Julie's Story from California

My story starts out in June of 2002. My husband and I were so excited to find out that we were expecting our first child. Six weeks into my pregnancy my back went out. At eight weeks my left pelvis started to hurt. At each of my OBGYN appointments I told my doctor that the pain in my hip was really bad. She told me that it sounds like Sciatica, a common occurrence during pregnancy. She recommended physical therapy.

Each day the pain got worse and worse. My OB told me to try acupuncture, which didn't help, and then chiropractics. Nothing was working. The pain in my hip was excruciating. At five months I was not able to get out of a chair, so my husband had to get an electric chair which would help me stand from a sitting position. At seven months we demanded a 2nd opinion. My OB sent us to an orthopedic who agreed to do an MRI of my pelvis.

The next day he called us into his office and informed us that I had a VERY LARGE tumor on my pelvis. (The pain that I was feeling was my pelvis breaking every time I took a step!) The orthopedic told us that this was out of his relm. He referred us to an amazing ortheopic oncologist at Stanford University, (Dr David Mohler).

The next day we went down and saw him. He did a needle biopsy of the tumor on my hip. That night he called us and told us the news that I had Stage IV breast cancer which has spread to my bones. He recommended that we immediately come back down to Stanford to deliver my child. At this point I was only 30 weeks.

The next few days my husband and I had to make the hardest decisions of our lives. What do we do about the baby?

We went back down to Stanford to the High Risk OB. While there they did more scans and we were informed that not only had my cancer spread to my bones, but it was in my vertebrae, ribs and also Liver. Stanford told us that I only had about one year to live and that their goal was to do their best to keep me comfortable. But the same day that we find out that news of where the cancer had spread to I developed pre-eclapmsia which meant that we had to deliver the baby ASAP.

In one day we had to make a life and death decision about our unborn child. We were informed about all the possible complications that come along with a preemie child. I don't know how my wonderful husband made it through that day. Not only was his wife dieing, but now his child was probably going to have complications. But, with the loving support of our family and friends we turned those tears of sadness into a will to fight. There were to be " No more Tears" we need everyone's focus to be on our child and myself. And that is exactly what we did.

On December 23, 2002, Jessica Anne was delivered via c-section. She weight three pounds 13 ounces. She was perfect, just little. She was showing no signs of any birth defects. At the time of the delivery we decided to remove my ovaries since my cancer was HER-2 neu positive. We wanted to get rid of as much of the estrogen as possible. So now that Jessica was here and doing well it was time to turn our focus on saving my life. The next day I started radiation therapy for my pelvis and vertebrae.

The doctors needed to stop the cancer in the bones in hopes to stabilize my hips so I could walk again. After four weeks of radiation the tumor on my pelvis shrunk 75% and now was at a point where surgery could be done to remove the remaining tumor and bone cement and titanium rods where placed in my pelvis to prevent any further breaking of the bones.

The end of January I had surgery on my pelvis. The surgery was a success, but now it was time for us to go back home to Sacramento and start physical therapy where I had to learn to walk again. But we knew we had to find someone to help us fight this "war" that my body was going through. We were told about an amazing facility in Arlington Texas.

In March, we flew down to Dr Karel Dicke at the Arlington Cancer Center for a consultation. We felt that he was the man for us. He wanted to attack this "war" from all angles. We came home, packed up our house and moved to a small apartment in Arlington so we could be close to Dr Dicke. My husband did his best to work from there, but family and friends helped us so we could stay together as a family in Texas to try to save my life. While in Texas I did nine rounds of chemotherapy, Taxol, Adriomycin, cytoxin, taxatere, and started weekly Herceptin. I also had a mastectomy and radioblation done on my liver lesions.

After a tough nine months I was in remission. Dr. Dicke gave us the green light to come back home to California. Once home I was under the watchful eye of Dr Kristi Boboblis in Roseville, California. I immediately started six weeks of radiation on my breast, followed by weekly maintenance chemo, Taxol, Taxatere, Navelbene, Zometa, Xeloda, and Herceptin. I travel down to Arlington every three months for scans and check-ups. I am now going on five years since
my diagnosis. I am a "SURVIVOR".

This experience has taught me sooooo much. It has been a tough road, but it is a road that I would not change for the world. I have had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people. My dear friends from chemo, I love them all to pieces. Life is a gift, and I love everyday of it. I love watching the sun rise and set.

My goal is to let people know that you can live with cancer. But you have to stay positive. Cancer can be a game. Trying to figure out the drugs, and insurance companies. It can really get you down, but take one day at a time and this will work out.

I have been involved with our local Susan G Komen foundation, my Race for the Cure team (Boobie Patrol) is now over 100 walkers strong. I feel that it is sooo important to support the breast cancer foundations. Because of you, survivors like me are surviving. I can't thank you enough.

Financially, cancer can be hard. Not only are you fighting for your life, but you are financially fighting. Treatments like I have are not cheap. My husband is now having to work two jobs to help pay for my medical bills. I am not able to work. I am a dental hygienist, but my back is so bad that I can not do hygiene any more. Plus with all my chemo and doc appointments, I have a full time job of just being a cancer patient. I am also a full-time mom of my almost five-year-old, Jessica.

Life is a gift, and I want to do all I can to help others get through their cancer treatments with a smile on their face.

Thank you again for all you do. Please keep it up! We need you!!!!!!!!!!

El Dorado Hills, California