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You have reached Erica's Blog. This is a place where her friends and family can go to get updates on her and her treatments. Thanks to all the generous donations received Erica has had financial support to pay for: vitamin infusions, special dietary needs, adaptive aids after her surgery, living expenses while she is unable to work, cancer vaccine therapy and travel to Alaska and California to visit family and friends. Erica remains positive and strong.
Erica
Earrings for Erica
Thank you to all the great businesses who sold earrings to benefit Erica. We will continue to sell earrings to benefit other young women in our community going through similar situations. Look for more information on where and when we will be selling. We will also post information about who will benefit from monies raised. Earrings for Erica will be available at the Quota bazaar at Alaskaland on Nov 21st.
Contacting Erica
- Erica email: Tomsha_7@yahoo.com
- Mark & Anita email: grizzlylodge@acsalaska.net
- Erica 805-458-0643 or 907-799-7982
- Anita 488-0293
- Mark 378-9747
- Erica's mailing address: 1470 Westmoreland Ave. Fairbanks, Alaska 99712
Ways to help in addition to your thoughts and prayers
- Help make earrings to sell, contact Robyn 322-5086
- Donate money to Denali State Bank - Erica Tomsha Benefit Fund - account #9013806, transfer money with routing number 125200921, send check to Bank @ PO Box 74568, Fbks, AK 99707
- Donate air miles - Alaska Airlines #000858060
- Fundraising Ideas - contact Robyn 490-6485 or email davrobyn@hotmail.com
Donate with a credit card through PayPal
Account was set up by Darcy (Davies) Etcheverry, so her email is listed at the top.
Blog Archive
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2007
(21)
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December
(21)
- Erica and fiance arrived in Fairbanks last night. ...
- Hi All! Today was a relaxing day, Cancer vacation ...
- Well, today didn’t exactly go as planned. There we...
- So, I had a Dr. appointment today with my main onc...
- Hi All! Im doing pretty darn good today. Someone g...
- Well today was a hard day, I had to go to the Dr. ...
- Hi everyone...Im feeling much better today. My Dad...
- Well Im doing my best being on "Bed Rest". Its no...
- Well I had a Dr. appt. today. I got a BRIEF overvi...
- Thursday, December 13
- Wednesday, 12-12-07
- message from Erica
- out of hospital
- hospital room
- Monday surgery
- Christmas time.
- A little history
- A Letter From Erica
- Cancer Vaccine
- from Erica
- This is the first post to a spot where Erica's fri...
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December
(21)
Interesting links
A little history
23 year old Erica Tomsha was born and raised in Fairbanks. Parents Mark and Anita are also long time Alaskans. Anita’s grandparents (Carlson) moved to Kodiak in the 40’s to work on WWII construction projects. From there the lure of gold drew them to Fairbanks. Anita’s dad followed and opened up Music Mart in Fairbanks 60 years ago. Mark moved to Fairbanks in the early 70’s.
From an early age Erica shared her mothers passion for horses. Learning to ride when she was 4 she quickly figured out she had to make sure her pony knew she was the boss. In elementary school she joined the Golden Heart 4-H club to continue to learn. As she got older she expanded her perspective to include IHA, ACTA, IHC, Pony Club, 4-H community service and leadership activities. She was an active member of the Tanana Whirlwinds 4-H group in high school and helped to advocate for and pass the limited liability for livestock bill which helps to insure personal responsibility for accidents occurring around livestock animals. That exposure to politics led her to an internship with Senator Stevens.
After attending UAF for a couple of years she decided to move to California where she could pursue her dream of working with horses. She has been actively training horses and riders and enjoying being around magnificent Grand Prix horses.
Although Erica had to move to Seattle for her cancer treatment she has continued to work and learn, giving riding lessons and training horses. She moved into an apartment of her own. Her father has been able to stay with her through most of her chemotherapy. Erica has lost her hair from her treatments but does not try to hide it. She encourages people to ask her about her cancer and is anxious to share her experience in the hope of teaching or providing comfort to others.Erica remains positive and upbeat. She appreciates all the concern and well wishes from her friends.
From Erica on December 6th
I want people to know that I found a lump last December that was about the size of a pencil eraser. I went to the clinic the next day and the nurse told me it was probably nothing, and because of my age it was very unlikely that it was serious. So naturally i believed her, and I continued on with my life as usual. However, 6 months later the pencil eraser grew to be the size of a golf ball in a week! So I went back to that clinic and the same nurse agreed that I probably needed a biopsy! DUH! 2 days later the same nurse told me I had Invasive Ductile Carcinoma, (I found out later that I was a stage 3a, 4 is terminal), and she told me this while crying. 2 days after that I came to Seattle because not having insurance limits my care options in California, and plus Seattle has better cancer hospitals, unless you go to UCLA or SanFran and being 300 miles away is just as hard as being 1500 miles away from home.
Being here has really changed my life; it has forced me to live in a different way (I have learned a lot about myself), it has forced me to DRAMATICALLY change my diet (which is the most important thing a cancer patient can do). I have had to watch my spending, it's hard to work when you're getting chemo once a week. I am working a little, and in return my boss (whose ex husband I live with) pays my rent. But there are so many things that the charity care program at Swedish Hospital does not cover, such as supplements and alternative treatments like acupuncture, vitamin infusions, and the cancer vaccine. It also doesn't pay for things like reconstructive surgery (which unless I want to be the one boobed wonder I will need to get). I don't have the price for this yet but i will get it as soon as I can. I have also definitely learned who my real friends are, the ones who care.
