OverComeACC.com
~Warriors Page~
Share your own one in a million story, words of wisdom or inspirations at:
OverComeACC @ gmail.com
and we'll send you a set of Shana's OverComeACC note-cards to help raise awareness.
Together we are stronger!
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"Live"
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Hi, I'm Shana
My perfect life was turned upside down in April of 2008.
I was a pediatrician working as a hospitalist in Anchorage, Alaska. I loved my work and my husband I were expecting our first child. Six weeks after she was born, everything changed. I noticed my face became full, I developed a bad case of acne, had racing, crazy thoughts. I thought it was post partum depression or I was going crazy. A day later, I went to the ED because I became mute. I thought I was having a stroke. I was so scared.
Eventually, symptoms subsided, and I was sent home, only to have them return the next day. Back we went. I knew something was horribly wrong. They looked and looked and found nothing. They eventually tried a CT of my lungs
to look for a blood clot and happened to see the top of the 10.5cm tumor on my left adrenal gland. When they told me, I cried. I was so grateful they had found what was wrong with me. I wasn't crazy. Little did I know, this was still just the beginning.
You're told in medical school that rare is bad.
So how bad is ultra rare?
Well, I could figure that one out. It terrified me.
My family and I quickly moved back home to Michigan so I could get treatment. I started with mitotane as a stage 3, but very quickly progressed to a stage 4. I have been on the Italian Protocol, tried a couple of clinical trials, and numerous other chemo regimens. I am currently starting my 8th different treatment.
So cancer sucks, yes. But I am so glad I am here. I am so glad I am able to see my daughter grow up and spend quality time with her. I often wonder for how long, though? I know I'm one of the few stage 4 to be doing so
well. I can ride my bike and cook dinner. Most of all, I want to be here long enough for Mia to remember me.
I am running out of treatment options. We need research to find a cure. We need new medicines so we can watch our children grow up, eat ice cream, go to baseball games, watch sunsets, smell cookies and enjoy fireflies.
Please give to ACC Research.
Live,
Shana
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Christa's Story
I know one thing, this cancer can not take away my hope,
my faith, my spirit and my soul and you shouldn't let it either.
Hi, My name is Christa
I was diagnosed with Adrenal Cortical Carcinoma
in August 2008.
My story starts similar to others, a pain in my side that I didn't let go too long, a couple of months, but what I didn't address was the sleepless nights, endless appetite with no weight gain, facial hair, thank goodness I'm a natural blonde, haha.
After a few Dr. visits and a CT scan I heard the dreaded words, you have a tumor. I remember saying to this doctor I had never met before,
" Do you mean CANCER?" and he said yes and that it was nothing he could deal with and I would have to go to NYC to have a closer look.
Fortunately, I have amazing friends with amazing contacts who are unstoppable! One girlfriend knew of a surgeon at NY Presbyterian that happens to have gone to high school with her brother that just "happens to be the clinical director of Urological Oncology"
(At first they thought it was kidney cancer)
He was in surgery when she called him
( I still don't know how 30 years out of HS she got his cell) She wouldn't take no for an answer so she told him about me while he was in surgery and I was seen 4 days later. He was amazing and the long story short, he took out a 14 cm tumor along with my adrenal gland, kidney, and a few other body parts. It took a while to decipher between kidney and adrenal cancer, but when they said ACC,
I really didn't know how bad that was.
After that surgery another girlfriend went on the "dreaded internet" for 36 hours straight, and found that there were not many doctors that dealt with this and she told me either the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD or University of Michigan. Being more familiar with MD, I went with that and had an appt. with Dr. Tito Fojo soon after, and all I can say is Thank God for him!
He was a Godsend. Honest, knowledgeable, sweet, loving, kind, I could go on and on. He put me in the Italian protocol even though I didn't at first qualify for the study, and he said that no matter what, he would always treat me. I fell into his arms like a 44 year old baby and sobbed and he patiently took care of me, my husband, and children (at the time, my daughter just going away to college and my son a junior in high school). I am stage 4, it has spread to many places, I had 8 months of horrible chemotherapy, many surgeries at NIH, many different procedures, and two rounds of radiation. I have wonderful doctors who have agreed to take care of me or actually "be the hands of Dr. Fojo" here in Westchester county, New York where I live. I have scans down at NIH every three months and the last two have been NED ( no evidence of disease).
I am not in denial about how bad this is but I also am optimistic because I have made many milestones I never thought possible. I saw my son graduate high school, had my 20th wedding anniversary ( in chemotherapy), saw my Dad before he passed away, saw my daughter graduate college, and I plan on being around for a lot more.
I have met a few ACC warriors and it has made this journey more tolerable and I don't feel so alone.
A lot comes with this disease as with many other cancers, but when one is so rare, you really find out how little there is for support. So God, family, friends, doctors, warriors, and generous people have become very, very important to me. I know one thing, this cancer can not take away my hope, faith, my spirit and soul and you shouldn't let it either.
