UPDATE #5

Hello again family and friends!
A lot has happened since the last update.

First of all, Westin “graduated” from his IV chemo treatments!!! Because of all your prayers, Westin was able to resume his treatments after a week off and his labs came back really good. The nurses came over to him when he was finished with a “graduation” certificate and clapped and sang like they do at a restaurant on your birthday, lots of fun! I attached a picture of him with Patty and Donna who took extra good care with him and gave him lots of TLC. We love them.

Also, the Cuts for A Cause fundraiser that Kelsey organized happened on Saturday and was a great success!  It was truly overwhelming to witness the love and support that people gave to our whole family, friends and strangers (now friends) and family. So many people spent hours of time and gave of their means to help, it’s a very humbling experience and makes us all teary to realize how much love and goodwill is in our world. THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Next week Westin should begin his “at home” treatment with his injections of Interferon that he will give himself. The dosage is half of what he was taking and only every other day instead of every day so we expect that it should go well.

Westin has started a new business venture. He sold his truck and bought 2 soda machines with some of the money. He is putting one in the pool store on McKellips and is looking for another location for the other machine. If anyone can think of a good location for the other one he would like to know. This should be a nice help to him as he hasn’t been able to put it the hours at work that he was before. Westin decided he would like to start taking some classes online until he can get around on his own (another story) so that’s what his plans are next.
This experience has helped all of us to rely on the Lord more and to be grateful for every blessing that comes through challenges and trials. Real life lessons are such good teachers and Wes has been experiencing many of those and it has been for his good as well as ours.

Love to all of you and thank you again!

Helen

Cuts For A Cause - Fundraiser to help Wesin in his fight against Cancer on JULY 31st, 2010

Join us as we raise money to help Westin in his fight against Cancer.

If you are in need of a cut or have been meaining to get those back to school hair cuts out of the way, come down and get a cut from an amazing stylist at Habit Salon. All the proceeds will go to helping Westin in his fight against Cancer.

Not in need of a cut? Check out these other fun events that are going on!

Shop Contagious Clothing Boutique!

For this important cause Contagious will be transporting the entire boutique to this event for you to shop from !

Salon Services!

Waxing, facials, treatments, Glitter toes (Toes by Em) and more!

Bake Sale!

Get a cookie or other amazing baked goods and help the cause, you won’t find a more guilt free way of sneaking a little treat.

Huge Raffle!

Come and take a chance at winning a number of amazing prizes from one of our sponsors!

Event Information

Location:

Habit Salon, NW corner of Val Vista and Southern

Time/date:

Sat. July 31st 10am -5 pm

Cost: $30/ hair cut

 

Thanks to all our sponsers!

Freedom Board Shop

Habit Salon

Contagious

Sugar Mama Sweets

Ned's Crazy Sub

Ganem Fine Jewelry

Sweet Cakes Cafe

and more!

WESTIN'S STORY

Westin Reader is a fun, active, and bright young 20 year old. He is excited about making a career and starting a family one day.


One thing that sets him apart from other 20 year old young men is that in March of 2010 he was diagnosed with Stage IIIA Melanoma.

Wes found a mole on his small toe and went to have it surgically removed. Shortly after the lab results came back showing that he had a malignant tumor and needed to have his toe amputated. He also endured a very painful nuclear medicine procedure testing his lymph nodes to see if the cancer had spread. The sentinel node in his groin showed cancer cells so he had that node removed. His oncologist referred him to the University of Arizona Medical Center’s Arizona Cancer Center for further treatment. There it was determined that he needed to have another surgery and have the rest of the lymph nodes in that area of the groin removed. So in April he traveled to Tucson several times and had surgery again. He is now in treatment to try and prevent further spread and reoccurrence of the cancer. His treatment will last for one year taking Interferon. It is a daily IV treatment for one month and then for 11 months following, he will give himself injections every other day.

During this whole ordeal, Westin has been optimistic and determined to fight hard to stay well. The Interferon can have serious side effects and has made it difficult for Westin to continue working and going to school but he tells people that this experience is going to help him learn and grow. Each day at his treatment he thanks his nurses and tells them how great it is to see them J He has been making newborn baby caps for the Humanitarian Center for our church. These little hats get sent all over the world to children in need.

