Gary Reeder
The latest from Charlie Herf on daughter Allison's fight
Sunday, June 09, 2019, 18:23

with cancer.

Allison update as of 6/9/2019. Home for a week and back to San diego Wednesday to try to help. ALL, while it is difficult to write most of these updates on Allie i know that you want to hear the latest from the texts and messages you send to me..it has been 4 + weeks since Allie's 6 hour surgery.. 2 hours for the take down of the ileostomy and 4 hours to remove the non cancerous lymph nodes that were near the liver area that had cancer removed. since Dr. Clary had removed about 25 % of her liver he didn't want to take any chances that the "bright light" that had shown up in the recent PET scan indicated a "new" cancer area. Fortunately, the nodes were benign... however, the removal of the nodes necessitated him going in through the very sore incision that had not completely healed. That incision he called a "hockey stick" since it is so long and curved.. post surgery is when all of Allison's pain and discomfort began...The glue used to close the incision caused an extremely itchy and uncomfortable rash and it spread all over her abdomen and chest areas...it took several tries with various prescriptions until one finally worked and the rash began to lessen... Then the REAL fun began with the ostomy bag gone, anything she ate or drank was exiting her body with in 3-5 seconds.Her rectum was so seriously radiated that it has no control and she has very little colon remaining.. just enough to re-connect when that ostomy was "taken down" ( as they say )..Allie was going to write this update and she would certainly be more graphic than i can be , but, she is exhausted from basically little if any sleep as she has been spending most of her time on the potty...Her intestines have basically not been functioning for almost 2 years and everything has been slow to "wake up" and internally, she has been so sliced and diced that everything is raw and sore from so many surgeries.. This was her 9th surgery and 11th medical procedure in the past 19 months !!! need less to say her body is totally exhausted. She saw her colorectal surgeon this past Thursday instead of waiting until this coming week's appt because she was in such terrible pain.. once her Dr. saw how inflamed her insides are , she limited her to liquids only in hopes of allowing her intestine to "calm down"...Dr. Cance from our U. of A.Cancer Center here suggested taking Kefir several times a day to help promote a healthier gut and possibly a medicine to help with the motility.. she is going to ask her Dr.s there @ U.C.S.D. about some of the things Dr. Cance suggested..Needless to say, my last update to you mentioning that Allison was anxious to get back to working again was grossly premature !! Her "mind" is willing but now and for several more months, her body is not ready and needs to heal.. her main "job" right now is to try to sleep, rest, and allow her body to heal.. the surgeons have said it will be a 4 -6 month recovery especially, after ALL that she has been through. As we enter month # 20 !!! again, we THANK YOU for your continued prayers, your notes of encouragement, gift cards and donations for Allison !!! to say she and we are "exhausted" is an understatement , having said that, we do remain hopeful that after another 4-6 months, Allie CAN actually go back to work, live her "new" life, hopefully, not restricted to continuous Dr. appts. and further medical procedures !!! she would LOVE nothing better than to have a life as a functioning member of society and have some JOY in her life again !!! i'll include her address again, she truly enjoys hearing from all of you... 3429 Ray Street, San Diego, Ca. 92104...She plans to write her own update and post it on her "gofundmeallisonherf.com" site as soon as she has enough energy, until then thss update will have to do..
Charlie