Memorial Service

Heartfelt thanks go out to all of you who were able to attend Emily's memorial service this weekend. It was a wonderful tribute to see all of the people who cared about her gathered in one place. Her memorial slideshow was one of the highlights of the day so I have put a link below for those who would like to see it.

Click here for slideshow

This will be my last post. You are finally and forever abreast of the situation.

Final Words

Heaven was graced with the spirit of Emily Wardwell Porter on Saturday, September 11, 2010. Her life, though short in years, was a gift to all who knew her. Born on December 4, 1975, she was a bright, beautiful and imaginative child. She graduated from Bend Senior High, where she was a varsity football and basketball cheerleader. In 1998, she received her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Western Oregon University. After college, she pursued a variety of career interests, including work at Tektronix, Western Business College, Clinical Options and Shiftwise.

Emily also tried many types of recreational activities over the years. She enjoyed hiking, canoeing, kayaking and even spent one summer on a Dragon Boat team. She loved to travel and always had a new idea of a place she wanted to visit. But, above everything else, she loved music. Going to a concert or a musical was always her ideal way to spend a day. Never was she happier than those hours spent listening to live music or watching a grand theatrical performance.

In 2007, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she fought tirelessly. When traditional treatments failed her, she researched alternative choices and drastically altered her lifestyle in an effort to make herself healthy again. Her resilience and dedication to her own recovery garnered much respect and admiration from all those around her.

She is survived by her parents, John and Priscilla Porter and sister Lisa von Wasmuth and her beloved nieces Kathryn and Jocelyn. Her beautiful smile and contagious laughter will never be forgotten. A memorial service will be held on October 9, 2010 at 3pm at Evergreen Memorial Gardens in Vancouver, WA. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to Hospice Southwest, PO Box 1600, Vancouver, WA 98668.

Pain Management

On Thursday afternoon, Emily's pain was so severe that her doctors recommended she go to the ER. They admitted her to the hospital and the first order of business was to find her a pain killer that would actually work, unlike the Advil and Oxycodone she had been taking. She was also dehydrated and extremely tense, both of which were exacerbating her symptoms. Once the docs were able to dull her pain with Dilaudid, they focused on relaxing her body so she could get even more relief from the new drugs in her system. She decided that it was wise for her to spend the night in the hospital to try to get some much needed rest while being monitored by the staff. On Friday she was seen by a barrage of specialists who offered many ideas about the source of her pain and how they could relieve it, but all were a bust. After another chest CT, it was determined that there was indeed fluid in her lung which was pressing on her trachea, but it could not be drained because the tumor had caused the lung to collapse.

The nurse requested that she stay another night in the hospital because they needed to work out a pain management plan for her that would be appropriate for use at home. Saturday was spent trying a couple of different medications, none of which did anything but make her a complete zombie who could still feel a great deal of pain. She hopes to be released from the hospital on Sunday with a new plan in place to keep her comfortable. I will try to keep the blog updated with new information as it comes to me.

My Perspective

As an observer of Emily's ongoing cancer treatment, this has been a particularly difficult couple of weeks. If there were one word to sum up the experience of these past 10 days, it would be pain. Physical pain for Emily and emotional pain for those of us who love her. It is upsetting for me to watch my sister dealing with this adversity and to know there is nothing I can do to ease her burden. Most of you already know that Em has decided to go on medical leave from her job in order to focus solely on her health due to some recent complications. She has been experiencing significant pain in her back and shoulder, which we had initially attributed to fluid in her lungs but after a chest CT, we discovered that the tumor in her lung had grown. Her two primary doctors are divided on her prognosis with one offering dire predictions and the other saying it is her tumor dying and she may feel horrible for a while, but it is part of the healing process. She certainly has been feeling horrible, there is no doubt about that! But through all of this crisis, she remains committed to her recovery and plans to stay the course of treatment that she has chosen. She has managed her cancer up to this point and plans to continue with renewed vigor. If there is one thing she has shown us all during the past 3 years is that she has unbelievable determination and the strength of character to follow through with her choices.

Start Spreading the News....

Emily is back from New York! She spent her first few days with Will, Katie and Tess, enjoying a little snuggle time with our newest family member. Little Tess completely won her heart and she loved having the chance to visit with Will and Katie. Then she headed for the Big Apple and spent a few days at Angie’s place in the city.



Tuesday and Wednesday were packed full of doctor’s appointments. After a couple of years of visiting many different doctors with various specialties, Emily has finally found a doc who “gets it.” When she arrived in Dr. Gonzalez’s office, he already knew all about her history and was well versed on all of her treatments, past and present. He also knew all about the Hippocrates Institute and understood that program in depth. He was happy with all of the choices she has made so far and he was pleased that she was looking to enhance her treatment options. After doing extensive blood testing, he had lots of recommendations for her, including additional changes to her diet, detox and enzyme therapy. He told her numerous times that he has never seen a cancer patient whose overall health is as good as hers and he thinks she will respond well to his program. It is going to take some significant time and effort to put the program into use in her daily life, but she is certainly up for the challenge. She is excited to get started and feels a renewed sense of hope and validation that she has made the right choice in her cancer treatment.

Emily's Fund

I have been approached by numerous people, asking if there is anything they can do to help Emily as she goes through treatment. Some of our family members created Emily's Fund, which will help finance her unreimbursed medical expenses.

To donate, please visit www.earlsphotos.com and click on Emily's Fund.

Previously on Abreast of the Situation.....

When we last saw our hero, she had become vegan and was living a clean and healthy lifestyle. She had never felt or looked better – even her pale skin had taken on a lovely tan hue because of the vast amounts of beta carotene in her system. Things were back to normal until late October when she was felled by the dreaded swine flu. She was back on her feet again after a few weeks, but her cough persisted until December and she was diagnosed with pneumonia. After a course of antibiotics and a brief respite from coughing, she started to have pain in her shoulder and back and her doctor suggested a chest x-ray, which showed a mass in her left lung.

Now the first thing I thought when I heard the news was “uh oh, lung cancer.” As it turns out, it isn’t technically lung cancer. It is breast cancer of the lung – weird, huh? Anyway, after her previous bad experiences with chemo, she had already made up her mind that if any cancer came back, she would not pursue chemo as a course of treatment. She has done extensive research on treatment options and she is working with her Naturopath to find a healthy alternative to the standard protocols. Currently she is doing occasional IV therapy and infrared heat therapy twice a day in an effort to shrink the mass. She will get monthly blood tests and chest x-rays to mark the progress of this therapy.

Through all of her research, she came across a doctor in New York named Nicholas Gonzalez. He was featured in the book “Knockout” as one of the doctors who is curing cancer using alternative methods. His method is aimed at treating the underlying reasons WHY the body is getting cancer and involves diet, detox and pancreatic enzyme therapy. In order to get into his program, she wrote a long and detailed letter about her past treatments and current diet regimens, and sent it off early in February. She found out last weekend that she was accepted in to his program and will be traveling to New York for a consultation near the end of March. She is very interested in this treatment plan and is looking forward to her appointment. She is also lucky enough have a few extra days built in to her trip to go meet Baby Tess!

If you are interested in reading more about the Gonzalez plan, you can check out his website at www.dr-gonzalez.com/treatment.