Support Michael Scott’s Fight Against Cancer

Posting on behalf of Michael Scott and Paula Pavlich’s children, Chris, Braedon and Hunter.

As many of you may know our dad, Michael Scott became ill in October and was ultimately diagnosed with Stage 4 Esophageal cancer. His specific type of cancer has proven to be a bit complex and has made it difficult for him to feel the benefits of any treatment. Our dad has undergone six weeks of chemo that unfortunately was deemed ineffective. This allowed the cancer to progress and so he started an aggressive series of radiation to reduce the tumors while the medical teams, both at Eureka and Stanford devised a new treatment regimen. Through a subsequent biopsy Dad has been identified to receive immunotherapy in addition to a new chemo regimen, and as an alternative he qualifies as a candidate for a groundbreaking clinical trial at Stanford. He has had (1) treatment of the new chemo recipe so far, but then became sick with pneumonia with very low blood counts and had to be hospitalized this week. Through all this poking, prodding and shift in life circumstances, our dad continues to keep a positive mindset despite all the setbacks he has endured. Anyone who knows our dad has seen his positive attitude at work and his never-ending smile. He continues to find the humor in everything and is always messing around with medical staff and their equipment and keeping it light. That is how he is approaching this life challenge today.

Cancer’s burden doesn’t stop with symptoms and treatments. The financial cost is just as unfair. Dad has lost his employment and with that also his medical insurance. He also does not qualify for disability insurance, so the family has been without his income for the duration of his illness. Our mom has been very resilient and fortunate enough to handle the household’s finances for the past 5 months, but unfortunately things are starting to become unmanageable, and she is finding it more difficult to manage her work duties while caring for our dad. Given the uncertainties surrounding Dad’s treatment and the stress that his absence from work has caused, we’ve decided it is time to set pride aside and ask for help.

We love our dad, and we never expected the trajectory of our life to take such a sharp turn. We have had a small group of family and friends that have helped us to get to this point and without them we would not be able to manage the day to day. We are also so grateful for the love and encouragement of so many of you that have reached out and offered your kindness and prayers. We want to do everything possible to be helpful, and so that our dad can focus on himself and healing and not fixated on the financial burden this has placed.

For those of you that can, helping financially, even in small increments, chips away at that weight. Spread across enough of us, we can help bear a big portion of his burden.

~ Chris, Braedon, and Hunter ~