Memorial Service Information

Good Evening,

Memorial Service will take place at First United Methodist Church of Orange on Saturday August 19, 2017 at 3pm. Please join us as we mourn the loss and celebrate the life of Elizabeth Anderson.

We ask that everyone attending RSVP to our Evite for the memorial so that we can make sure we have enough seats to go around.  http://evite.me/DGtJf3jCAd

Parking around the church is limited and many parking lots have a 3 hour time limit.  Please be aware of that when you park, and allow extra time to find a parking space.

Immediately following the service will be a reception in Messenger Hall at the church featuring a light offering of some of Liz’s favorite foods.  

Again, Liz has asked that no floral arrangements be sent, but that donations be made to the cancer research charity of your choosing or to her GoFundMe campaign to assist with her medical costs.  https://www.gofundme.com/life4liz

Please RSVP by Thursday August 17, 2017.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me at KatharineASkinner@gmail.com

Thank you all again for your love and support over the last year and a half. We have found in you the love, comfort and strength to manage through this incredibly difficult time and cannot express enough how much it has meant to all of us. 

❤❤❤❤❤

First United Methodist Church of Orange

161 S Orange St

Orange, CA 92866

714-532-6363

At Rest

Dear Friends and Family, 

Nothing can prepare you for what it feels like to lose someone. Not time, not science or knowledge, not past experience or sage advice. Each person in our life fills a different shaped puzzle piece that makes us who we are. Only you can know what it feels like when that individual puzzle piece is gone.

Liz's time in our lives is now at an end. She has fulfilled her role in each of our existences and has moved on from here. She is no longer in pain, she is no longer anxious for what is to come but is satisfied in her new place among the stars.

Take comfort in knowing that she was not afraid for herself but only worried for our well-being now that she has passed.

Embrace your loved ones, reach out for help, surround yourself with loving people and friends. Take time for yourself to mourn but also lift your head in gladness and celebrate the amazing life that she led and all of the people that she touched and whose lives were made better because of her.

We are working on a memorial service and details will be posted here when available

In lieu of flowers, Liz requested that donations be made to Cancer Research charities or to her GoFundMe campaign to ease the burden of the medical bills she has left behind.  www.GoFundMe.com/Life4Liz

Tonight the Perseids Meteor Shower is at its peak. I plan on getting out this evening to watch the stars streak across the night sky for Liz who would have loved to be out there star gazing tonight. 

Elizabeth Ann Anderson

August 9, 1982 - August 12, 2017

Hospice Care

Dear Friends and Family,

These words aren’t easy to write, and won’t be easy to read either.

Monday evening, Liz was taken to the ER due to feeling unable to catch her breath. A few hours with an oxygen mask helped her get her full breath and the doctors went to work trying to find out what was causing this.

They discovered an aggressive infection and began treating it.

While in the hospital, they performed a CT scan and confirmed that the cancer has not responded to the immunotherapy treatment and has spread.

Liz has elected to cease treatment and begin Comfort Care with home hospice. She will not be receiving antibiotics or nightly nutrition. She will be given wonderful pain killers and lots of care.  We are estimating that Liz will be with us for less than two weeks.

Thank you to everyone who has come out to see her. I apologize to those who were hoping to come out this weekend but she doesn’t have much energy and would like to focus on being around her immediate family and friends at this time.

Liz is at peace with her decision to cease treatment and she hopes that we can all find that peace as well. 

Dear Friends and Family

Dear Friends and Family,

It is with a heavy heart that I write to you today. 

Liz has received 4 immunotherapy treatments and they appear to have had no effect on her cancer.  The immunotherapy has shown amazing results in Lung Cancer patients and we had hoped that the revolutionary treatment might be effective on her gallbladder cancer, but it seems to have not done much.  

We had hoped this week to receive a scan to show us if there had been any improvement, but Liz’s visible state of health says more than any scan could. At this point Liz’s quality of life has deteriorated, her body is beginning to shut down and we are putting plans of hospice care into motion for her. It is not a decision that she or anyone has come to lightly. Her pain levels are intolerable, her energy is so low she can’t stay awake for an hour of TV, she can’t eat or drink anything and she vomits up whatever bodily fluids have built up about 3 times day leaving her weak and uncomfortable.

Noel, her parents and I support her decision. She has been brave and strong through this entire process and she has made the bravest decision in deciding to not prolong her suffering.  Liz will begin receiving at home hospice care in the next few days.

If you would like to come by and visit her, you can email me at KatharineASkinner@gmail.com to make arrangements.  Liz, will likely be on the couch, she may be very tired, and her ability to hold conversation will be limited by her energy levels.  You are welcome to stay as long as you like as long as you know that she may fall asleep during your visit.  There is also the possibility that she will vomit while you are there. If you are squeamish please feel free to leave the room if this happens, she won’t be offended.

During the last year Liz has done everything in her power to live the life she had left with passion and positivity. As her time winds down, she will leave us knowing that her time has not been wasted and that her loved ones will be left with sparkling memories of her tenacity and spirit.

