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.

Whew!

1 1/2 years of cancer treatment: $360,000

Gas to and from 245 doctors appointments: $1,200

Trip to Hippocrates Health Institute: $15,000

A body scan that finally produced good results: PRICELESS!

It has been 5 weeks since Emily finished radiation and she had yet another full body scan last Friday.  For the first time since she was diagnosed, she received some positive test results.  Her scan came back clear!  She gets a three month break and will have another scan in August, just to check a few little spots that were inconclusive on this test.  After that, she need only have two more clear scans before she is considered cancer free!

Congratulations on the great news, Em!  We are so happy for you!

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

After Emily's last radiation treatment, she received this certificate of completion.  I thought it was very clever and uplifting so here it is for all to see.  You can click on the image to make it bigger.

Fried!

After 4 1/2 weeks of daily radiation, Emily is officially a crispy critter. The areas around her collar bone and under her arm are such a deep, angry red that it seems almost purple.  She is also blistering and peeling at the same time.  Since she is so dramatically burned, her doctor has given her this week off from treatment and they are hoping to finish the last 7 sessions starting next week.

We have no information as to the next course of treatment once radiation is complete.  Let's all keep our fingers crossed that this is it and she can get back to business as usual!

Radiation Update

To my surprise, Emily says that radiation is no big deal.  She has completed 9 out of 33 visits and has no ill effects so far.  Her doctor says that she won't notice anything for the first 3 weeks so I will update the site when and if anything changes!

Tattoos and Test Results

It has been another busy month in Emily’s cancer battle.  After she had the newly affected lymph nodes removed in December, she had to wait extra time for all of the pathology to be completed because of the Arctic Blast.  When the results finally came back we found out that it was the same type of cancer cells as before, but with some mutations.  The tissue samples for the drug resistance testing couldn’t be released until the pathology was done so that testing was seriously delayed and we still have no results.  As far as the specialist in Boston is concerned, it turns out that she does not do phone consultations so if Em wants her opinion, she will have to travel across the country for an appointment.  She is still deciding whether or not to take that trip. 

Emily has decided to pursue radiation as her next course of treatment.  She will go in for a dose every day (M-F) for six weeks, starting this Wednesday.  In order to do radiation, the doctors put a little tattoo mark on the skin in the area to be treated.  Em had to get 4 tattoo dots last week and she was surprised by the how much those little dots hurt.  She said that every part of her body wanted to jump right off of the table to get far away from the needle!  Her teenage desire to get a tattoo is now officially squelched.

Weather Related Delays

Emily is healing nicely from her surgery.  Thankfully, she did not have as difficult a time recovering as her doctor predicted.  Her pathology reports have been delayed by the weather so we don't have anything new to report at this time.  Merry Christmas to all!

Cutting Edge Research

Emily is out of surgery. The doctor was a bit surprised by what she found during the procedure. The affected lymph nodes had all matted together and were much deeper into the tissue than they were expecting. However, the tissue around the nodes looked pristine and she was able to preserve all of the nerves in the area so Emily should regain full use of her right arm. She does have a 40% chance of developing lymphadema, which causes swelling and pain in the arm, and the recovery from this surgery might be rough because they had to go so deep to remove the tissue.

Speaking of tissue, apparently they did not have enough of a tissue sample to send to the drug resistance lab after the biopsy so her surgeon made sure to prepare a proper sample this time around. The technology around these tests is brand new and cutting edge. It wasn't even available last year when Em started this whole process. The doctors on the Tumor Board are split down the middle on whether Em should have chemo, radiation or both, but they are going to do the drug sensitivity testing anyway, just in case. The doctor in Boston is an Oncologist who specializes in hard to treat cancers and we have not yet heard her opinion. Fortunately, now that Em has had surgery, nothing else can be done for at least four weeks while she recovers.

We wish you a speedy recovery Em!

The Sixth Time is the Charm

Emily is going in for surgery on Thursday morning to remove her affected lymph nodes.  This will be her sixth surgery in just over a year and hopefully this one will do the trick.  No decisions have been made regarding chemo or radiation, but she is ready to get the cancerous nodes out of her body.

