In Honor of Matt

If you don't know, Matt is my younger brother. He's also an older brother. He's a son. A husband. Best of all, he's a dad of three. Worst of all, he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. But Matt is a warrior and fights every day in this unexpected new role. We are raising funds to help Matt and his family through this fight! Funds raised will be used to help pay for his medical expenses and supplement their reduced income. A little about Matt and his family My brother, Matt, is the only boy of five kids. If you ask him, he had a hard life living with four sisters. If you ask us, he had it easy because he got special treatment for being the odd man out. However it truly was, our parents shaped him into a great man and a great dad. He's nice, smart, funny, hard-working, and surprisingly the hobbit of a brother I knew growing up turned out quite handsome. Haha. He can be stubborn and proud so he's definitely worn a brave face through this whole thing. Matt had his son Parker when he was 22; Parker is 15 now. He and his wife Emily started dating in 2014 and got married in 2019. Well, they were actually good friends when they were 17 but then reconnected years later. They started fostering in 2016. Brayden (6) came to them at 5 months old, Frankie (4) since birth, and both were adopted in 2020. They have since had to close their foster home as their main focus is on Matt's health and their children. He liked to collect and drink whiskey but can’t do that anymore! He likes to cook when he’s feeling well. I think he's the best cook in our family! Hunting and fishing were things he enjoyed but hasn’t been able to do in a while. How it started Matt got sick in August 2022, and he became very jaundiced. They thought it was liver damage from some antibiotics he’d been on for an illness. He didn’t get better, just got more and more yellow, throwing up constantly, and dropped about 20 lbs; so he ended up in the hospital in late August. He was admitted and after some testing, they found a blockage. After two days in the hospital, he was scheduled for an outpatient procedure to put in a stent to help with jaundice. Jaundice He had an endoscopic procedure and ultrasound imaging, and they found a 2.7 cm tumor in his pancreas causing the blockage and jaundice. They put in the stent and did a biopsy of the mass on his pancreas. The endoscopic surgeon thought it looked like cancer because of four involved lymph nodes, but the first biopsy came back benign. Out of an abundance of caution, he had a second biopsy in early September and unfortunately this one showed malignancy so he started chemotherapy on October 10th. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive types of cancer and one of the most painful due to its location near nerves. It's also very rare for Matt's age group. First Chemo How it's going Unfortunately, the cancer was resistant to his first three months of chemotherapy so the doctors put him on a new chemo regimen with hopes of it having more success. In January, Matt and Emily made their first visit to MD Anderson in Houston to meet with specialists. An updated scan showed a mass in his liver, and a biopsy on February 15th confirmed his pancreatic cancer has since metastasized to his liver where he has a 1.9 cm tumor. Now that the cancer has spread, Matt is considered stage 4. When he started to lose some hair he decided to shave it and embrace the villain look! He will continue with chemotherapy. His tumor markers have been decreasing with this new regimen, and he will go to Houston every two months for labs and scans. The chemo schedule was three weeks on and one week off, but his white cells and platelets weren't coming back fast enough so he is now doing one week on and one week off. Overall, Matt is tired a lot but also deals with nausea, fatigue and pain. In total he's lost about 60 lbs. He spends a lot of time in bed, and he has a hard time doing normal things because it takes a lot of energy. He used to be in pain just about every day, but that's lessened so that's good! After this new chemo, his joints hurt really bad which they said is normal, but about two days later he has all-over body pain that takes a couple of days to resolve. How you can help Matt is unable to work and has now moved to long-term disability. With the reduction in household income and with accumulating medical bills, any donations would be such a great help to his family. He also hopes to take the kids on a trip while he is feeling well enough and has wanted to visit New York to see the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and see where his parents grew up. Any help in any way is appreciated. GoFundMe seemed like the easiest way for friends and family to help out, especially if they don't live nearby. Matt and his family also appreciate all the thoughts and prayers being sent their way. If you know Matt, you know he's a quiet and stoic guy so while he may not show a lot of emotion, just know that he is deeply thankful for all the love and support. I will try to post more updates as we get them! Check out these websites to learn more about pancreatic cancer! Pancreatic Cancer Action Network MD Anderson Cancer Center