We cannot know how long she has left, but once home hospice care begins they will take her off of the IV nutrition and hydration that has been keeping her alive these last two months and put her on the best IV pain killers to ensure a comfortable rest.  

Thank you for all of your support, your prayers, and the comfort you have provided us and her family over the last 16 months. We never could have made it this far without you. 

Immunotherapy & Health

Dear Everyone,

Since the last post there has been a lot going on. We wanted to wait until things were better before updating everyone, but I'm not sure how much better it will be for a while.

First the good news! The immunotherapy was approved. Not only was it approved by the company in clinical trials with it, but because her insurance wouldn't cover the cost of the therapy her doctors petitioned for her to receive the medication for free and were approved!

Since the last post, Liz's ability to eat and keep food down got worse. Much much worse.  Liz continued to vomit once a day, and had been getting weaker and weaker.  Monday May 1st, she collapsed in the hallway of her home because she couldn't make it the 50 feet from her office to the living room.  Noel was thankfully there to catch her, and we scheduled an appointment with the doctor the next day.

Tuesday May 2nd, I took her to her appointment where the nurse practitioner confirmed that she was dangerously dehydrated and her potassium levels were low enough to cause an irregular heart palpitation.  We stayed at the hospital for 3 additional hours to get hydration and potassium into her system and made appointments through Friday for more hydration.

Wednesday, she was feeling a bit better.  Tuesday when I brought her into the hospital I had to wheel her around because she didn't have the strength to walk or stand for long. Wednesday, she walked all the way up to the hydration center on her own.

Thursday May 4th, Noel took Liz in for her first immunotherapy.  Everything went well. The process only takes an hour and a half, but they still needed her to by hydrated, so they spent a bit longer at the hospital that day to make sure she received the hydration and potassium she needed.  There are not many side effects associated with the immunotherapy, but unlike chemo it takes a few treatments before results can be seen. This is because it is working on building up her immune system so that it can fight the cancer and it takes a couple treatments to build her up enough for there to be any changes.

Friday she received more hydration

Saturday 5/6 was Liz and Noel's 1st wedding anniversary.  This was a celebration no one knew if they would be able to have when they took their vows.  We are all incredibly grateful to be able to wish them a happy One Year Wedding Anniversary.

Sunday - the vomiting got worse

Monday - still bad

Tuesday- May 9th- She was barely able to put clothing on to get up and go to the doctor's for an appointment that had already been set for her.  Her parents and I were able to get her dressed and she had the strength (with the help of a walker) to move from the bedroom to the living room.  After that everything didn't go so easily.  Her parents and I tried to get her to my car so to go to the hospital for her appointment.  And she collapsed about 3 feet out of her front door.  She said to try again, so we got her up and two feet later she got wobbly. We tried to set her on the seat of the walker and as we tried to lower her, her eyes rolled back into her head, she became rigid and began to shake. I called 911 as we lowered her to the ground.  She came to shortly after we put her sitting up on the ground, and began to vomit.  

The paramedics arrived, accessed the situation and brought her to Placentia Linda ER (where all of this started a little over a year ago).  They put her on hydration and potassium and she began to perk up over the course of the next 2-3 hours.  She still continued to vomit off and on every few hours. 

That evening they transferred her to UCI. 

At UCI they ran tests and determined that the passage of food and liquid into her stomach had been blocked. 

May 12th- the doctors decided to place stents in the blocked passage.  They placed two stents.  And it didn't help. She continued to vomit.

May 16th- Still in the hospital. The doctors decided to place another stent.  The other option was a feeding tube and they were desperately trying to avoid that option. 

May 19th- Still in the hospital- A 6th stent was placed and seemed to help. 

May 24th- After a little more than 2 weeks in the hospital, she was finally able to keep down some liquids and they released her. 

She is currently doing, OK. Not great, but OK. She's keeping down small amounts of liquid.  An Ensure a day along with water and other drinks as she can tolerate them has been her goal. She's slowly upping her Ensure intake as she can. 

They put her on a lot of drugs to help keep the nausea and pain down so she is sleeping most of the day right now.  But being home instead of being in the hospital has done wonders for her spirit. 

We are all hoping the immuno therapy will begin to work and start reducing the tumors so she can eat without issues.  This week she has her 2nd treatment. 

Your prayers, your thoughts, and your support are much needed and appreciated.  

Thank you!

Health Update

Health Update:

Two weeks ago Liz was admitted into the hospital. 

Wednesday April 5th, she was at a doctor’s appointment at UCI and Liz mentioned to her doctor that she was having some abdominal pain that rated at about a 3 on a scale of 1-10. The doctor dismissed the pain with the same dismissal she’s had a few times now, essentially chalking it up to the fact that she has cancer and will have pain. 

Over the course of the next few days, the pain level went up slowly and she began having major difficulties eating.  On Sunday April  9^th, she spiked a fever and the pain got a lot worse. They spent the next 24 hours in the emergency room trying to locate the infection and bring her fever down.  At the end of her hospital stay, April 12^th, they concluded that they believe the infection was located in her biliary tract and sent her home with a prescription for a 2 week IV infusion of antibiotics.

