Double Mastectomy Scheduled

June 22, 2015
Family and Friends,
This is kind of long so if you don’t read the whole thing I don’t blame you. Just read down to our address.
Allison is scheduled for a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery on the morning of July 1st. We expect the procedure to last 6-7 hours and for her to be in the hospital 2 nights. I am sure that she would appreciate mail, notes of encouragement, etc.
Our address is:
1448A 5th Avenue
Fort Knox, KY 40121
We’ve been pretty busy since the last update. Two options that we were pretty excited about exploring were a) Photon Center in Knoxville, TN and b) Cancer Center of America in Chicago, IL-both about 5 hrs from our house but reportedly excellent. What we liked about each was that they were less invasive treatments and they looked at the whole person-nutrition, exercise, spiritual, as well as trying to get the rest of the body in balance-hormones and endocrine system. From the beginning, Allison has wanted to try to find out if there is any underlying cause in her body that triggered this cancer growth—such as hormone imbalance, the endocrine functions, etc., and that has been nearly impossible to find a place to help us around here. There are a lot of places that are probably very good getting rid of the cancer, but they aren’t too concerned about what caused it in the first place or what you can do yourself to prevent it it from recurring. Well, our insurance wouldn’t cover either one of those cancer centers listed above–precisely for the reasons we wanted to go. Apparently, our insurance will only cover cancer centers that follow the standard protocol of surgery, radiation, chemo and hormone therapy.
We did find a nurse practitioner that specializes in achieving hormone balance so we are going to her-of course she, and the test she orders are not covered by insurance either. According to labs, Allison’s estrogen is normal but her progesterone is low which leads to estrogen dominance—a state in the body that leads to and encourages breast cancer. However, that is not something that the cancer center addresses so we have had to find someone to help us on our own.
We found another oncologist closer to where we live who is a little more open to deviation from the standard treatment protocol if that is what Allison decides. At the end of a year of chemo, they would do a full-body PET scan to see if there were cancers anywhere left in her body. Allison has wanted to do that first from the beginning, but our first oncologist said no, however, the 2nd oncologist ordered it for her.
Next, although we had a hard time convincing our primary care physician to give her a referral, Allison now also has an endocrinologist in Louisville. She has no bedside manner (another story) but did order a lot of tests and discovered that her parathyroid hormone was high while Vit D levels and Zinc levels where abnormally low—all of which need to be addressed.
Lastly, we found a medical doctor who actually seems to do and recommend a pretty good blend of traditional and naturopathic medicine http://www.evergreenmedicalcentre.com/Default.aspx
(his offices are in Indiana). I think Ali would like him to be her “umbrella doctor” who overseas and synchronizes treatments by the endocrinologist, the nurse practitioner, and the oncologist to ensure all meds and treatments are complimenting and supporting each other. He is an advocate or using natural medicine to help with side effects from chemo, hormone therapy and other treatments but is also willing to help if patients want to forgo traditional medicine. He also uses mistletoe therapy which has been used successfully in Germany and Switzerland for decades but is not FDA approved here.
In the last few weeks Allison has had a thermogram, a Parathryroid scan (4hr procedure), a thyroid ultrasound and a full-body PET scan. She has also had 4 mercury amalgams removed & replaced (2 were cracked–there is a direct link to the poison of mercury, as well as root canals and breast cancer). When the PET scan results came back, it showed no cancer anywhere else in her body. In fact, it didn’t show any breast cancer either but apparently PET are not good test for identifying breast cancer.
Allison has lived with this stress and medical busyness while continuing to get up every morning at 4:30AM to do her devotions and run and also managing to be a Mom, homeschool teacher, errand runner, cook, etc for all of us. Sometimes it has all been too much and doesn’t even seem real and she feels great–but she is hanging in there. We have had some wonderful friends who have stepped up and helped out a lot with the kids, but with Jonah almost 13, the kids have managed on their own many times too when we were both out.
We have been told that this double surgery could lay her up for anywhere between 10 days to over a month. We do have family that are coming in to help out for about the first 3 weeks after the surgery as well as a dear friend who is coordinating meals to be delivered for us every other day. I will take leave as needed and will be shuttling family to and from the airport. For the first week or so, the kids will be attending day camps locally. Then starting July 19, Mia and Jonah will be attending summer camp in PA for two weeks and Noah will visit Allison’s parents and some of his cousins in PA during those same two weeks. The hope is that Allison will have a full month to focus on her recovery. She has a hard time being inactive and if the kids are around, she definitely will not get the rest she needs.
Please continue to pray regularly for us.
-Pray that we are open to learning whatever it is God wants us to learn from this experience
-Pray that the surgery goes smoothly.
-Pray that the cancer has not spread to any lymph nodes or anywhere else in the body.
-Pray that the pain from the reconstructive surgery in minor and that recovery is quick
-Pray for wisdom as we chooses what post-surgery treatment she will pursue
-Pray that we remember 2 Corinthian 4:16
2 Corinthians 4:16
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
Jamie