Local man begins battle with rare form of cancer

Steve Gardner undergoing chemotherapy

It started with an itchy sensation in his skin and has now turned into a battle with cancer, specifically, cholangiocarcinoma.
Steve Gardner, 38 years old and a father of two boys, moved to the Gunnison Valley in July 1996. He has run the gamut of jobs, starting with working as a laborer and working for the ski resort, first at the Roaring Elk Restaurant and then as a lift op. He and his wife moved to Vermont from 1999 to 2002 before returning to Crested Butte. Steve started a painting business, got his math teaching certificate and spent a semester teaching at the Crested Butte Community School, earning the nickname Mr. Burns from his students. With his painting business slowing down, Steve started coaching the boy’s U-14 town soccer team last fall and returned to the lifts at the resort for the 2010-2011 season as a lift supervisor in charge of the Peachtree and Westwall lifts.
Last December Steve scheduled an appointment with a doctor to find out why his skin was so itchy. The day of his appointment, December 21 to be exact, his skin turned yellow and doctors drew some blood to find out what might be going on.
According to Steve his bilirubin levels were “off the chart” and doctors saw that his liver “wasn’t functioning like it should.”
“They said, ‘You better pack a bag and go to Grand Junction right now,’” explains Steve.
Further tests the next day in Grand Junction pointed to a blockage in Steve’s liver but the doctors were unable to get more information from the tests they ran. Whatever it was, they knew Steve had to have more tests.
“The doctor there said, ‘You better go to Denver and see the pros,’” says Steve.
On December 23 Steve was in Denver at the University Hospital hepatology department. On December 24, he underwent another series of tests during which doctors realized one of his two bile ducts was blocked. A stint was placed in the blocked duct and a week later he was placed on the list for a liver transplant.
Further tests revealed that the growth had spread, and on January 20 Steve was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, taken off the liver transplant list, and moved from hepatology to oncology.
“Once you get diagnosed with cancer, they take you off the transplant list,” explains Steve. “It was pretty overwhelming.”
While the doctor in hepatology gave Steve a year to live, the oncology department has since changed that.
“Nobody in oncology gave me odds,” says Steve, “which is better, I feel.”
According to Steve, he has a couple of things working in his favor. First and foremost is his age. The type of cancer he has often affects people twice his age; he believes that since he is younger, he is stronger to battle his illness.
“The doctors are giving me a better chance,” says Steve.
The first step for Steve in his battle is chemotherapy. His first scheduled treatments for chemotherapy were delayed due to a high fever and an infection he incurred as a result of a biopsy.
Initially, he thought he would have to travel to Denver for his chemotherapy but he is now in the care of Dr. Schmidt in Delta and can receive his treatments at Gunnison Valley Hospital with Chuck Turner, the hospital’s director of oncology and special procedures.
Steve started chemotherapy on Monday, March 14 in Gunnison and will continue with treatments two of the next three weeks.
“We’re basically in a holding pattern until I get some chemo through me,” says Steve. “It all depends on how the cancer reacts to the treatment.”
He has been overwhelmed by the support, both financial and emotional, from the community. Events such as the Crested Butte professional ski patrol Attitude Adjustment party and the Stephen Gardner Kick in the Arsenal Soccer Classic have raised money to help with medical costs.
“I would like to see the soccer tournament turn into a yearly thing,” says Steve, “as a benefit for someone else or for a turf [soccer] field here. I want to do that for the kids and if I do pass along, I would like it started.”
In the meantime, Steve just tries to keep his mind off the cancer and on other things, but it’s hard, he admits.
“Some days are better than others,” says Steve. “It’s a day-to-day thing and you just try not to go there in your mind.”