Keeping the Faith in the Fight to End Pancreatic Cancer

Caption:

Steve and Jeanine Mielke pose with Dr. Daniel Von Hoff of the Translational Genomics Research Institute following the presentation of a $1 million donation from Mattress Firm to fund a forthcoming pancreatic cancer clinical trial given during the Seena Magowitz Foundation Golf Classic dinner in Orlando, Florida on May 14, 2015

By Jeanine Mielke

Cancer was the last thing we expected to hear during a follow-up visit to the doctor. My husband Steve and I had just celebrated 35 years of marriage. We were loving life – blessed with close family and friends, enjoying fulfilling professions and starting to achieve life-long dreams of travel. But all of that was interrupted when Steve was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last October. And in a blink of an eye, our lives were forever changed.

The statistics of pancreatic cancer show that only 7 percent of people survive five years after diagnosis. Or that it is one of the deadliest forms of cancer and will claim more than 40,000 lives this year. And that there’s a higher rate of survival if the cancer is localized and hasn’t spread. Or that this cancer can lay dormant for years without symptoms. All of that hit us like a ton of bricks as we worked closely with our doctors to determine a plan of attack in the precious weeks following that doctor’s visit.

This is when our strong faith came into play. My husband and I have always been people of faith. When life threw us this “curve ball,” we fully trusted God to carry us through. Until this journey, we had not fully realized how God had positioned us with careers, support systems, love and lifestyle choices that ultimately led us to and through Steve’s diagnosis.

There’s no way we could have known an unexpected bout with dehydration after a long bike ride would land Steve in the emergency room. Or that a subsequent CT scan would reveal a dilated pancreatic duct that was dismissed by a doctor as “nothing to lose sleep over.” My natural curiosity and connections as part of an oncology team at a major cancer center resulted in a quickly scheduled follow-up appointment and a group of events that would change our lives forever.

The first step in our plan of action was surgery to remove part of Steve’s pancreas. Our worst fears were realized when, an hour into surgery, the surgeon told us the cancer had spread to the liver and that it’s the “worst of the worst.” The weeks between surgery and the start of chemotherapy were difficult. Steve lost weight, was unable to eat and was constantly fatigued. While his state improved once chemo started, watching him struggle day to day to swallow even the smallest bites of food and face a string of bad news was heartbreaking.

And then, what we literally call our Christmas miracle came a few days before Christmas as a result of Steve’s employer, Simmons Company and CEO Gary Fazio getting involved. Simmons annually supports the Seena Magowitz Foundation’s fundraising efforts for pancreatic cancer research and Gary put us in touch with Roger Magowitz who then put us in touch leading pancreatic cancer researcher and pioneer Dr. Daniel Von Hoff of TGEN. How our lives changed from that point leaves us both in awe.

We found out that Steve’s chemotherapy regimen was pioneered by Dr. Von Hoff in clinical trials. Since then, we went for a consultation with Dr. Von Hoff in Arizona and our local physicians are now working in collaboration with him. In the short months since his surgery, Steve has improved remarkably. He’s strong, eating and even riding his bike for long distances again. Steve continues treatment and, because of our faith and the amazing medical team, we know he will one day join the group of Dr. Von Hoff’s other patients who are now in remission.

If there is a takeaway from our story it is this. Don’t let a pancreatic cancer diagnosis be the end of your story. With the many advances and solid research efforts and clinical trials taking place, the outlook after diagnosis looks different. When we learned that Dr. Von Hoff’s clinical trials are often small and funded by corporations like Mattress Firm and others, we knew we wanted to give back.

The Seena Magowitz Foundation just hosted its annual Golf Classic in Orlando where Mattress Firm Foundation gave a $1 million donation to fund more clinical trials. If you have a loved one impacted by pancreatic cancer or believe in the cause, please show support. If you’re often weary of donating because there’s no “face” or “name,” please take this story as our testimony that a little can go a long way. And it’s critical to families like mine and so many others that this innovation and research continue.