Easter message rings true as Holmes County man finds peace through cancer battle

BERLIN TWP. − An unexplained peacefulness came over Nevin Mishler as he filled out his do-not-resuscitate orders.

It was October of 2021 when the Holmes County husband and father of two sons learned he had stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma and would be in for the fight of his life.

Doctors had found a softball-sized mass on his small bowel and he was in MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland to begin treatment.

Not without setbacks, less than two years later he's cancer free. And Mishler believes the steady calm he felt throughout the ordeal came from his faith and overwhelming family and community support, which has guided him to a new outlook this Easter season.

"I don't know how somebody without faith in God could get through something like this," Mishler said recently from Hiland High School during a basketball fundraiser for Hannah Kandel, another Holmes County resident fighting cancer.

The memory of coach Reese and his battle with cancer

Before his diagnosis, Mishler said his closest brush with cancer came through his relationship with his former basketball coach, Perry Reese. He saw how quickly Reese deteriorated and ultimately died in November of 2000, and that remained in the back of his mind.

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Mishler made a name for himself playing for Reese as a member of the state champion Hiland Hawks basketball team in 1992. Mishler, along with his twin brother Kevin, Hank (Jr.) Raber, Jason Hummel, Jeremy Stangelo, Kevin Troyer, Brent Weaver and Randy Troyer earned the moniker "Berlin Bombers" because of their propensity for dropping 3-point bombs on Hiland opponents during their state title run.

Mishler parlayed his sharpshooting skills into a partial scholarship to West Liberty before transferring to Marietta where he earned a degree in computer sciences. He married his high school sweetheart Kari Burkey and they settled into life in Holmes County, raising their sons, Carter, 18, and Caleb, 15.

In October 2021, Mishler had watched his son Carter and his Hiland teammates capture their second state golf championship, finishing a four-year run that included two state titles, a runner-up and a fourth-place finish.

A few months prior, he had experienced some stomach pain and was being treated for an ulcer that didn't seem to be getting any better. A couple of weeks after the golf tournament, the pain had worsened and his wife encouraged him to go to the emergency room.

"They did a CT scan on my abdomen area and found a mass on my small bowel," he said. "They sent me straight to MetroHealth in Cleveland (the only place with beds available). ... I started treatment with an oncologist."

The diagnosis was a shock and tears flowed, "but there was a sense of peace that came over me that I don't know how to explain," he said.

Cancer treatment shows promise, then a setback

Mishler was hospitalized for several weeks and received five cycles of chemotherapy.

Finally, in March of 2022, he got a clear scan, though he was still having trouble keeping down food.

The once strong athlete had dropped to about 130 pounds. But the treatment was working. By May, he started to feel better.

"Ever since I accepted Jesus as my personal savior as a teenager, I've known the significance of Easter and what it represents: Jesus conquered death," Mishler said while reflecting on his experience. "However, death seemed a long way off, as I still considered myself young and in decent shape. Then cancer hit me, and at one point I was given a 15% chance of surviving. That put death front and center."

In late May, Mishler suffered a setback while visiting family in Cincinnati. He woke up one evening and couldn't move.

His wife drove him to Cleveland where doctors found a tumor on his spine that was affecting his mobility. Once again he was hospitalized and had to undergo emergency radiation and chemo.

"I was bedridden. I was in the hospital for another 30 days," he said.

Mishler remained in a wheelchair while he went through occupational and physical therapy for another month.

"That second bout with cancer was a lot harder to deal with than the first round because of how it affected my physical ability," he said.

Mishler's oncologist sent him to Cleveland Clinic to try chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, a way to get white blood cellsto fight cancer by changing them in the lab so they can find and destroy cancer cells.

"This was ultimately the procedure that cured my cancer," he said. "Basically, they extracted white blood cells out of me, shipped them to a pharmacy in LA that modified the white blood cells, put them back in me and 30 days later, I was cancer free."

Mishler received his CAR T-cells on Sept. 6, 2022, and by October, the Mishler family received the good news.

Overwhelming community support

Last July, Mishler lost his job. However, within a week or so of learning he was able to go back to work, he was hired in the IT department at Weaver Leather.

"In addition to my faith, the outpouring from our community was overwhelming," he said. "I've always heard the worst part about living in Holmes County is how everybody knows your business. But the best part of living in Holmes County is that everybody knows your business. If you have a crisis or a medical thing hit you like I did, I can't tell you the number of churches that gave gas cards or provided financial support. Friends that stopped into visit, called, supported us.

Countless prayers were offered up in his name, many by people he didn't know. Someone from Millersburg sent him a blanket in the mail they had made for him.

One mom, who knew Mishler was missing his son's eighth-grade basketball games, recorded the entire season and posted it to YouTube so that he was able to watch from his hospital bed.

"I had a friend who wanted to bless us in a very generous way, and I told him I couldn't accept that," Mishler continued. "But he told me if I tell him no, I'd be denying him the opportunity to serve the way God needed him to serve."

Faith and family win out over golf

The All-Ohio career Carter Mishler put together as a golfer at Hiland earned him a scholarship to Ashland University where he became the top player for the Eagles.

Carter said he didn’t play as much golf as he wanted, and knew his game wasn’t where it needed to be heading into his freshman year at Ashland, “but I also knew some things were more important than golf,” he said. “I would be okay with sacrificing that to see my father."

Mishler said he was buoyed by his faith, his family and the community support, which helped him keep a positive attitude.

“Seeing the small blessings that prior to cancer I would have taken for granted was a lesson learned," he said. "Cancer forced me to slow down. I walk slower, I eat slower and it forced me to open my eyes and see blessings I would not have seen before."

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Faith, family & friends help Holmes County man conquer cancer