LITTLE CHUTE, Wis. (WFRV) – Michael Heidtman has lived a life of service.
Heidtman said he joined the military so that he could eventually pay his way through college. In 2004, he was deployed to Iraq. When he returned to civilian life after his deployment, he said it was a difficult adjustment. His previous employer no longer had a job for him, and he said he struggled with his mental health after his service.
“I had a very tough time with the readjustment process,” he told Local Five News during an interview at the Little Chute Public Library on Thursday afternoon. “I felt very lost and felt very alone. I was very depressed.”
He said enrolling in college and finding a new mission in helping others helped get him past that tough part of his life. Heidtman earned several degrees, including a master’s and then spent 14 years serving others as a therapist who helps out combat Veterans.
‘Your trash is our treasure’: Fox Valley Technical College students collect used electronics
“Because they need Veterans who have these war and military experiences to be able to relate to when you’re sitting in front of a counselor,” he said. “Because it’s very difficult to talk about it.”
In 2006, shortly after he returned to the United States, Heidtman said he noticed a hard lump underneath his jawbone. Doctors told him it was simply a duct that a calcium buildup in the area had clogged up.
Fast forward to 2022, and Heidtman said he was again concerned about the lump because it had gotten bigger. While he waited for further testing, doctors told him to suck on hard candy and massage the area to soothe any discomfort he had from the lump.
At the end of 2022, doctors cut the lump out of his throat. They then diagnosed him with a salivary gland cancer called Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma.
“It was very gutting, I felt very defeated,” Heidtman said when asked about his reaction to the cancer diagnosis. “I cried for a good week, at least five days. Then I looked in the mirror one day and said you got to get up and keep going.”
Heidtman attacked his cancer treatments, completing 33 sessions of radiation in about three months, and eventually his cancer went into remission.
Unfortunately, the good news was short-lived. A scan at the end of last year revealed that his cancer had spread to his lungs and was now in stage four. Doctors told him that he would likely have three to five years to live and then would need to enter hospice care. It was a prognosis he wasn’t willing to accept.
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay honors inhabitants ahead of construction of new library
“I just got really angry and said there’s got to be a better path and I have to advocate for myself because I’m not going to just trust the process,” he said. “I have three children, two that are young yet that are in grade school. They need me, my wife needs me. It’s important for me to be here and I wasn’t going to accept that.”
Heidtman said that he began to do some research and discovered that the top specialists for his type of cancer were at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He decided to reach out and said doctors there gave him a much better prognosis if he took part in some of their clinical trials.
An organization called HunterSeven Foundation helped him pay for some of his first trips to Houston to speak with doctors there and get treatment. This organization helps Veterans who contracted cancer after being exposed to toxins during their military service.
“Utilize different services, access different funds,” said Keith Dow with HunterSeven. “Pointing them in the right direction for treatment and things like that. Rallying around the community to get them into treatment, that’s what I love about what we do.”
Heidtman said that it quickly became apparent that moving to Houston would be his best shot if he wanted to extend his life.
New plaza unveiled with ribbon-cutting in Hobart, site of Wisconsin’s ‘longest car-wash’
“After seeing the clinical trials, though, they run where you have doctors’ appointments three out of four weeks per month,” he said. “Two to three appointments per week.”
HunterSeven has set up a fundraiser to raise $100,000 for Heidtman. That money will help take care of his moving costs to Houston and help him be able to participate in the clinical trials.
Heidtman still has young children and said he’s made it his goal to live long enough to see all of his children graduate from high school. He said it’s his family that powers him through his darkest moments, living with this horrible disease.
“I want to set an example because I’ve been an advocate my entire adult life,” he said. “I’m a Vet, a father, a brother, and a son. I’m trying really hard to push, so that I can continue to help other people within reason.”
“He lives to help other Veterans and now he needs help himself, and that is what stands out to me,” said Dow with HunterSeven.
To donate to the fundraiser, please click here.