Westin is trying to do everything he can to get well and stay healthy and is so grateful for friends and family that love and support him daily.

Update 4

Hi Friends and Family,
Westin finished up his third week of treatment on Friday! Yay, he’s actually doing really well. Whenever I ask him how he’s feeling he just says, “good”, no matter what. The only time I can tell he may not be feeling that great is when I notice he’s taken some Tylenol or asks me to rub his legs and feet and arms when they feel achy, or when he sleeps for really long periods of time.

We could use some more prayers this week because he has had to discontinue treatment this week because his blood work came back with some undesirable levels. Specifically his potassium is quite low and his triglycerides and cholesterol are quite high. The Interferon can take a toll on the liver where fats are broken down and processed. Apparently his liver isn’t doing a very good job of that and so they need to give his liver time off from the Interferon to prevent permanent damage. They’ve got him taking a prescription of potassium and hopefully he’ll be able to start back on the treatments next week. So please pray for that. They’ll test his blood again on Friday and we’ll find out Monday if he’ll be able to continue the treatments.

I’ve attached some pictures of the last 2 weeks. He’s been working on the baby caps and writing in his journal and getting visitors during his treatments, and of course sleeping :)

We feel so blessed for all the prayers and well wishes, visits, care packages, calls, emails…etc… Westin feels so much support and love!

Thank you again!
Helen

Update 3

Week One- check!

Westin just finished up his first week of his Interferon treatments, thought I’d give an update on how things are going.

I have pictures from each day but day 1 is on my phone still and yesterday was day 5 and we forgot to take one. But I am trying to document it for Wes and for me too.

First of all I have to say that Westin has an incredible attitude and is taking this all so well. It’s not easy or fun or convenient for him but each day he tells his nurse Patty, “thanks Patty, this is a great way to start off my day…just wake up and come here and relax for 3 hours”. Needless to say he is a favorite down there :)

So his schedule is to be at treatment (at the Ironwood Cancer Center just down the street from Banner Baywood hospital here in Mesa) at 7:30 every morning and he finishes up around 10:30. He gets an IV treatment 5 days a week and then rests on the weekends. This will go on for 4 weeks and then he can start the treatments at home with the shots he’ll give himself.

He’s been feeling really great, practically symptom free until yesterday. Some nausea and fatigue and just uneasy feelings started yesterday so he’s been taking some of the meds they prescribed for him at home. They seem to help some.

The first day we were a little unprepared for things to do for 3 hours. I had a FRIEND magazine in my bag so Westin found all the hidden pictures on the activity page J and then read some car magazines. Since then he’s been bringing music to listen to and we went to the church Humanitarian center and they gave us materials to make little caps for newborns in the hospital. So far we’ve made 40 caps.

I like having my time with Westin every day, even though the circumstances aren’t ideal. I feel so grateful to be able to go with him each day. His happy and cheerful attitude is catching and since he’s about 50 years younger than most of the patients there, he’s quite popular :)

I’ve heard Westin tell people that he’s decided to make the best of things and figure out what he can learn from this experience, I am proud of his positive outlook and it makes things easier for him too.

Thanks again for the love and prayers!

Helen

Update 2

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know what happened at the Oncologist appt today.

He looked at Westin’s wound from his last surgery and decided he would like to give it another week to heal before starting treatment.

So Westin will start the Interferon treatments on Monday June 14. He will go everyday (Mon-Fri) at 7:30 am and it takes about 2 hours each day for 30 days.

They sent us home with prescriptions to fill to help with nausea and an anti-depressant. Some of the side effects of Interferon are achy muscles, fever, chills, feeling flu like, nausea, and depression. But you’ll be happy to know that Westin fully intends to defy the odds and feel good the whole time :)

After the 30 days, he’ll be sent home with Interferon injections that he will give himself every other day. It looks like a little pen that you just click and poke. This dosage is about half of what the intravenous dose will be so he should feel less sick (if he gets sick ) during the 11 months that he is on this.

