Good News!

2011-11-30T13:10:00.001-08:00

Jill received GOOD news last week that the cancer does not appear to be spreading. Thankfully it seems as though the tamoxifen is working and Jill is in the 80% of people that respond positively to tamoxifen. The spots in her bones appear to be gone and have been replaced with new bone formation. The spots in the liver remain less than 2 milimeters, too small to biopsy, but not growing which is a very good thing. The plan is for her to continue taking tamoxifen and to return for testing in another 8 weeks. Let’s pray that the bad news is behind us and for here on out she will continue receiving good news that the cancer is dying. Jill, Alex and Ricah had a wonderful 4 day weekend over Thanksgiving. Good news is the best way to begin the holiday season!

Update on the Alvord's

2011-11-09T15:22:00.001-08:00

A lot has happened in the life of Jill, Alex and Ricah since the blogs came to a halt last March. They moved into a beautiful home on Lake Desire in Renton with their friend Shane. The house is beautiful and spacious with a beautiful view of Lake Desire in their backyard. Jill completed radiation near her home in Renton and returned to work feeling as though she may have completed this long and exhausting journey.

She had a CAT scan and a bone scan to determine the success of six months of chemotherapy, 33 rounds of radiation and a double mastectomy with removal of 25 lymph nodes…14/25 were noted to be positive for cancer. The results were hardly what we hoped, prayed and wished for…the cancer has spread to several spots on her ribs, one on her pelvis and one on her liver. Her Doctor believes that these spots may have been there all along and were just too small to see. He also thinks that they are showing up now because they’re dying…we hope. There is no way to know. The spots are too small to biopsy. She is now deemed Stage IV and will battle this cancer for the rest of her life. She will be tested every 8 weeks to see if it is growing. All we can do is try to halt it from growing and hope to extend her life for as long as possible….and pray for a miracle.

She is taking Tamoxifen which has proven effective to prevent cancer from spreading. She also opted to try two other forms of treatment that are not yet proven effective but have started to be used; a monthly shot to turn off her ovaries to make sure that there is absolutely no estrogen in her body and a monthly shot to strengthen her bones and hopefully prevent the cancer from growing there. She will be taking these shots and doing Tamoxifen possibly for the rest of her life. At this time, we are hoping that the cancer is responsive to these treatments, as they have much less severe side effects than doing more chemotherapy. Considering the amount of cancer in Jill after doing so much chemo, chemotherapy does not seem to be the best treatment option for Jill at this time. Her Doctor says Tamoxifen is effective for 80% of breast cancer patients that have hormone positive cancer. We are praying that she is in that 80%. In addition, she has been struggling with an infection in her implant. She was given an intravenous antibiotic to fight the implant and in the end had to go into surgery last week to have the implant removed. She’s recovering from the surgery…I’m just praying for my sister to get a break. It seems as though everything that could go wrong in her treatment…has.

Another big change and adjustment has been about children. After having their beautiful and healthy baby girl Ricah who has been their ray of sunlight and hope…Alex and Jill continued to plan to have a large family amidst the chaos that surrounds them. The doctors have advised that she doesn’t get pregnant again due to the extreme risks. Alex and Jill are coming to terms with this…little Ricah came at the perfect time and she truly brings laughter, clarity and love into two young adults facing their biggest challenge of their lives.

Hour by Hour

My sister is a true testament of the human strength and ability to handle devastating information in doses. Had she heard she was Stage IV while in her third trimester and looking towards the scary and long road ahead entailing multiple rounds of chemotherapy, losing her hair, double mastectomy followed by radiation….what human being could stay positive knowing that there isn’t hope to be cancer free while bringing a baby girl into the world. In addition, we lost our father in the last year to cancer…this alone was shattering. Now that she can look back at chemo, the mastectomy, and radiation…the future of fighting breast cancer is doable and beatable. She is positive and knows she will beat this. Jill is truly inspiring!

Live Each Day as if it were Your Last

Jill is back at work and hypothetically asks herself: If these are her last days, is this what she wants to be doing? Her answer is…“Yes. I want to work. I want to get up at 5:30. I want to race from a meeting to pick up Ricah and then have a “stressful” evening of chores, dinner, spending time with her and Alex, et cetera. My work makes me feel normal and it makes me feel good because I actually am not thinking about my little life. And all of my kids increase my laughter barometer every day. All the stress of helping them succeed is exactly what I need right now. I am lucky to have such an outlet that actually helps people.” That’s an amazing statement…how many of us can say the same? Cancer does bring perspective…

How are they doing?

