the latest from Charlie Herf's daughter Allison on her
fight with cancer. Keep her in your prayers.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday and Happy New Year!!
I was stoked I was able to go home to Arizona for 12 days which was the longest I’ve been away in over a year!! My Dad flew out to San Diego and we drove home on the 21st, it was nice having a copilot, not that Vedder isn’t a great travel companion but his driving skills are sub-par!! ❤️
It was nice to spend time with family and visiting with close friends I’ve known almost my entire life!! A welcome change to being at my house and having the majority of my “outings” be Dr’s appointments, labs, scans, chemo, radiation, surgeries...
I was finally able to actually relax, for a bit. Unfortunately I had to be back in San Diego right after the New Year for an MRI on January 2nd, which unfortunately confirmed the cancer cells that metastasized to my liver were still there and not just still there, they’ve grown, lovely and Happy New Year to me!! On the upside, everything in my Colorectal region is looking good!! Yay!
So back to my liver... this wasn’t a surprise, I think I had minimized how invasive this surgery was going to be?! Although any surgery that requires a 5-7 day hospital stay after, removal of a portion of my liver (estimate 25-30%), possibly my gall bladder, a 4-5” incision, and requires a couple drains immediately after surgery that I’m hoping will all be removed before leaving the hospital. Sooo ya I’d like to say ‘back in the saddle’ we go, but this isn’t exactly the saddle I’d like to be back in!!
It is what it is, one more battle in the fight to be cancer free!!! No matter how tough, relentless and taxing the fight is, I’m in it to win it!!!
My Dad, Charlie was here with me for a couple days after driving back to SD and came with me to my appointment with Dr. Clary, the surgeon who will be doing my procedure. I feel very comfortable with him, he was very personable, through, explained everything so I could understand it and doesn’t hurt that he’s Chief of Surgery!! Think I’m in good hands!! Although I’ve been very impressed with most of my Dr’s, Dr Leichman who is my oncologist and Dr Ramamoorthy my Colorectal Surgeon have also been phenomenal!! Now dealing with the ‘system’ can be, nails on chalkboard, frustrating, annoying, maddening, etc... I know I’m not alone in that!!
As far as chemo, radiation or the hyperbaric chamber oxygen treatments those are all ‘unknowns’ until after next weeks surgery. One major event at a time;) After surgery I’ll have another set of scans to see if I’ll need to go through chemo again, of course I’m hoping No for many reasons, 1 being my hair is just finally growing back!!! Ha! And the hyperbaric chamber is exactly what it sounds like, a capsule type bed, like a tanning bed that’s closed at the top & bottom. Used mainly for the bends people get when scuba diving and they get their nitrogen & oxygen levels all out of whack. It’s pure oxygen, you just lay there & breathe, the pure oxygen is beneficial for a lot of reasons but for me it’s for healing with all the surgeries, chemo & radiation my body has been through in the past 12 months this treatment sounds amazing!!!
Keep you all updated post surgery on how that recovery is going and what’s on the horizon!!
Thank you all again so so so much for all your love and support, it truly means the world to me!!!
Love,
Allison