle with cancer.

There have been highs and lows on this journey. Matt, Sierra and I all had Covid in November 2020, but the biggest blow came in late January 2021 when a routine CT scan showed the tumor had made a tiny comeback. We were devastated. His surgeon said there was too much scar tissue for surgery. His oncologist said that he couldn't have anymore chemo but they could try Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug. At this point in time, hospital policy would not let me accompany Matt to his appointments and I didn't get to ask the important questions about risks. His oncologist painted this drug in a bright light and said only good things about it.

In early February 2021 Matt started his Keytruda treatment and then again 3 weeks later. Shortly after that second dose Matt became very sick. He has only gotten worse and worse since then and has had multiple ER visits leading to extended hospital stays in the ICU. Before Keytruda, Matt and I were hiking in the snowy forests almost everyday.

I believe in my heart that Keytruda has been the cause of all of Matt's current health issues. This drug can cause your own immune system to attack healthy organs and that is what has happened to my best friend, partner in life, and father of our children. He has severe colitis, protein losing enteropathy, anemia, edema, ascites, blood clots in that liver stint I mentioned earlier, and many infections amongst other issues. They said he is showing signs of end-stage liver disease! He can not walk more then 8 steps now. A wheelchair is a must. He has zero energy. He fights the chills constantly, even in the heat of the summer. All Matt can do is sit in his new reclining lift chair. His oncologist gives him a pint of blood or more every week as his body just leaks all protein and nutrients through his intestines into space like his legs, feet and abdomen. She calls it supportive care.

As you can imagine, any battle with cancer is difficult. When you trust your doctor and they give you a drug to fight your cancer, but instead the drug they gave you is now what is killing you, it is a hard reality to accept. I had to take a leave of absence from my job that I love back in June to stay home full time to care for Matt and to spend the valuable time with him that I was told was limited. This past Tuesday, we were told that they don't know how long Matt has to live. We are not giving up. I am still researching and trying all I can to help him. We are asking for donations to allow me stay home to care for him by helping with his medical bills, travel to doctor appointments, home medical supplies, the cost of living and I would also like to hire an attorney.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and please spend as much time as you can with the people you love. Thank you very much for your love and support and know that Matt still has some fight in him. He is only 43 years old and we have a lot of things in this life together that we still want to do together! Please share on your social media platforms if your willing...Peace & Love!