Jill continually tells me… “There aren’t enough hours in the day”. I’ve said this myself; however, my sister truly understands the pressure on the hours in each day. Having cancer requires time. The amount of time driving to appointments, spent waiting at appointments, working with doctors….research takes time to determine the best doctors and treatments, to learn about new studies on exercise, nutrition and therapies along with following through with cancer treatment guidelines of exercising multiple times a week, sleeping a minimum of eight hours a night and preparing nutritious meals of veggies and whole grains at home. Let alone the financial burden of financing cancer treatments….she needs to work to make money and also wants to find out about grants to help pay for treatments. And she has a baby, husband and a home. However, remember that stress is not going to help slow down the cancer! Jill manages and has been doing it all (with some help from me) and of course help from Alex and our mom. Jill has focused a lot of her energy on reading books by stage IV breast cancer survivors that fill her with hope. She was advised in these books to get a second and third opinion…so she did.

Her second opinion was a naturopath that encouraged her to boost her immune system through natural supplements and mediation three times a day. She is taking the natural supplements and is doing her best to relax when she can find a moment. My girlfriend, Jenna Keller, has dedicated two evenings a week to practice distance reiki with Jill. It provides her with scheduled time to relax and listen to calming music in the candlelight while the powers of reiki are performed in Colorado.

Her third opinion was Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center (SCTWC) whom offers hope to cancer patients. They describe treating each patient as if they were their own mother and use a combination of natural therapies (nutrition, intravenous Vitamin C, natural supplements, acupuncture and reiki) and conventional treatments all under one roof…and their clinic was in the town she lives in. Sounds too good to be true! They gave my sister and Alex hope that she would be cancer free. They insisted that she start chemotherapy immediately and questioned the treatments of her oncologist, Dr. Senecal, over the last year. She planned on beginning chemotherapy this coming Friday until her current oncologist told her the truth of SCTWC. Dr. Senecal, the leading breast cancer oncologist for the Western Coast, has been a wonderful doctor to my sister and explained to Jill that he was involved in opening SCTWC. He told Jill that he had to leave the clinic after watching how they treated their patients. They sell hope to people suffering from cancer, they consistently recommend more and more chemotherapy and dump patients when their insurance runs out. Doctor Senecal has had patients that returned to him following the treatments at SCTWC and they died due to too much chemotherapy. I looked for hours on the internet to find any dirt on SCTWC…there was nothing. However, the internet doesn’t help cancer patients filter through doctors…patients have to follow their hearts and listen to those who have earned their trust. We chose to go with who we trust and who has an outstanding reputation in the field and with survivors….Dr. Senecal.

During her nightly reads, she has also read tons on the effect of nutrition on beating cancer. She has opted to eat a diet filled with vegetables, grains, legumes, fruits, teas, and reduce the amount she eats animal products. In addition, she is taking natural supplements including Vitamin D. She advises every woman to take Vitamin D daily, especially for those living in the Pacific Northwest. They have researched a large correlation between Vitamin D deficiencies and breast cancer. In addition, she has cut out sugar from her diet because cancer cells feed on sugar. Her goal is to follow this new nutrition plan 90% of the time. In my effort to support my sister in all possible arenas, I have taken on eating a somewhat vegan diet without sugar 90% of the time as well. You would be surprised to find out how much that we eat has sugar in it…almost everything!

Along with reading about stage IV breast cancer survivors and their stories, we have heard of several people with Stage IV breast cancer that are still at work and taking care of their families after more than 10 years. This may not seem that long to most people but since the treatment have only been around for that long we can’t really measure how long it will work. We are all praying for 10 plus years of stability and then by then there will be a CURE. There has to be.

Alex is helping Jill to stay in the moment. He reminds her to cross each bridge as they get there and to not get ahead of themselves. They remind each other that they are lucky to get to live their life right now the way they want to be living it. Jill feels good! She hasn’t felt this healthy since before she was pregnant. She is able to work, live her life with her family and enjoy her time with friends. What a blessing amidst all the bad news.

Ricah has been the biggest blessing. She can bring her mother from sobbing tears to laughter in an instance. It’s been remarkable to see how much of an impact a 10 ½ month little girl can have on her mother and father (and our entire family) as they digest all the information and continue on with their life. Research says we should all laugh at least ten minutes per day…thanks to Ricah, Jill and Alex get their laughs in.

Jill was diagnosed with breast cancer last November…it has been over a year since the original diagnosis. A lot is behind her in this fight, however, the fight will continue. They are waiting to determine their next steps. She is scheduled for a bone scan and CAT scan next week and will know the results on November 22^nd. I want to leave you with a quote from Jill, “Please turn your worry and that knot in the pit of your stomach into something positive and help give my body strength.” She needs positive thoughts, prayers, energy and love! We all do.

Fall Photos of the Alvords

2011-11-09T14:48:00.001-08:00