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This page will be dedicated specifically to providing updates on Coach Dave Gaunce and his pancreatic cancer journey.

06/11/2022

Hi guys! It’s been a while since we updated this page. That’s truly such a gift, because it means that for the first time in a long while, we haven’t had any news to share. But now we do!

For those of you who haven’t already heard, a few weeks ago Dad had his first “surveillance” scan since finishing his treatment plan. While the majority of his scan looked great, his doctors did find a small spot on his liver. Because of his (recent) history, they didn’t want to take any chances, so they scheduled an MRI to determine what exactly it was. There was a long wait, and we won’t pretend that those weeks of waiting and wondering were easy for any of us. They weren’t. But! He finally had the MRI last week, and he received a call the next day letting him know that he had nothing to worry about. The liver spot is not cancer!

We are so grateful and relieved, and we’re looking forward to a much happier and more joyful holiday season than last year’s. Dad will continue his surveillance scans for the next year, at least, and we will keep you guys updated as he has them!

Thank you all for your continual support, kindness, and prayers. We’ll never be able to express just how much they’ve meant to all of us. 💜💜

12/08/2022

HE DID IT!!!!!!

Exactly 261 days after his diagnosis… Dad’s treatments are officially over. We’re not crying, you’re crying.

We couldn’t be more proud of him, and we couldn’t be more grateful for all of you. Dad will start surveillance now, which means he will continue having scans and blood work regularly for a while, just to make sure everything still looks like it should. So please don’t stop praying for him!

For now, he’s thrilled to get back to doing what he loves most: coaching!! 💜💜💜

PS: thank you to his incredibly thoughtful players from St. Patrick for surprising him with this sign!! He LOVED it!

13/07/2022

And he’s off!! Dad headed to his TENTH chemo infusion this morning! Feel free to send him allllll of the encouraging words, funny jokes, and prayers! It may be a rough week… but the end of this is truly in sight.

💜💜

09/07/2022

Update time!

We are all feeling so thankful that Dad has enjoyed a few days of feeling really good! He had bloodwork done yesterday, and his vascular surgeon will re-implant his chemo port on Monday. He has been cleared by his medical team at Oschner to start his remaining chemo treatments this upcoming Wednesday!

We’ve heard from many people that the chemotherapy treatments after surgery will likely be a bit tougher on him. Thank goodness we’ve got a tough dad! 💪

At this point, our specific prayer requests are 1) that he will be able to endure the post-op infusions with relative ease, and 2) that these last three treatments will handle any remaining cancer cells in his body WITH FORCE. 🙏🏻

Dad’s spirits are high right now, and every encouraging text, message, card, and phone call he gets only serves to lift them more. So please don’t stop! We believe SO strongly in his ability to beat this, and with God’s help, his story will be so powerful on the other side of this cancer journey. 🙌

To all of you asking to come visit: please know that he is so very anxious to get these last treatments behind him so he can have visitors again. His (very) overprotective family has kept him pretty isolated! 😊

As always, we are grateful. Thank you for every show of compassion, generosity, friendship, and love. It has truly kept this entire family afloat. We love you all, and we can’t wait to see you all again so soon. Football season is just around the corner!! 🏈

💜💜

25/06/2022

Hi, friends. Time for an update on Dad!

Dad had his first post-surgery checkup this past Thursday at Oschner. He’s now three weeks out from his Whipple procedure, and recovery-wise he’s doing incredibly well. So far he’s had NO complications! This was a huge answer to prayer.

We also received the results of the pathology report, and that was a bit of a mixed bag. We got some GREAT news: the tumor was successfully removed, and all the margins were negative (🙌🙏🏻)! The not-as-great news: they also took a sampling of 20 lymph nodes to test, and one of those twenty tested positive. It was only one, but one is enough to warrant a few more rounds of chemo before he’s officially done with treatment. We anticipated that he would need another 2 or 3 rounds of chemo after surgery, so this is entirely expected. We feel so confident in this treatment plan and in his brilliant medical team. We have every reason to believe that Dad will be back on the field/court this fall!

Please don’t stop praying and hoping and believing, because we aren’t done with this fight just yet! As a dear family member put it: we fought like crazy to get to overtime, and now we have ALL the momentum headed into the final stretch!!

Thank you for all of your support and love. We love you guys.

(PS: This picture was my dad’s hospital bedside view. 😂💙🏀)

💜💜

08/06/2022

After a full week of the most incredible, diligent care… guess who passed every test with flying colors and is currently on his way HOME?!! 🙌🙏🏻💜💜💜

05/06/2022

Are we collectively talking the ears off of every single nurse/doctor/staff member that we encounter? Yup. Is it because we’re *thrilled* with Dad’s progress and current recovery status? YUP.

He’s absolutely killin’ it, y’all! On track to be back home early next week! Those prayers are working overtime. We are so thankful for you. All of you.

💜💜

02/06/2022

Great news! Dad’s surgery was a total success!!! 🙌🙏🏻💜

The surgery lasted for about 6 hours. We spoke to his surgeon afterwards, and he told us he “could not have asked for a better surgery.” (!!) There were no complications or surprises, the tumor was successfully removed, and he saw no sign of anything concerning. We’ll get the final pathology report back in a couple of weeks.

We just got to see dad for the first time. He looks great, and he is still under just enough anesthesia to think he’s hilarious (he’s not wrong). 😂 He will be in ICU for a night or two, and then he’ll be moved to a regular room for the remainder of his stay. Our biggest focus now is his recovery and making sure that any potential complications from the surgery are caught and tended to quickly. We aren’t out of the woods yet, but today’s surgery was a HUGE step in the right direction. We are so thankful and so relieved.

We felt the love today, more than ever. Thank you thank you thank you.

💜💜

01/06/2022

BIG update time!!

After nine rounds of chemotherapy… tomorrow is the day! Dad’s Whipple procedure is finally happening. At 8am tomorrow morning, an incredible surgical team (and a pretty cool robot) will begin an 8 hour surgery to remove Dad’s tumor.

This whole crew will be in New Orleans for the next week. We would love your prayers, thoughts, good vibes, encouraging words… anything you got! We feel so strongly that dad is gonna whip this Whipple! 💪

Updates soon. Love y’all.

💜💜

22/05/2022

Hi, all! We are t-minus 10 days from surgery, and our biggest goal right now is to put some pounds on Dad! He’s feeling stronger every day, and he’s getting into fighting shape for June 1!

We also want to mention that we are feeling beyond thankful to Kylie Herron and the Cotillion Club of Gulfport who have chosen to donate $8,000 to pancreatic cancer research (Pancreatic Cancer Action Network) in honor of our dad. We are continually moved by the generosity of so many in our community.

💜💜💜

07/05/2022

This beautiful sunrise was the beginning of a great day on Thursday. It was a very long day at Oschner, but Dad received such encouraging news! After his scans in the morning, he met with his medical team and they told him that his tumor is officially shrinking!! All of his bloodwork and lab numbers continue to look great, and there is no sign of any spread! 🙌🙌

Additionally, his oncologist decided to go ahead with ONE more chemo infusion this upcoming week (Tuesday!), with the *hope* that he may not need any more at all after his surgery! This is such encouraging and happy news for all of us, but especially for Dad.

He is officially on the schedule for major surgery on June 1. Please send some big, extra prayers and good thoughts between now and then. Again, we cannot thank you enough for your kindness and support, and especially for your prayers. God is listening!

💜💜

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1601 Fairway Dr

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