update

I just spoke with Erica. She is home from the hospital. Still really tired but enjoying having her brother there to visit.

Monday update

Hello! Thanks for checking in on Erica’s website. Right now, Erica is a patient at Swedish Hospital in Seattle. She became ill last week with coughing and fever. Her doc said she needed to be admitted after x-rays came back showing signs of pneumonia. She has now been here for six days. She is definitely getting sick of being sick. The thing about cancer is, that it isn’t always the cancer that makes people sick. For Erica, it is the cure, which has compromised her immune system to make her susceptible to troubles like pneumonia. So now unfortunately she is stuck here until the antibiotics and other treatments put her on the mend. She is definitely getting great care here however. From her hospital room, there is a view of Seattle and Puget sound and the Seattle docks. It’s quite spectacular. Erica has a couple weeks of radiation left, so the docs are having her continue with that.

We are looking into alternative cancer treatments also, as a complimentary therapy. It mostly supports the body and the immune system so you can get through the conventional cancer treatments like chemo, radiation, and any operations….Here is a web sight which we look .to for information.

www.cancertutor.com There are quite a few links to other web sights so one can look further into ways to treat ones own body. It gives hope and a feeling of some control. Erica also sees more than one naturopath to get more ideas to help herself. One of the main theorys to help ones self is to alkalize the body. One can do this by eating plenty of fruit and veges, particularly lemon, lime, cucumbers, wheat grass juice. The idea is that cancer cannot exist in an alkalized body. In places in the world where cancer is rare, the water is said to be very alkaline. This is just one of many things I’ve learned of the course of this journey. There are many minerals and supplements that are simply not in our current food supply. So we try to buy mostly organic veggies.

All For now! Erica will be the next one to write. Looks like she’s turning the corner into Wellsville.

See ya! Anita

Breast Buddies

When we found out our friend Marilyn has breast cancer a group of us decided to show our support for the courage both her and Erica will need in their fight to cure cancer. We decided to become “Breast Buddies” and get pink ribbon tattoos. Dinner, margaritas and tattoos made for a great bonding experience. We all wish Erica could have been there.

Update

Erica has been in the hospital (Swedish) for the past 4 days. She has come down with a bad type of pneumonia and will be in the hospital for the next few days. Please send her your thoughts and prayers, and give her a call if you can - she is just lying in bed with nothing to do. For those that would like to send flowers or gifts, the address is:

Swedish 1st Hill
747 Broadway
Seattle, WA 98122-4307

Erica Tomsha, Rm 1209

There is a really nice online gift store at Swedish online http://www.swedish.org/body.cfm?id=67&oTopID=12 , and it will be delivered directly to Erica.

She also wanted me to let you all know that she will be responding to all her emails when she gets out of the hospital.

Thanks,

Darcy

Ok…im finally writing again, it seems like every time I try to write on this thing, I finish my thoughts which usually takes me about, oh, 20 min or so, I go to save it on my blog and it has kicked me off the internet…needless to say I get fairly discouraged. So I’m writing now in hopes that I don’t get the boot! Ok, on to the good stuff. I had a Dr. appointment last week with my old Dr., Dr. Chue. I went back to him because he doesn’t give up like a lot of Dr.s do. And we came up with a plan. I am going to be on this stuff called Tamoxifin, which blocks estrogen production. (So I will be going into menopause for a while) The purpose of blocking the estrogen is to starve any and all cancer that is estrogen dependent (which in my case is about 85%) after about 3-6 months of that we will go straight into chemo, I will do one chemo for 3-4 months than another chemo for 3-4 months and so on for about a year. The theory behind this plan is to not let the cancer build up immunity to the chemo’s, thus making it more effective. So, that’s my plan for the next year. I’m hoping that will be the end. Send me your thoughts on this and if you hear of any new treatments let me know, I can use all the info I can get. Peace

7/20/2008 2:30 PM

ericatomsha said...

I am very sorry i have not written in such a long time, i know the last time i wrote i told you that my cancer had come back, and i was supposed to write again to inform you what the PET scan said. However, i have needed the last week to digest the seriousness of the situation. The scan showed the lymph nodes under my breast bone between my lungs and near my aortic chamber, are positive for cancer, there are quite a few positive nodes. The Doctors tell me that my cancer will never go away at this stage, my best bet is that i will be able to manage it...i say f*ck that! i am going to do anything in my power to try to get rid of this horrible sh*t! i have completely changed my diet, i am doing hi dose vit C infusions, which is basically another way to kill off the cancer but it is not recognized by main stream medicine. i am also going up to Victoria BC on the weekends to go into a hyperbaric chamber, or an oxygen chamber which puts your body under pressure and you breath in pure oxygen. Cancer cannot survive in an oxygen environment. there are a few other alternative treatments that im looking into so i can KICK THIS CANCERS ASS!!!! well, thats what ive been dealing with for the last week, i need your thoughts and prayers now more than ever...please pray for me.

7/08/2008 4:30 PM

This is Robyn. I wanted to update everyone. Anita went to Seattle on Sunday to be with Erica while they await the results of the PET scan. They should hear on Wednesday whether or not the cancer has spread. Anita's sister, Barbara, is staying at the Grizzly Lodge and running the bed and breakfast. She may need some help with some of the chores. If you would be willing to help out please call or email me, I'll keep phone numbers and coordinate any help she may need.

We have been busy making Earrings for Erica to sell. If you know of a business that would be willing to help sell them please let me know. Currently they are located at Alaska Feed, Holm Town, Grubstake, K-Bar-D, Alaska Hair Cutting and Music Mart. They are in self contained boxes and donations are requested. The store owner only needs to display the box.

My email is davrobyn@hotmail.com or phone number 322-5086. Thanks, Robyn