Two more ways to honor Jessica

Members of Team Jessica will be participating in two events over the next two weekends. Please help support these two great organizations.

Orchard of Hope Walk, Saturday, June 12th. The Orchard of Hope Foundation, http://www.orchardofhope.org/index.php is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization that is dedicated to improving the quality of life for cancer champions in Fremont and Pueblo Counties. The Orchard of Hope provided assistance to our family to help with medical bills. Two teams are raising funds in Jessica's honor. Check out the Judicial Junkies on the Team page.

Livestrong Challenge Seattle, Sunday, June 20th: http://seattle2010.livestrong.org/matt8evans A number of Jessica's friends and family will running/walking/riding to raise funds for the Livestrong Foundation. Seattle friends: It's not too late to join us. There are a number of ride/run/walk options and we have members in each category.

Thanks and take care,

Matt

Las Vegas Walk for the Cure, 05/01/2010

What a great weekend! I was so lucky to meet a great group of women that supported Jessica in so many ways. You are all amazing! The team honored her memory by fundraising, walking, and partying.

Team Jessica's final totals are not in yet(Komen is keeping the fundraising open until the end of the month), but the last total posted was $11,235. Great job Team Jessica!

You can find more pictures on the Team Jessica Facebook page.

Look for future posts on the Orchard of Hope Walk, American Cancer Society Relay for Life, Livestrong Challenge and the Komen 3-day walk.

Susan G. Komen Southern Nevada Race for the Cure – May 1st, 2010 – Las Vegas, Nevada

http://rfclv.convio.net/site/TR/Race/General?team_id=23130&pg=team&fr_id=1050

Jessica met an amazing group of women through an on-line support group for women trying to become pregnant. Their friendships bloomed and the support they gave each other while trying to have children continued as they supported Jessica in her battle. The group, spread out across the U.S, decided to come together in Las Vegas and walk as Team Jessica. Jessica had plans to join them, but I will be walking in her stead. With less than a week to go, Team Jessica is leading the fundraising with over $10,000 raised. Thanks to the members of Team Jessica and those that donated.

The Fight Is Not Over!

After much thought, I’ve decided to continue Jessica’s blog. Though Jessica’s personal battle against cancer has ended, the war is not over. We can honor Jessica by remembering the courage, humor, and grace she fought with as we support the various organizations that search for a cure and support families in the midst of the battle. Whether you are participating in a Komen run/walk/multi-day event, Livestrong Challenge, American Cancer Society Relay for Life, Orchard of Hope fundraiser, etc.; you are all Jessica’s Warriors.

I will be posting information about the various events that Jessica’s friends and family will be participating in. Please let me know if you are participating in an event and I’ll be sure to add that as well. You can check out the Team Jessica page on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=239756241609. We would love for you to join us.

Let’s build an army to continue Jessica’ goal to “Kick Cancer’s Ass!”

Take care,

Matt

After two hard fought years, my beautiful, courageous, wonderful wife lost her battle with cancer. Jessica passed away around 9:40 a.m. on Friday, January 8th. Her mother and I were with her when she passed on. Harper was able to spend some special time with her mother Thursday evening and several family members and friends were able to say their good-byes. Jessica died knowing she was well loved.

In lieu of flowers, feel free to make donations in Jessica's name to either of the following organizations:

Fremont County Orchard of Hope

111 Orchard Ave

Cañon City, CO 81212

Sangre de Cristo Hospice West

Cañon City Main Office

601 Greenwood Avenue

Cañon City, CO 81212

We will also be setting up a college savings account for Harper and will post that information once it is organized.

On behalf of the Evans and Bunt families, thanks for all the love and support that you showed us.

The Latest

Updated by Matt:

We first wanted to thank all of you for the love, support, gifts, etc. that you have sent our way. We're very fortunate to have people like you in our lives.

Jessica's been in the hospital since New Year's Eve due to decreased kidney and liver functioning. She was pretty disoriented, weak, and her eyes had turned a little yellow when I took her in. The've been rehydrating her to help flush the toxins out of her body. She also received blood platelets and a blood transfusion. Her oncologist wants to start her on a new chemotherapy treatment, but her counts are still too low. Hopefully, she'll be able to start in a day or two and that this will be the chemo that works. The doctor thinks that she'll probably need to stay in the hospital until Thursday.

