Mark Hartman's Fight

Mark Hartman’s Story:

 

First I want to tell you of the kind of person Mark is…

Mark Hartman is most caring person, loving ,compassionate and heart felt guy you will ever meet. He would bend over backwards for anyone. If you ever needed a ride, food, or just need your day brightened he would be there for you. Overall he is a great person.

Mark was a healthy guy up until about 6 weeks ago Mark noticed a lump on the left side of his neck that was larger then normal. . He then made an appointment with his family physician. His family physician then decided to have Mark get a CT scan. After his family physician looked at the scan, he then referred Mark on the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor. Then the ENT doctor scoped him, he then deicide to refer Mark on. Mark ended up in the care of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Which is about 4-5 hours from his residence. After Mayo clinic ran many test Mark and his family were given the heart breaking news. Mark was diagnosed with Metastatic Squamous Cell Carcinoma. In simple terms, head and neck cancer. Mayo was then planning to perform a major surgery to remove most of the cancer and the mass in his neck. Before Mayo would do the surgery ,they decided to run a PET scan to see if the cancer had spread anywhere else in the body. Mayo found two more spots. The first spot was in his liver and the other was in his lung. The spot in his lung came back as a fungal infection. Whew….. But the liver biopsy came back as cancer. The cancer in his neck is also in his liver. All of our hearts sunk…… We all questioned what was next for Mark.

Due the cancer being in more than one area of the body, Mayo decided not to do the surgery because they were worried if they opened him up the caner would spread to other organs. We are still not sure what the outcome will be for Mark, but we have hope.

For right now Mayo would like to have Mark start chemotherapy. This will help slow and shrink the cancer cells. There is still talk of possible surgery down the road. Until then Mark and his significant other (Deb) will have to travel to Mayo every 3 weeks for chemo. His first treatment was a week ago but the spot on his lung is a fungal infection and Mark will have to stop chemo for a short period of time to get the fungal infection cleared up first. After the fungal infection is cleared up he then will continue with his chemo treatments every 3 weeks. We are unsure of how many treatments he will need but we are hoping and praying for quick results.

In the meantime Mark is working as much as his body will allow him to. With the 4-5 hour travel to Mayo and the hotel and gas cost they are struggling with the extra cost for his medical care. I know Mark and Deb greatly appreciate any donation and they Thank You from the bottom of their hearts. Also please keep saying a prayer every night for Mark.

*FIGHT * HOPE * FAITH*