ONE NSU MAGAZINE Luckily, it hadn’t attached to her heart or lungs.” What followed would be a blur of appointments, treatments, chemotherapy, and disappointments. First came a total hysterectomy, followed by six grueling months of chemotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells. By late 2019, her health seemed on the upswing, as Naomi’s hair was growing back and her energy was returning. But in June 2020, Naomi’s physician shared devastating news—the cancer had returned and was even more aggressive. BIG APPLE ANGST AND COVID While Naomi was fighting to regain her wellness in Iowa, Matthew was experiencing profound challenges in New York. “You can be surrounded by millions of people and still feel extremely alone,” said Ricci, who was tied to a one-year professional contract in the Big Apple. When his contract ended in September 2019, Ricci returned to Florida to spend three months with his family and Naomi before returning to New York in January 2020 to launch a new career with FreeWill, where he helps guide nonprofits from grassroots to nationally recognized pursuits regarding ways to expand their planned giving opportunities. Three months into his new job, however, upheaval appeared in the form of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. “We had recently moved into a gorgeous office between Tribeca and SoHo. Then, four weeks later, the pandemic forced us to shut down,” he explained. “We packed everything up, closed the office, took our laptops, went home to our families, and never returned to the office. The company is now 100 percent remote.” FEVER TO FREEZE: RADICAL RESET One benefit of the pandemic was that it allowed Ricci to return to Iowa, work remotely, and be with Naomi. Because traditional treatments had failed to quell the cancer, she enrolled in a revolutionary clinical trial at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota that comprises an mRNA type of vaccine treatment. “Basically, the treatment trains your body to learn how to fight cancer,” Ricci explained. “What they did was sedate Naomi, make her run a 104-degree fever, and then cool her body through a full body suit with recirculating, 60-degree water. Every 45 minutes or so, they would take 10 vials of blood from her, extract what they needed from it for testing, and then put it back in. This went on for four days, and then they monitored her closely for the next two weeks.” Naomi, who was one of the first 70 patients to participate in the trial, knew this was essentially her last hope. “I had to read and sign a three-inch stack of forms, as well as learn about the risk of the treatments, because one person had already died in the study,” she said. “But this was my last chance to live without having to go through chemotherapy again, which was horrible.” For the next year, the couple fell into a specific routine, with him working from home and her at Upper Iowa University, interspersed with regular visits to the Mayo Clinic. “Naomi was getting her treatments every three weeks, so we were traveling back and forth, four hours round trip each time,” Ricci explained. “Some days, we stayed in a hotel while they ran tests.” Toward the end of 2021, how- ever, Naomi’s physicians had a serious talk with the couple, telling Naomi she wasn’t going to recover emotionally and physically until she took time off from her demanding work schedule. “She was running a phone-a-thon and hosting a parade during homecoming,” Ricci said. “She would set all that up—car shows, alumni events, football games, baseball games—and work from 11:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m.” Clearly, something had to change. “I had to read and sign a three-inch stack of forms, as well as learn about the risk.” 22
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