Oh, I almost forgot...Disneyland was great! Harper had a terrific time and Jessica showed a lot of heart by gathering up all the strength she could each morning so that we could share that time as a family. It was great having our friends Tim, Kara, Ellie, and Andy there with us.

Thanks again for all your support. Jessica or I will try to update soon.

It's been awhile

After almost finishing up the Xeloda oral chemo I had a CT scan to see if the cancer had spread and what was going on. It turns out that the Xeloda had not been working. The cancer has spread throughout my liver some more and some spots are bigger and also the same with my lungs. So it is good news that it has not spread to any other organs or bones but not so good that we lost those 12 weeks or so trying the Xeloda.

So on Monday I started two new kinds of chemo IV that I can't remember the names to. They are making me so tired. I am just exhausted and can barely get out of bed. But the pain is lessening which is a good sign (they said the pain would go away when the tumors shrank) but it does seem a bit quick acting but I'll take what I can get.

Wow, thank you

To whoever sent the "Birthday Card" to us today we were so suprised and so happy. Thank you so much. I wish I knew who it was so we could thank you in person.

Jessica

Radiation

Radiation starts on Monday. They are going to do my mapping (where I get the radiation) and also my first treatment on the same day which is great. Usually it is two appts but they will combine into one since I have to drive an hour each way.

So after 10 to 14 days of radiation (every day but Saturday and Sunday) I will hopefully not have as much pain. And I am still on the chemo so that should also help.

All the news...

Well, I guess it has been awhile since I have posted on here but wanted to bring everyone up to date. It has been a bit crazy around here.
So after having some pain in my side for a couple of days I went to my regular doctor and he sent me to the hospital for a CT scan thinking that my gallbladder needed to come out. But it turned out that it was actually cancer on my liver that hadn't shown up on any other scans. That sucked.
Then met with oncologist and he said the oral chemo should shrink that as well and I wouldn't be in so much pain. But that didn't seem to happen so I mentioned to him when I saw him next (this past Monday) that it still hurt pretty bad. So he called the radiation oncologist and I got an appt. the next day.
Radiation oncologist (let's call him McDreamy) said that he was really excited to be able to use the "Triolgy" on me which is radiosurgery and he has never been able to do it on a liver but I looked like a good candidate. So two days later I went back for a scan to see if I was a candidate for this. If not then I would be treated with regular radiation.
The techs said everything looked good. They thought it would all work out.

Friday at lunch, McDreamy called me and said, not only can I not do the radiosurgery (which would have killed the cancer on my liver) my liver is covered with more than 30 cancerous lesions. So that really sucks. They don't really know what is going on at this point other than it is a pretty nasty cancer I have. (does cancer take on your personality? I'm pretty stuborn, so is this cancer. Discuss).

So on either Tuesday or Wednesday I will start conventional radiation for 10ish treatments to shink the tumors and then hopefully I will not have the pain. I am also back on the oral chemo. Typically when you do radiation you don't do chemo at the same time but McDreamy wants to fight this from all angles. I'm all for that.

So keep your fingers crossed for me. We're looking at some other options (other doctors, etc) just to make sure all bases are covered.

Lots new

I'm pretty tired tonight so I am going to post tomorrow but there have been some major changes and again, they aren't good.

The main thing is it looks like my liver has cancer all over it and they are going to do radiation starting on Tuesday or Wednesday. Back on the oral chemo.
More tomorrow.

Going to Seattle

Harper and I are taking a quick trip on Wednesday out to Seattle. Going to the Puyallup Fair and then out to the cabin. Should be a fun trip.

Chemo is going well, no bad side effects. I'm tired but not sure I can attribute all of that to the chemo!

Whoa

I got my chemo pills today and thank goodness I have insurance. I had a $20 co-pay, it said my insurance saved me $2159!!! For 14 days!!!

I am going on the theory that since these are really expensive they must work really well. The more it costs the better it is, right?

"THE PLAN"

After talking to the doctor and coming up with a plan (after a zillion questions) here it is:

Going to take Xeloda ( a chemo drug) orally twice a day for 2 weeks and then take a week off. I will do this for 2 or 3 cycles and then test again and see what is going on with the cancer. Hopefully it will have shrunk.

The clinical trial that I am eligible for includes on the of the chemo drugs that I was just taking and was ineffective so it is pointless to do that trial. I am going to try this one drug and see how it works and then we'll either continue with it or else get a new one.