The two weeks is almost over but the pain is still present and, while her ability to eat has improved, she is still having a hard time keeping much food down.  She should have started chemo back up again on the 12th but because of this infection it has been delayed until further notice.

She’ll have another appointment with the doctors at UCI this week and hopefully we’ll know more about what is going on and when she’ll be able to start chemo again.

On a positive note, they did a CT scan on her in the emergency room and noted that the cancer appears to be stable.  So her not being able to have treatment for a month hasn’t affected her too much as far as the doctors can tell.

A Note regarding Doctors and such:   Thanks to the help of your donations, Liz was able to pay for her old benefits through COBRA for two months, which will cover the treatments she received at City of Hope after she was fired.  After that, Noel’s insurance will be able to cover her treatments at UCI.  Her oncologist at UCI has a close working relationship with her previous oncologist at the City of Hope, so they are working together to continue the plans to get Liz approved to receive immunotherapy.

Lawyers:  Liz reached out to an Employment Law Attorney for a consultation, through a recommendation of friend. This attorney advised Liz that she absolutely has a case but the sad truth of the matter is that her previous employer (Brother International) could just “wait her out.”  They had a good conversation that presented the question of whether she wants to spend whatever time she has left battling this in court or drop it and just enjoy life.   Liz chose to let it go. 

Now this doesn’t mean that we all couldn’t throw tweets and letters at Brother International or alert the media and see if they'll shame Brother International into a settlement or something, but for Liz’s part she’s just going to focus on her health right now and we all believe that is for the best.

That’s what is going on. Please continue to send her your love, your smiles and support. It means so much to her.  

Unemployed, Tumor Markers and Insurance

Good Morning!

This last few weeks have been an unsavory adventure in Liz’s world. 

Unemployed:

On February 23^rd Liz received a phone call from her employer firing her from her job as of February 17, 2017.  Liz has been out on disability since early December due to the multiple day treatments she has been receiving recently and the side-effects, but had been working relatively regularly until then.  We believe there is much about this decision that is unlawful, and that her employer’s actions were timed the way they were to prevent Liz from being able to use her FMLA again when it was set to renew.

Insurance:

In the 4 business days she had to get new insurance settled before her insurance ran out on her, she was able to jump on to Noel’s insurance.  Unfortunately, in the rush to get coverage before her next treatment they were unable to verify if the new insurance would allow her to continue her treatments at City of Hope. Liz has received two treatments since her insurance with her ex-employer ran out and just this Thursday she found out that the City of Hope does not accept her new insurance. Liz and Noel are working with his HR department to see if they switch to a plan that the City of Hope does take. Fingers crossed that  they can!  If this can’t be fixed Liz and Noel may be getting bills in the neighborhood of $10,000 per treatment.

Tumor Markers:

While the current chemo Liz is on has made her feet completely numb and her hands are also starting to go numb as well, it is doing its job.  Her first blood test for tumor markers after starting the chemo shows the markers at 560, her second blood test after she had missed 1 treatment due to low potassium levels was at 1064, and the last blood test done on 3-15-17 showed her tumor markers at 320! That is the lowest they’ve been since treatment started (I think).  They’ll be doing a scan in the next few weeks so we’ll know more about what the cancer is doing soon.

Immunotherapy:

As with most chemotherapy drugs, the chemo she is on can only be administered for 12 sessions and most patients only make it to 9 sessions due to the neuropathy (numb hands and feet).  She just completed session 7 of 12.  Liz’s doctor has been talking about the next step being immunotherapy.  But this next step has also been described as the last available option.

Now, the immunotherapy he would like to put her on (Keytruda or Pembrolizumab) has done some incredible things in its clinical trials. It’s the same therapy that Jimmy Carter received and he is now cancer-free.  The cancer cells are able to trick the healthy cells into thinking they are normal healthy cells, what this therapy does is (what I like to call the Scooby-Doo effect) pull off their disguise and boost her immune system so her own healthy cells begin attacking the cancer cells. 

This all sounds fabulous. We’re absolutely on board for this next step. The problem is, (insurance matters aside) it’s in clinical trials in Florida and the doctor may not be able to get the drugs at the City of Hope. He is trying hard though and feels strongly about getting this for Liz.

IF we can’t get the immunotherapy drugs…there aren’t many options left. The doctor said they can try another chemo, but some insurance companies won’t allow more than a certain number of chemo treatments to be done.  Also at City of Hope they pride themselves on using medication that is proven to get the job done, so a new chemo may not be as accurate or helpful for Liz’s type of cancer.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for all of the best outcomes. Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers. If you can spare a donation please consider sending it Liz’s way, they are a bit terrified of what may happen with insurance going forward.  

In spite of all of this, Liz is doing her best to live the life she has, while she can and I hope you will join us in supporting her as best as we can on her adventures.

Much love to you and yours!