update from Charlie Herf on his daughter Allison's

fight with cancer....

Allison continues to amaze Patti and me ... In spite of whatever stage of treatment she is experiencing, she STILL has the inner strength and fortitude to manage her way through the convoluted medical world of today...As if her life wasn't complicated enough with all of her medical specialists, this Covid-19 Virus has thrown everything to the wind...WWhat it has meant for Allison is making extra phone calls and messaging on her "my chart" to reach her Drs. who have all been working from home these past 10 weeks.. With only a skelton staff answering the phones to re-route the calls from patients to Drs... she has managed the logistics of it and it hasn't been easy and i won't bore you with the daily frustrations she's had to deal with on her own... Patti and I, after testing negative for Covid-119, are FINALLY ALLOWED to go over and be with her.. We have not been able to go over to her for 10 weeks now and before the arrival of the Covid virus, we were going over every 2 weeks for 2 &1/2 years.. This has been very difficult and resulted in a great deal of extra work for Allie just to get through every day of the week by herself.. She had 3 serious sessions of radiation.. each session lasted 8 minutes...that's a lot of radiation... She slept quite a bit the week after those sessions were over...The concern was , would the radiation totally get rid of the tumor on her liver ??? She will have a CT and a PET scan this week to determine the effectiveness of the treatments..her Drs. have already told her that she will need follow up chemo , but, if the PET scan is good, they want to delay the chemo for a little while in hopes that the Covid will dissipate .. then do the chemo in a few weeks as opposed to right now and further reduce her immune system... To complicate matters, Allie has another issue that has surfaced several times before ...swollen feet, ankles, and calves of her legs... It is exceedingly painful..so, she now will be seeing a cardiovascular specialist and a neurologist to help determine the source of the problem...so, this week, she has been forced to try to elevate her leg as much as possible to alleviate the swelling...Having video Drs. appts has been a God send so she hasn't needed to leave her house...Patti and i drive over to her next Tuesday, June 2nd and will stay at least 1 week.. We cannot stay with her so we will be in a VRBO just a mile from her house and we can be there helping her every day while social distancing...We have had the antibody test and were told we have not nor do we have the virus or the anti-bodies.... We've been GOOD...so, hopefully, all will go well...again, i want to THANK YOU for all of your prayers, gifts to Allison, and your encouraging notes..she reads all of them and keeps them.. your support means a great deal to her...in case you need it , her address is 3429 Ray Street, San Diego, Ca. 92104..and you can always write her a message by going to Google and entering "gofundme allison herf.com"...i will update you after her scans and after her new appts with the cardio and neuro Docs...Allison helps us remain positive and forward thinking... Her battle continues...Her HOPE never dims... and her will to LIVE a "new" normal never wavers...thank you for your concern for Allison,Charlie