Breast cancer is a bit different than other cancers in that it will respond to different types of chemo so if this one doesn't work it doesn't mean that a different one won't work. So it is just a process of finding the right one.

I am just waiting for the insurance company to approve me taking this drug. The doctor writes a prescrpition for it, obviously wants me to take it, insurance won't cover it till pharmacy faxes doctor's office for permission, they doctor's office calls the insurance company and says that yes, he wants me to take it, and then they will call the pharmacy to tell them it is ok.

I think I freaked the girl out a bit last night, she said "do you need this right away?" and I said, well, the cancer is growing as we speak so yeah, I do. Still waiting to hear back from the insurance company. Errrrrrrrrr!

Good news is that the side effects of this chemo are pretty minimal.

Bad news

Looks like the cancer has spread to my lungs and liver. Doctor is looking into clinical trials right now to see what I qualify for. I told him I'd like to treat this as aggressively as possible. Pretty much sucks right now!

Biopsy Done

Had the lung biopsy done this morning. It went really well, the doctor was so young I wondered if he really could have done so many. But he has and I guess he is the "go to" guy for difficultly placed biopsys. Mine was right next to my heart and aorta so they didn't want to miss and hit anything!

They slid me through the CT scanner a couple of times, numbed me up, put in the needle and then slid me through the scanner a few more times, moved the needle, repeat, repeat, repeat. Then took the sample, took out the needle and I got to rest up for a while to make sure no bad side effects. I'm home and feeling fine.

Biopsy

Lung biopsy scheduled for first thing Tuesday morning. I get Versad with it which makes it much better. I should have results by the end of next week.

A lot of great friends

You know, when faced with a horrible disease I can't imagine going through it without such great friends and family. Although today could have been a really horrible day I was reminded over and over how many people really care and it means a lot to me. All the good thoughts are helpful and I never tire of hearing them!

They had scheduled the biopsy for Tuesday morning but then they found out they misscheduled it so I will find out tomorrow when it is.

Medical Update~ PET Scan results

Met with the doctor this morning and got the results of my PET Scan. The main thing was to compare the results with the PET scan that I did in May. I had a few spots on my lungs and the hope was that they would stay the same throughout my chemo. That would mean that they were not cancer (as the chemo was not effecting them). The next best would be that they dissappeared (they were cancer but the chemo made them dissapear) and the worst would be that they grew (they are cancer (most likely) and the chemo didn't work). Well, lucky me, one of my spots grew from 10mm to 20mm and another one grew from 7mm to 10mm. So I was taken off of the chemo that I have been doing since it does not seem to be affecting the spots on my lungs. There was no other spots of cancer anywhere else.

To verify that it is cancer I am going to get a lung bioposy next week and then they will know for sure what we are dealing with. It is still considered breast cancer, not lung cancer. Assuming it is cancer I will be on oral chemo, two weeks on, one week off, for 6 months or more. Radiation is also on hold for the time being.

This pretty much sucks and is not what we wanted to hear but I will continue to fight this and keep my sense of humor about it. Any good thoughts would be appreciated.

I'll post when the biospy is scheduled. They will go in through my back, CT guided and then pull out the sample. They will have the results within 48 hours of the biopsy.

This really annoys me

I'm so tired of getting this from people:
Oh, you have cancer again?
Me: yes, same kind, breast cancer.
Them: oh, well, are you going to have surgery this time?
Me: I had a double mastecomy last time.
Them: oh? and it came back?

This is what I get from the conversation: if I had been smart I would have had a mastectomy the first time and since they think I didn't it's not that suprising that the cancer came back. Like they think I wasn't smart enough to get it done. (Of course, I don't look like I had a double mastectomy, very nice reconstruction job).

Now, it is everyone's choice what type of surgery they get. I had three doctors reccomment double mastectomy and I didn't want to go through this again so that is what I did. And it still came back.

Anyway, what I am trying to say, less than elegantly, is that I am so tired of people thinking I didn't do it right the first time. But, there is no right way for everyone so of course I did it right. But, I was also very aggressive in my treatment, 29 chemos and a double mastectomy. No, I didn't have radiation but is because radiation isn't typical when there is nothing left to radiate and you don't have it spread to lymph nodes and you have chemo. The risk of getting another type of cancer from radiation outweighed the benefit of radiation at that time knowing what we knew.

So I'll be getting a PET scan next Wednesday to double check everything, then hopefully 2 more chemos and then a month off and then radiation.