His boss at work loves him and has told him that he can start working again and they will arrange his schedule around how he feels and give him as many hours as he is able to do. Westin is very grateful for that because he still has bills to pay but hasn’t been able to work since April.

Kelsey has been working on a fundraiser to help Westin with some of his medical expenses. Her salon is sponsoring a “Cut for a Cause” day and will be doing haircuts all day (at a great price) and donating a portion of the proceeds. They should have a definite date for the event very soon. Also, Sweet Cakes is participating in the fundraiser on that day as well. Kelsey is busy contacting other businesses to see if they would like to participate . It will be a great help….what a great sister! She and Sarah will both be cutting hair at the salon that day, thank you girls!

BriAnne has offered to spend days with him at treatment to be there with him ,when she has a babysitter -that’s usually me…yay!. It’s been neat to see our family come together and work for a common goal. We are being blessed by so many and also strengthened by continued prayers and kindness.

Thank you!!...Life is good.

Love,
Helen

Update 1

Dear Family and Friends,


Thank you so much for all the calls and visits and goodies and food and prayers and LOVE! Wow, it’s overwhelming.

Today was a good day.

Yesterday we went to see Dr. Evan Hersch, founder and director of the melanoma clinic at the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson, he is an oncologist. He is not a very “warm fuzzy” kind of guy and quite blunt but extremely knowledgeable and expert in this field. He gave us a lot of good information and recommended having a CLND (complete lymph node dissection). This is something we were hoping to avoid because of the serious side effects it can have like severe edema and even possibly losing use of one’s leg. He said he was concerned that the cancer cells had moved so quickly to the lymph node from a tumor in the toe that wasn’t very deep and he wants to make sure that we take out any other possible cancer in those lymph nodes. He set us up to see the surgeon, Dr. Warneke, this morning. Dr. Warneke has been doing strictly melanoma surgery for the last 15 years or so and according to Dr. Hersch, one of the best surgeons of his type in the country. We saw him today and loved him. He was very down to earth and took time to answer every question we had and explain everything we wanted to know. He also recommended the CLND and said that because of Westin’s age and good health he expected only a 5% chance of Westin experiencing extreme edema or other disabling complications. We also learned that melanoma does not go into the nodes behind the knee and ankle, it goes straight to the groin, so he will only be removing the lymph nodes in the groin, that’s another positive. He felt that doing this surgery along with the Interferon therapy (like chemo) would give Westin a 77% chance of non-recurrence. Westin asked for a list of patients in his age group who have had this surgery that he could contact and ask questions, so they are getting that for him.



The Cancer Center also has “councils” that meet each week to discuss patients they are seeing and to share ideas and opinions. They used Westin as a case study and there was a dermatologist, oncologist, surgeon, pathologist, radiologist, nurses, and others all discussing his case and they all agreed that this is the best treatment for Westin. The only thing they want to do is to have his biopsy slides sent to them so that their pathologists can read it to make double sure nothing was overlooked.



The surgeon left us alone for a bit for Westin to consider what he wants to do. After some time, Westin decided to go ahead with the surgery. So unless a scheduling glitch happens, he will be having surgery on this Wed. at University Medical Center in Tucson. Then after about 3 weeks he will start the Interferon for a year. He will be able to do that here in Mesa. Westin has a really great attitude. It must be hard to feel like your choices are being taken from you because of a disease and I see some frustration at times, but for the most part he is ready to battle this.



The AZ Cancer Center is an incredible facility. From the moment you walk in you are treated like you are staying in a world class hotel. They have a nutritionist who gives free counseling on how to eat well during treatment, they have social workers who offer support and facilities for rehab, and our nurse will answer a page or call anytime to help us with whatever we need. The labs are right there so they were able to draw his blood right on site. It is comforting to be surrounded with so much knowledge and help.



We feel so blessed to have a wonderful “army” of loved ones with great faith and love to help fight this battle. We know that Heavenly Father is very aware of Westin and loves him.

We are fasting this Sunday for a successful surgery and for Westin’s well being, thank you ahead of time for joining with us.

Much Love,

Helen

Ps- if you would like to call and visit with Westin, he loves that.

Photos of Westin