Stevo's journey

Stevo’s Journey

As you may know, Steve and Haley have had an extremely rough trot since they were married in 2009. About 5 months into their marriage Steve had a sore right bicep and doctors told him that it was probably R.S.I from his job as an aluminium joiner. The pain continued to persist and Steve decided to go to a doctor in Picton for a second opinion and it turned out that he had a rare type of cancer called Synovial Sarcoma. Only about 2 people in NZ get diagnosed with this type of cancer every year. Therefore, Specialists don’t know much about treating it.

The tumour was the size of a grapefruit. He had to undergo 7 weeks of intense Radiotherapy treatment in the Christchurch Hospital to shrink the tumour, before having the tumour and his bicep muscle removed. Once the tumour was removed, Steve went onto having three monthly scans for surveillance of the area and his lungs, as that was the most likely place it would show up if it was to reappear.

To our disbelief, two years later the cancer had spread from his arm to his left lung, for which he underwent surgery in Christchurch to remove the growth. He then went on to have six weeks of “top shelf” Chemotherapy at Nelson Hospital. He spent 4 nights in hospital every second week to have this treatment done. Steve lost all of his body hair including his eyelashes due to the Chemotherapy.

Before Steve started Chemotherapy treatment they had made the decision to try and start a family. They only had a very short time to achieve this before he started his treatment and fortunately they were successful! Mahli is the light at the end of their dark tunnel.

Just before Haley was due to give birth, Steve suffered from a Pneumothorax (while Haley was in Hokitika for her Nana’s 80th surprise party) and of course this was a very stressful time for them both as Stevo had to stay in hospital for awhile to recover. I am sure that Haley waited until he was safely at home to give birth, as the night that he arrived home from hospital, she went into labour and beautiful Mahli was born the next morning. They are both such proud and amazing parents who love their daughter with their whole hearts.

With all of this going on they have still remained extremely positive and happy even though at times it must be so incredibly difficult to continue in such a brave manner. Fortunately, Stevo and Haley are both very positive people and I believe this is a big part of the reason why he gets through all of the treatment so well.

In August of this year they were informed again that another "lump" had shown up in Steve’s other lung, for which he again underwent surgery in Christchurch. The specialist said that Chemotherapy wasn’t really an option this time, as there wasn’t any success from the first attempt.

At the moment it is another tricky time in Steve’s journey. Two weeks ago Steve had a follow up appointment where they found out that two new tumours have grown in his lung and possibly a third in his other. The surgeons have decided to wait three months, so the tumours can grow and it would be easier to remove them, as they are only about 1cm in size at the moment.

Steve has done some research and found out about vitamin C infusions. These infusions transfer massive amounts of Vitamin C into his bloodstream and he has just undergone his first “dose” today in Mapua. He will begin with having 3 doses per week for 3 weeks and then will stop over Christmas time. None of the infusions are funded and are quite expensive.

Currently we are trying to research other treatment options for Steve and even if it means travelling abroad to find the best possible options for him, then of course we will do that. Because this is a very emotionally and physically draining time for him (and Haley) we don’t want them to have to have any financial worries. So we have set up a give-a-little page to help fund his battle.

-Nikki