From an early age Erica shared her mothers passion for horses. Learning to ride when she was 4 she quickly figured out she had to make sure her pony knew she was the boss. In elementary school she joined the Golden Heart 4-H club to continue to learn. As she got older she expanded her perspective to include IHA, ACTA, IHC, Pony Club, 4-H community service and leadership activities. She was an active member of the Tanana Whirlwinds 4-H group in high school and helped to advocate for and pass the limited liability for livestock bill which helps to insure personal responsibility for accidents occurring around livestock animals. That exposure to politics led her to an internship with Senator Stevens.
After attending UAF for a couple of years she decided to move to California where she could pursue her dream of working with horses. She has been actively training horses and riders and enjoying being around magnificent Grand Prix horses.
Although Erica had to move to Seattle for her cancer treatment she has continued to work and learn, giving riding lessons and training horses. She moved into an apartment of her own. Her father has been able to stay with her through most of her chemotherapy. Erica has lost her hair from her treatments but does not try to hide it. She encourages people to ask her about her cancer and is anxious to share her experience in the hope of teaching or providing comfort to others.Erica remains positive and upbeat. She appreciates all the concern and well wishes from her friends.
From Erica on December 6th
I want people to know that I found a lump last December that was about the size of a pencil eraser. I went to the clinic the next day and the nurse told me it was probably nothing, and because of my age it was very unlikely that it was serious. So naturally i believed her, and I continued on with my life as usual. However, 6 months later the pencil eraser grew to be the size of a golf ball in a week! So I went back to that clinic and the same nurse agreed that I probably needed a biopsy! DUH! 2 days later the same nurse told me I had Invasive Ductile Carcinoma, (I found out later that I was a stage 3a, 4 is terminal), and she told me this while crying. 2 days after that I came to Seattle because not having insurance limits my care options in California, and plus Seattle has better cancer hospitals, unless you go to UCLA or SanFran and being 300 miles away is just as hard as being 1500 miles away from home.
Being here has really changed my life; it has forced me to live in a different way (I have learned a lot about myself), it has forced me to DRAMATICALLY change my diet (which is the most important thing a cancer patient can do). I have had to watch my spending, it's hard to work when you're getting chemo once a week. I am working a little, and in return my boss (whose ex husband I live with) pays my rent. But there are so many things that the charity care program at Swedish Hospital does not cover, such as supplements and alternative treatments like acupuncture, vitamin infusions, and the cancer vaccine. It also doesn't pay for things like reconstructive surgery (which unless I want to be the one boobed wonder I will need to get). I don't have the price for this yet but i will get it as soon as I can. I have also definitely learned who my real friends are, the ones who care.
7 comments:
Dear Erica, Am I the first to post to your blog?? Cool. First of all I want to say that I am proud of you and your determination to be your own person through this and second, I'm very exited to see that people are coming together to help. What a great idea the blog was! It is so great for others who are concerned about you (and there are lots of them) to be able to see not only what's going on , but also see about specific ways they can help you that are actually helps that you want to have (as opposed to help that we think you should have) People generally, I've found, what to help but don't have a clue what's needed. Be bold and let us know. I just came back from the dentist and your friend Jessica wanted to know how you were, so I'm giving her the website info. Now we're really going to get the ball rolling. We love you and are praying for peace and discernment regularly for you and of course for your healing. I am really exited about your blog site and will pass it to as many people as I can think of. With love and hugs, Janine
PS, I haven't called or interfered lately because for one thing your mom and I have had difficulty communicating and I have not really known much about the recent issues. Also, I sensed that you thought I figured I knew everything about breast cancer and was just going to hassle you about things you had or hadn't done. I'm really really sorry, it came across that way. Neither one of these things is true. I am always learning new things about cancer and esp breast cancer. It's the nature of the disease, that one is always faced with new facts. We now that you have plenty of support to make good decisions, even when faced with more new facts. Love, Janine
Did this comment get saved on the blog site. I can't tell.
Oh, I see that it DID post. Great, now I was able to be the first THREE comments. HaHa Love, J
I am sorry you won't be home for Christmas, but I know you will be up here soon! Can't wait to see you. I am sending you thoughts of peace and healing, love you Erica. I'll be thinking about you while you are in surgery
Best of luck to you tomorrow, we'll be thinking of you!! Miss you lots and we cannot wait to see your beautiful smile again!
Love,
~Andrea, Michael & Vanessa Mae
I hope your surgery was successful! I think its great that you are keeping good spirits, and that you know all of us are thinking of you! I know I haven't talked to or seen you in a while but you are always in my thoughts and prayers. I thought it was great to hear, despite everything, you are still finding a way to keep horses in your life! Thank you for keeping us updated!
Katie
Hi Erica,I am really going to miss seeing you at Christmas, we haven't spent the holidays together in a long time. I love you so much and am always praying for you. Keep strong and don't be afraid to let others shoulder some of the burden.
Love you!
SallyAnn
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