Teddy Tough Apparel - Supply Drop!

"Teddy Tough" is dedicated to Jordan Shemanski’s fight against Stage IV Gastric Cancer. Jordan is a 31-year-old staff sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, currently assigned to Airborne Mobile Training Team, Weapons and Training Battalion aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., as a parachute rigger and high-risk training instructor. He is a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom. He and Natalie, his wife of six years, reside in Locust Grove, Va, along with their two-year-old son JT.

For the last three years, Jordan has experienced chronic pain from acid reflux-like symptoms, excruciating stomach pains, and a lot of unexplained weight loss. In addition to these health challenges, numerous doctor visits yielded little in the way of pinpointing the true problem, and only resulted in him receiving medication for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Jordan was finally diagnosed on July 25th, 2017, with Stage IV Gastric Cancer, commonly referred to as stomach cancer. It was not an easy diagnosis.

Early on, the doctors were hopeful the cancer had not spread into his abdomen, and very hopeful to cure him with chemotherapy and gastric surgery, in which they would remove most or all of his stomach. However, after the last of his tests came back from a diagnostic laparoscopy, we were told on August 17th, 2017, that the cancer had, in-fact, spread into Jordan’s abdomen. With stomach cancer being a very aggressive cancer, the prognosis was not good. Since traditional surgery was no longer an option, and a "cure" was not available to him, other treatment options were explored. Jordan was accepted as a candidate for a medical trial at M.D Anderson, in Houston, Texas. The first part of Jordan's clinical trial was a surgical procedure called a HIPEC. It's a laparoscopic hyperthermic intra-peritoneal chemotherapy. Basically, they made 3 incisions into his abdomen and filled it with a mixture of hot chemo to wash out the diseased areas where the cancer was outside of his stomach. The second part of his trial was a partial gastrectomy. The surgery required removal of a large portion of his stomach, leaving only about 25%. They also removed a portion of his abdominal wall. Jordan has had several complications from his procedure, including acites (fluid accumulation in his abdomen) that has needed to be drained multiple times, hydronephrosis (fluid on his kidneys), thickening of his small bowel, gastroparesis (a condition caused by damage to the vagus nerve which prevents muscles in the stomach and intestine from functioning, not allowing food to move through the digestive system), issues with his feeding tube, malnourishment, and severe, unmanageable pain. This has been a very scary, emotional and trying time, but Jordan and his family refuse to give up hope, and are diligently pursuing alternative avenues for a "cure.”