Elaine Mathers Cancer Fund

This has become the most difficult time in my family’s life. I want to thank everyone for all the tremendous outpouring of support and love that has been given to our family.

As many of you have begun to learn, my mom Elaine discovered she had cancer this October. She went to her primary care doctor complaining that her back had begun bothering her more and more. She just didn’t think she could go to work the rest of the week. The doctor scheduled her for an MRI since she hadn’t had an injury that she could remember and prescribed her some standard pain medication. She was able to get in for an MRI 5 days later.  A couple hours after she had the MRI she received a call from her doctor telling her that the x-ray had shown she had cancer! You have cancer, he said! It was a shock, what a horrible thing to hear over the phone and she was devastated! This was the moment our lives would never be the same and the start of the worst hell that was to come.

The oncologist called and scheduled Elaine to come in within a couple days. The oncologist went over what they knew so far which was that they didn’t know the type of cancer she had yet but it had spread to the bones in her spine! It had metastasized! That meant that whatever the cancer she has, was already at stage 4! The doctor said she was going to be scheduled for several scans and a bone biopsy to determine what type of cancer she has so they could put together a plan. In the meantime, she was given Morphine and Oxycodone to try to manage the pain.
After a couple weeks Elaine was able to have the bone biopsy. A week later, the scans were scheduled.  Every day the pain increased in her back and the day of the scans she just couldn’t stand it anymore.  She needed to go to the hospital! She was put on an IV Continuous Pain Pump and we waited. After a very long day she was able to start to feel some relief. It was a very long 5 days of ups and downs of trying to manage the pain and vomiting in the hospital. She was then transitioned off the IV pain meds and put on Fentanyl patches and oxycodone and the doctors felt she was good to go home.

The preliminary results of the bone biopsy came back, it was looking like lung cancer. Lung cancer we said?! For a person who never in her life had smoked! The oncologist said the biopsy was being sent out to a very specialized lab that would take several weeks to get the results back from, but it needed to be done so they could determine what the best possible treatment option would be.

As soon as Elaine left the hospital she went straight to her first appointment of radiation on her spine. The goal was to aggressively hit the tumors on her spine in hopes of breaking them up to get some pain relief to take pressure off the spine. She went back every day for a week to have radiation.

Every day we were so hopeful that Elaine would start to show some relief. The pain and nausea just seemed to get worse. The doctors increased her dosages of pain meds even more. It was so horrible to see her in so much pain.

Two days after her last radiation appointment, her sister Carol called me early that morning and said we had to do something, Elaine was in very bad shape. We took her back to Sacred Heart. It took about 24 hours to get her pain under control. Just complete torture to watch her in so much pain. The days where becoming a blur and we were trying so hard to be strong for Elaine.

We met with the doctors and demanded something be done. This pain was not OK! We wanted more testing.

After several doctors consulted they scheduled her for another CT scan, an MRI of the brain and the spine. That evening a surgeon came up to talk to Elaine. He let her know that she had several Fractures along her spine! They needed to do surgery the very next day. This was just so shocking! She had been dealing with fractures in her back for weeks; the cancer had already destroyed so much in her spine that it caused fractures!

Elaine went in for the surgery. It took 4 hours and 13 screws to get her spine repaired. Her incision is about 16 inches long. The surgeon told us he had to repair a lot more than expected because the cancer had caused to much damage to the bone.

Over the next very long 14 days in the hospital, Elaine went through a daily roller coaster ride, several times a day, as did her family. Recovering from such a trauma to the body from the spinal surgery to regulating her pain, nausea and vomiting was a marathon every single day!
 
All during this time we were all growing discouraged as to how long the test results were taking regarding the biopsy. All these weeks had gone by and no sign of, if and when a treatment could be started.  The oncologist was also anxious and wanted to get the results back from the pathologist to see if Elaine would be a candidate for a specialized treatment. Over the next few weeks it was confirmed that Elaine had Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Adenocarcinoma that had metastasized to the bone. We learned new treatments have been developed and approved by the FDA that attack specific mutations in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. They would work if the results from the biopsy show specific mutations of the cancer cells, and the oncologist was really hoping her results would show the markers needed for these treatments.

After a month of waiting, the results came in. She has the mutations in her cancer for the new treatment to work! It was a 15% chance and she had the needed mutations. It’s called Targeted Therapy. It’s not Chemotherapy or Immunotherapy. Targeted Therapy works by targeting specific genes or proteins to help stop cancer from growing and spreading.
 
This was very good news! The oncologist was so excited to share the news with us. Targeted Therapies don’t have the side effects that traditional Chemotherapy treatments have. This treatment is not a cure but can stop the cancer with mild side effects. The Oncologist said it’s the best possible treatment to help Elaine feel better. It also gives us the hope of more time. It is going to be a very long road ahead and we pray that this treatment will help. She will also undergo other treatments to help with her bones.
 
Elaine was able to start taking the new drug just a couple days ago. She will go in for more scans in about 10 weeks to see if there has been change in the growth of the cancer.
 
 We definitely have to take this journey day by day and hope for a future to be able to make many more memories with our Mom, Sister, Auntie, Nana and Friend.
 
SO MANY of you have reached out to us and asked how you can help? What you can do?
 
Elaine has been told she will never return to work. She does have medical insurance at this time, but still has her deductible and co insurance to pay for, and the bills are piling up daily as I’m sure you all can imagine. She will need to find other insurance in the next couple months since she will run out of benefits at her job, Including any income.
Anything that you can donate will help greatly and be very much appreciated.
 
Please keep sending all your Love, Prayers and Cards! Elaine really does appreciate all the support.