Stand with Nate Mitchell during Cancer Battle

To know Nate Mitchell is to love him! His infectiously joyful personality is a gift to everyone who knows him. He's hilarious, always thinking of others, and knows how to love the people in his life fiercely. Now, it's our turn to love on him, Carrie, and their kids. Nate is about to embark on a BIG step in his cancer journey and our support will go a long way to lightening their load. This treatment is very aggressive and will be taxing physically and emotionally. There will be a lapse in work, and even with health insurance, there are many medical bills that need to be taken care of. So many of us that love the Mitchells don't live close by, and while we can't physically help them with day-to-day tasks, this gives us a way to offer our support financially. Nate's an incredible friend, father, and husband. Lets' help him fight this cancer once and for all and focus on what matters most. For more details, please read Carrie's health update on Nate below.

Health Update:

For those that care to know, Nate's been fighting non-hodgkins folicular lymphoma for 12 years. We've treated with multiple different types of immunotherapy, chemo, high dose vitamin C treatments, and multiple off-label drugs, supplements, and therapeutics, too many to list here. Sadly, the immunotherapy treatments he has been doing for the past 6 months have not been effective. In fact, the cancer has progressed right through treatments. We have decided to do the treatment we have been putting off as long as we could, known as CAR-T.

First, he will prep with a couple rounds of chemo. After his immune system recovers, he will go in for a 1-2 day procedure to harvest his body's own T-cells, the killer cells of his immune system that aren't doing their job well. Next, these t-cells will be shipped off to a lab where they will be engineered to be super effective at killing the lymphoma cells. After another dose of chemo, these cells will be put back in Nathan and totally reset his immune system. This will begin an intense 30 days, where reactions are expected that will cause hospitalization. He will not be able to work, drive, or be left alone. He will need a 24 hr. caregiver to watch for neurotoxicity, which about half of the patients get. Symptoms include spontaneous loss of cognition or a coma. If this happens they will treat him in the hospital for a few days until things return to normal.

Nate will be monitored daily at first by doctors and less frequently as the 30 days go on. However, the biggest risk is that for 100 days, his immune system will be so fragile that a viral infection could become fatal. For this reason, he will not be allowed to go back to work or be around people until his immune system has recovered (100 days.) At day 30 they will scan him and check for progress. This treatment doesn't work for everyone, but if it does, the average remission is 2 years. However, many people have experienced more, a hope we are clinging to.

Our family is still trying to process how we will face the challenges of the next few months. So many have reached out to offer their support, to which we are truly grateful. Some have asked about a GoFundMe, but we haven't decided yet. (They are now allowing it) Maybe it's our pride, or maybe it's fear of needing to save it for when things are even worse, God forbid. We are still trying to process all of this. We truly expected the last immunotherapy treatment to give us another year. Regardless, Nate continues to fight with confidence, joy, and positivity. He focuses on loving God and family above all else. Humor is still his superpower. He is our hero. And the Lord, who has been so good to us, is our Rock.

Please keep us in your prayers.