I’m excited to share that I’ve been blessed to support Mercy since Dr. Armando Sardi and team saved my life the summer of 2020.  The largest push each year is our support of the Heat It To Beat It campaign - a meaningful event that brings finances to the incredible work of the Institute for Cancer Care at Mercy Medical Center.

In 2020, in the midst of the global pandemic, I was diagnosed with Stage IV appendix cancer.  While so many of my friends took up cooking, a musical instrument or walks through their neighborhood, I was given the challenge of a misdiagnosed, incurable cancer that grew in my gut for seven years.  Luckily, I landed with Dr. Sardi and the Mercy Team as my first surgical stop.  Dr. Sardi refused to shut down his practice during the pandemic, knowing doing so would kill people - likely me.  Instead, following rigid COVID requirements, he performed a 17-hour cytoreductive surgery - removing all the organs I could live without.  After, he rinsed out my body cavity with a high temperature (108°) chemotherapy treatment called HIPEC.  

These two procedures saved my life and especially because the skill of Dr. Sardi and team - and it takes a team to perform these surgeries and to help the patient survive them!  Literally everyone from fellow doctors, nurses and technicians within the Mercy Hospital system are critical ingredients to the care and quality of life patent's are given while at the hospital.  For me, my in-hospital stay was 30 long, hard days.  Dr. Sardi removed 41 pounds of tumor that was on the precipitous of ending my life.  The surgery, HIPEC and post operative work have enabled me to be cancer free since my June 18, 2020 surgery.  This blessing has allowed me to witness both of our children graduate from high school, many other family milestones and countless other experiences that were so close to being snatched away from me.

So there it is.  I got lucky.  Lucky to meet Dr. Sardi.  Lucky to find Mercy Hospital in my backyard.  Lucky they would take my case (one surgeon would not).  And blessed for this outcome.  My luck is not easily replicable, but can be - WITH YOUR CONTRIBUTION!  Too many patients end up following the wrong path because rare cancers are too often put into traditional cancer boxes.  Heat It to Beat It is a campaign/calling focused to increase the knowledge base and awareness of pseudomyxoma peritonei cancers - appendix (like mine), but often ovarian and colon cancers.  Cancer most often around your organs and not within any one organ in particular.

Donating is quick and easy through this page, and all contributions are tax-deductible. You can also learn more about the event and its mission at www.heatit.org.

Please join Michael's Militia, donate what you can, walk if you are able, and enjoy the festivities on Sunday, September 27th.