I also want to say that I have had the immense please of meeting Dr. Hammer and he is also instrumental in the research to finding treatment and a cure to ACC.
So may have given to his research and I am so thankful for that. Even my daughter raised quite a bit for him at college at an event she held. She was able to raise $1,000.00 which is pretty amazing for broke college students.
They wore t-shirts with my picture on them and I was honored to say the least.
Thanks to my family who has loved me and never let me be alone, for my friends that make sure we eat when I am sick, check in on me regularly, for all the doctors who don't give up, for the people who don't forget, even though years have passed (thankfully), for God who has given me strength and peace throughout this ordeal,
and for this website that has given me an outlet.
Another ACC warrior,
Christa Labriola
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Spencer Bells Story
There is no Plan B
We need a cure now
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Jimmy Valvano
Jimmy Valvano's 1993 ESPY Speech. "Don't give up, don't ever give up."
The V Foundation for Cancer Research was founded in 1993 by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano, legendary North Carolina State basketball coach and ESPN commentator. Since 1993, The Foundation has raised more than $70 million to fund cancer research grants nationwide. It awards 100 percent of all new direct cash donations and net proceeds of events directly to cancer research and related programs. The Foundation, which has received five consecutive top 4-star ratings from Charity Navigator, awards grants through a competitive awards process strictly supervised by a Scientific Review Committee. For more information on The V Foundation or to make a donation, please visit www.jimmyv.org.
Randy Pausch
Kris Carr
Crazy Sexy Life.com
~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A Hart's Desire"
Derrick (Bubba) and his son DJ
In 2002 my mother Fran
Hart was diagnosed with breast
cancer. That began my mission to be a
part of finding the
cure.
Society in Connecticut. Our two University of Connecticut
basketball coaches Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma were
teaming up to fight cancer. Geno had lost his father and Jim
had battled cancer personally. After 3 years, we decided to
team up with the V Foundation. I loved this idea as 100%
of the proceeds go to cancer research. In my 8 years of
fund raising with the most amazing women, we have raised
over $3.5 million dollars….oh did I mention there are
only
8 of us? But the big story started May 2010.
My only brother Derrick who was 47 had stomach pains
and ended up in the hospital. You know where the story is
going....they found a mass. A 6.7 cm tumor on his adrenal
gland. Derrick played it down a bit, in fact a lot because
we ended up at the Smilow Cancer Center, August 3rd,
2010. I had no idea what I was about to hear.
A fantastic surgeon by the name of Dr. Udelsman removed
his tumor and informed Derricks wife Cindi and me that
with 90% certainty it was....wah wah wah wah wah wah
remember on the Peanuts cartoon when the teacher was
speaking? That's what I heard....well that blur turned into
Adrenal Cortical Carcinoma. The doctor said "Derrick, this
cancer is REALLY rare....do me a favor and don't go on
the internet , it will scare you!" Derrick was diagnosed with
stage 2 ACC, negative margins......O.K....it hadn't spread?
That's good.....right? This can be cured.......right........?
Wait, don't go on the internet? Forget that....and it started,
day and night, night and day on the internet trying to
learn. (I never really was a rule follower)
So with that, I found what made sense for us was what Dr.
Gary Hammer was doing at the University of Michigan's
Adrenal Cancer Program. There are some amazing
specialist out there doing great things for ACC, but the
research that is taking place at U of M and Dr. Hammer
himself was so receptive and dare I say neighborly? It felt
like he was almost willing to do an old fashioned house call
all the way to CT. Instead he set up a conference call with
my brother and myself and we talked. He gave us a
moment of not feeling completely out of control. That day
I made a decision and I think I even called Dr. Hammer
back that very same day and and I said, "You know what?
I have been working with The Jimmy V Foundation
http://www.jimmyv.org/ for Cancer Research for awhile
and I am going to raise money for your research."
And that is where we are now!
~
All told, my parents
took me to Cleveland Clinic, Sloan Kettering Hospital, Roswell Cancer Hospital
and University of Michigan Hospital. All we wanted to know was what to do next. Turns out the next step was to have surgery to take my tumor and
adrenal gland out. After surgery the
doctors told me I would be fine and that all my symptoms would go away. Well, after my surgery I
still wasn’t feeling 100% and little did I know, I had a blood clot in my lung
from the surgery. For 6 months I was on
blood thinners and Chemo. During those 6 months I didn’t understand why all of
these negative things had happened to me. I
was always a healthy child, never smoked and never drank. I kept asking my parents and my doctors what it was that I did wrong for this to have happened to me.
My parents and doctors kept telling me that it was just bad luck.
Help raise awareness and promote funding for this ultra rare cancer with the OverComeACC bracelets.
Here is my information: suditmvs @ gmail.com if you would like to buy a bunch of ACC Bracelets or you can look up my facebook group called ACC!
Michelle Sudit
She was an inspiration to me and my family.
To quote Shana,
"LIVE"
Donate
Content copyright Anna . All rights reserved.
Photography Artwork by Shana
Bracelets by Michelle
OverComeACC @ gmail.com