Help Luke with His Fight Against Cancer!

Venmo@bigppooks651. On October 8th, Luke was diagnosed with “stage 4 metastatic malignant melanoma”.  This all began on October 1st.  Luke was getting ready for another day of work and college when he noticed that he was experiencing an extreme shortness of breath. Making it up the stairs was an impossible task.  He also had what felt like a cramp that never went away on his left calf which made it very difficult to walk.  So instead of going to work, Luke dropped his step son Madox off at school and went to the urgent care expecting to receive some antibiotics for a cold. However, he was told that he had a “massive pleural effusion and a dot that turned into a pulmonary embolism”. Which are blood clots in his leg that traveled to his lung, along with fluid in his left lung. Luke was immediately transported to the ER at Ridges in Burnsville.  While there, he had a chest tube inserted for 6 days where over 14 liters of blood and fluid was drained from his lungs.  At this point, he essentially had one lung as the left one was entirely collapsed. His heart had literally been pushed to the other side of his body from the pressure.  Once most of the fluid had been drained, the doctors noticed a large mass below his left lung.  This mass was later diagnosed as a “metastatic malignant melanoma”.  Luke was diagnosed as a Stage 4 cancer patient because his cancer had progressed to other areas of his body.  The outlook on this type of cancer is historically not very good but Luke is committed to the fight and wants to see his young family keep growing and even make some additions God willing. Today, October 14th, he underwent his first cancer therapy session which is a progressive treatment called immunotherapy.  His next scheduled therapy is next month and he has many weekly appointments for monitoring.
Luke had a very tough time agreeing to this GoFundMe as unfortunately for those of you who know him know quite well he is stubborn and will do anything to fix a situation himself.  We are at the point where he understands that asking for help is best for both him and his family.  He is a full time student as well at Metro State and had a full time job at State Farm.  These conditions are going to prevent him from working or graduating in December as he was scheduled. These funds will be very much appreciated by Luke and his loved ones more than most people could realize.  Luke has spent every waking moment, dollar, and a ounce of effort these past 3 years working and going to school for his family to try and better our lives for the future. He is a hockey dad and football dad as well. He has sacrificed a lot of time that he thought he would be able to make up.  After he got the diagnosis, he felt like he had let his family down. The bills are going to start stacking up pretty quickly because he has no income currently.  We had a bit of savings but that was spent with the most recent round of tuition and books. Luke and his family do not have a ton available to them and he is uninsurable for life insurance. With any donations, our family would be extremely grateful.  The plan for the funds are to make it so we can pay our bills since he is out of work and I am trying to work as much as possible but still grind through life as it does not stop when someone you love has cancer.  We have decided that our family time is the most important goal and would love to take a week off to enjoy a Family vacation together while Luke is still healthy enough to enjoy it.  Next, the funds would be used on any outstanding medical bills or debts to ensure that no burden is passed on to Luke’s family if he were to pass.  For his type of cancer, they are unable to tell until about month 3 or 4 as to whether the treatments are even working.  Luke’s hope is that this GoFundMe will allow him to take action and spend memorable time with his family sooner rather than later.  So if the worst were to happen, he would still be healthy enough to accomplish the things that he wants to do with us.  
We appreciate everyone who took the time to read this article very greatly!  If you are able to contribute you are much appreciated and Luke will be thanking all of you personally. If you are unable to contribute please pray for him.  Please share this link with those who you think might know Luke or are advocates for the cause as that will only expand our horizons.  He’s a tough man and he’s in for a very tough fight but he’s prepared to battle all the way through for his family and all of the great friends he has in his life! 

Thank you again and God Bless.