Information Overload

It has been a busy week for Emily with multiple doctor visits and lots of hard decisions to make.  She has been to a medical oncologist, a radiation oncologist, her surgeon, her plastic surgeon, a naturopath and back to the body imaging clinic for more tests.  At this time, she has not made any decisions about the next step in her care.  She is waiting for two things before she can move forward.  Her surgeon has sent all of her medical records, test results and scans to a Triple Negative cancer specialist in Boston to get a second opinion on treatment, which we hope will happen next week.  We are also waiting for the test results from the drug resistance sample that was sent in last week.  At that point, she should have everything she needs to make the most informed choice.  She says that it is hard to do because every doctor that she sees makes a good case for their personal specialty. Em, we hope you achieve medical clarity with ease this week!

Test Results

Emily's PET scan and MRI came back clear.  The cancer cells seem to be confined to the lymph nodes in her armpit and it looks like they are the same type of cells as before.  Since her cancer seems to be biologically resistant to chemo, they are sending some of her tissue to a company that tests for drug resistance.  This will help them identify what drugs, if any, would have the best chance of killing this thing. In the meantime, her doctor is recommending surgery to remove the affected nodes, followed by radiation.  It doesn't look like chemo is going to be involved this time around, which is great.  Emily is planning to meet with several different doctors and specialists and research any and all treatment options available so she can make an informed decision about how to proceed.

Chapter Three

I have been planning to write a final blog post that would sum up the year that Emily has endured, complete with an optimistic view of the future.  Unfortunately, instead of closing the book on cancer, we have just started chapter three.  Last week, Em went to her oncologist for a routine 3 month follow up appointment and her doctor felt an unusually large lymph node in her armpit.  She went immediately in for an ultrasound and biopsy and was told that there were 3 nodes that were large and misshapen.  The biopsy report came back today and, once again, it is cancer.  So far that is all of the information that we have.  She goes in for yet another full body scan on Thursday morning and will hopefully have the results by the end of the week.

The nightmare continues.

Good health

Emily has been home from Hippocrates for nearly two weeks and has jumped back into real life with surprising ease.  She is back to work full time, exercising and eating a mostly raw and vegan diet.  She and my dad have been working hard setting up a wheatgrass grow operation in their kitchen and they are juicing together and making vegetable smoothies.  She is cheerful and full of hope for the future.  

When she first arrived at Hippocrates, they did a blood test and then repeated it the day before she went home.  There was a huge change in her blood composition in the three weeks that she spent working on her health.  Her red blood cells were all clumped together initially, which is a common side effect of chemo.  When she left, both her red and white blood cells were separated and plump and moving around easily.  She lowered the amount of yeast and sugar in her bloodstream dramatically, which is good news because cancer feeds on sugar.  Her cholesterol was way down and she lost 10 lbs!!  What a difference.  :)  

As far as she is concerned, cancer is behind her.  Her next surgery is scheduled for October 30th and she is only supposed to be down for a couple of days.  I won't be blogging until her next surgery because there is not much more to say!  Congratulations, Em - we are glad that you are cancer free and healthy as a horse!!

Nature Bites!

Recently, Emily made it clear that she does not care for Florida. The heat, the humidity, the wildlife and the smell just aren't for her. Unfortunately, Florida doesn't care much for her, either! The mosquitoes have taken quite an interest in her freshly detoxed Oregon blood and she is covered in bites. Her bites soon had big red rings around them and it was determined to be some sort of allergic reaction. Since only natural treatments are approved at the Institute, they told her to treat the bites with olive oil and garlic. For days, she wandered around smelling like an Italian restaurant, with grease stains all over her clothes. Late last week she thought she had a new mosquito bite on her elbow, but then it swelled up to the size of a golf ball. This turned out to be a spider bite and they almost had to send her to the hospital for a shot! Luckily the swelling went down after she treated it with Tea Tree oil. The aeriel assault of her body continued when she was stung by a bee and, adding insult to injury, she was pooped on by a passing bird! Just when she thought all of the toxins were out of her body, nature strikes back.


Not to be outdone, the Atlantic Ocean also took its best shot. On a little weekend outing to the beach, she had this experience. "I was having a great time, swimming around in waste deep water, riding out the little waves. Then an enormous, surprise wave hit me from behind, knocked me off my feet and sent me face first into the sand and held me down. I couldn't get my feet under me and couldn't swim up. While I was struggling, the stupid current ripped off my hat, sunglasses, and bathing suit bottoms! I had to make a choice which to save and chose my bathing suit, so my hat and sunglasses are lost and gone forever. I finally righted myself, choking and sputtering, and promptly dragged myself out of the ocean, never to return."


Emily's epic battle with nature will continue throughout this week but she will be heading home on Saturday morning. Let's hope she can stave off any more attacks from Florida for the next couple of days!