News Article: Mike Stelter Battle With Cancer

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Bile duct cancer is basically an immediate death sentence. What's worse, it savages the body in indescribable ways. I'll never forgot how my old man suffered and the brutal meaninglessness of that suffering.

Condolences on the loss of your Dad. These soft tissue cancers are brutal because they are often only discovered at late stage. Can't forget my brother commuting home to see my dying Mom in hospital complain about throwing up what he thought was bad chicken. A year and a half and he was gone. My friend's pancreatic cancer was even worse diagnosed in January and gone May 1.

Easy to take health for granted and slip into complacency. Your story and many shared on this thread are heartbreaking reminders for us all to be on guard and pro-active with our own self care.

 

[soothsayer]

Condolences on the loss of your Dad. These soft tissue cancers are brutal because they are often only discovered at late stage. Can't forget my brother commuting home to see my dying Mom in hospital complain about throwing up what he thought was bad chicken. A year and a half and he was gone. My friend's pancreatic cancer was even worse diagnosed in January and gone May 1.

Easy to take health for granted and slip into complacency. Your story and many shared on this thread are heartbreaking reminders for us all to be on guard and pro-active with our own self care.

Very true. As the saying goes, the healthy person has a million desires; the sick person has only one.

 

[bellagiobob]

I feel like there's a Russian roulette when it comes to doctor's too. The family doctor I had as a kid could decide on the proper course of action within a minute of examining you, and afaik never made a mistake. Seriously, he was that good, although he had a very gruff demeanor (a tradeoff I think anyone would gladly accept). Every doctor I've had since then feels like their guessing a lot more than diagnosing, and sometimes I've had to insist on tests being done when the doctor didn't think it was necessary like your family did with your dad.

Sorry to hear about your dad and of course the Stelter's as well. It's crazy that he happened to get a form of the disease that isn't even covered by Healthcare.

Gut wrenching news. Positive thoughts and prayers to the Stelter family and to all of you who have shared stories of losing loved ones. Tomorrow is promised to no one is a phrase that I’ve tried to keep in the back of my mind every day and make sure that every day has memorable moments, whether big or small. I appreciate the health care system we have and the wonderful people who work in it, but you do need to be pleasantly aggressive when dealing within it. Do your own research, request tests, always get on cancellation lists for tests and procedures (has worked amazingly well for me in the past few months, have gotten four or five calls that shortened my wait time by months. Just be kind and polite with the scheduler, they really appreciate it.)

 

[OilerSuperstar17]

Yeah I don't even know what to say

Go Fund Me


Hi, my name is Danielle Ribich, and I created this page to help raise money for my sister, Lea, and her family as Mike was recently diagnosed with cancer. This family has been through so much after losing Ben and now with Mike being diagnosed with cancer not even a year later. They have never asked for anything or set up a GoFundMe while Ben battled but they need your help now.


After months of back pain an MRI revealed a tumour on Mike’s spine. A biopsy was done and after weeks of testing they still don’t know the exact type of tumor it is but said it’s rare and requires Proton Therapy for treatment. Canada is the only major Country in the world that doesn’t have this treatment available. Mike and Lea are going to have to travel to Pennsylvania for a consultation and testing, and then 7 weeks of treatment. So far, they’ve been told that only Mike’s flight to Pennsylvania and the treatment itself will be covered by Alberta Health. There still may be added expenses for testing, scans, and medication while in the United States.


For 7 weeks they will essentially be paying for 2 households while neither of them will be able to work. There will be a lot of expenses while they are away such as accommodations, flights, transportation, parking, meals, and medication along with their regular expenses at home. We are hoping that there aren’t any surprise costs with the treatment while they’re down there.


They are just waiting on dates right now, but they will likely be making their first trip for tests and the consultation within the next week.


Please help this family to take the stress of finances away so they can just focus on getting Mike better and getting back to normal life.


Even if you’re not able to donate, please share this Go Fund Me to help Mike and Lea.


Thank you so much for the support.

Man, it definitely sucks to hear about this. Hope he fully recovers

Genuine question though,

if they don't know what type of tumor it is, how do they know it's rare and requires that specific treatment?

 

[SaltNPeca]

I never understood why certain families get hit so hard with disease. This world feels like Russian Roulette sometimes with legit pieces of shit thriving and nice people suffering.

Often environmental factors play a huge part, followed by Genetic pre-disposition / susceptibility.

"certain families" may all have lived in the same house, neighborhood, town, etc. all with the same diet, air-born pollutants, toxic groundwater, catastrophic incidents, toxic soils, etc.

I know of a family who grew up running an apple & peach Orchard in BC that by now all suffered various ill effects incl. various cancers & related early death. It is not random chance nor only genetics: they took in pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc. related to the orchards.

 

[brentashton]

Often environmental factors play a huge part, followed by Genetic pre-disposition / susceptibility.

"certain families" may all have lived in the same house, neighborhood, town, etc. all with the same diet, air-born pollutants, toxic groundwater, catastrophic incidents, toxic soils, etc.

I know of a family who grew up running an apple & peach Orchard in BC that by now all suffered various ill effects incl. various cancers & related early death. It is not random chance nor only genetics: they took in pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc. related to the orchards.

Yep. Genetics and environment will play large parts in determining a person’s longevity and health. I lived predominantly in 2 industrial towns - petrochemical, have family that farmed and I worked with them on free days, never wore
Rubber safety gear, respirators etc.. Shit, I know I ate food out in the field without washing hands after handing chemicals . Stupid actions but 45 years ago people didn’t concern themselves with that. I’m probably a walking billboard for what not to do, and yet with God’s good graces here I am (i also should be dead because of so many other stupid lifestyle choices when I was 15-30).

My MIL died of a variant of Parkinson’s (supranucular palsy - it’s also what Linda Rondstadt suffers from, not well understood or has a cause been definitively determined but on the farm my MIL was exposed to an insecticide product called Konk in the livestock barns on a daily basis. From research our family has done, it leads one to wonder…

Prayers to the Stelters.