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Laps of Love: Emer Still Fighting Thirteen Years after Diagnosis |
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Written by Publisher
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Thursday, 15 July 2010 |
Brenda Emer will be the honorary speaker during the survivor portion of Friday night's Relay for Life program. Emer has been involved in nine of the ten relays held in Kane, and is captain of the West Side Walkers. The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life is a 24 hour event that will be held at the Kane Area High School track from noon on Friday until noon on Saturday.
By Amy Geer
Republican Staff
James City resident Brenda Emer is one of the most ardent supporters of the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Emer has been involved in nine of the 10 Kane relays. She has served as team captain of the West Side Walkers, been in charge of the survivorship portion of the event a number of times, and served as honorary speaker in 2003, a position she will fill again this year.
The theme for Kane's 2010 Relay for Life is birthdays. As in cancer survivors celebrating more birthdays. Emer was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time 13 years ago this week, when she was just 28 years old. Thirteen birthdays and nine cancer diagnoses later, she is still going strong.
Emer's life changed forever in July of 1997 when she was told she had cancer. "My kids, John and Allison, were only two and three years old. I thought how is Cy (my husband) going to survive with two little kids." Her first bout with cancer was treated with a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation, and her treatments finished in March of 1998. Just over a year later, an exam detected two cancerous lymph nodes on her collarbone. They were removed, and Emer subsequently received a blood stem cell transplant. Prior to the transplant, she had to undergo kidney dialysis twice, due to too many cancerous cells in her body the first time. She received 2.1 million red blood cells the second time to prepare her for the transplant. She was in Pittsburgh for three weeks for the transplant. One of the side effects of the transplant was that the ovaries are destroyed. In some younger patients, they grow back, which they did in Emer's case. This required an emergency hysterectomy a year later, in January of 2001, at the age of 31.
In August of 2003, at Kane's third Relay for Life, Emer was selected to give the survivor speech. She gave a speech that moved her and nearly everyone in the audience to tears, saying that cancer would not win. When she returned home on Saturday afternoon after the close of the relay, there was a message on her machine to call her doctor--a message that Emer knew wasn't good news. The cancer was back.
This time, it was back in the breast. A mastectomy was done and Emer began chemotherapy again. While she was undergoing chemo in Pittsburgh, Emer told her doctor that she had been having strange dreams and had some slight headaches. He suggested that while she was there, she undergo an MRI, just to be safe. After undergoing additional tests and scans the next day, she received the news that shook up the usually unflappable Emer--she had a brain tumor. "You
know, a breast, it can be removed, but your brain, that's scary. I sat in his office and sobbed." Surgery was ruled out, as the tumor was right behind the optic nerve and doctors deemed it too risky. She was treated with a gamma knife, which is direct radiation on the tumor.
Four years later, in May of 2007, a scan picked up a spot on Emer's right lung. Doctors thought that it was probably scar tissue, and went in to scrape it, but found out it was cancer yet again. This time she was treated with chemotherapy.
A year later, doctors found spots on both lungs, which meant yet another round of chemo. Before the end of 2008, the cancer was back on her lungs, which meant more chemo. This time, she was treated with pills, a new type of treatment for her.
Just over six months later, her doctors found that she had cancer in her liver, for which she received treatment in Pittsburgh. She received the chemotherapy through a line into her groin, which sent the medicine directly to her liver, not throughout the body.
Before the end of 2009, se received more bad news. The cancer was now in her lower back. She underwent three weeks of radiation. Then just two months ago, doctors found another spot on a disc further up Emer's spine, resulting in another two weeks of radiation.
While her medical history is one battle after another, Emer somehow keeps fighting. She has been on chemotherapy of one sort or another, continuously from May of 2007 to the present. She estimates that she has undergone 200 chemotherapy treatments in her battles with cancer, and 17 weeks of radiation.
Emer has looked into other types of treatments. In January of 2009, she traveled to Fox Chase in Philadelphia to look into new types of treatment. She was turned down to be part of a trial study because she did not meet the criteria at that time--she was not cancer free. She was recently notified that there is a new trial group that she might be eligible for, so she is considering her options,
The American Cancer Society has been supportive of Emer in her battles. They have given her a lot of emotional support, and have been the source of much information. They also have been a financial support, reimbursing her for the mileage incurred while seeking treatment. Emer also received a wig as part of the ACS' Look Good, Feel Better campaign of a few years ago. She was also selected as one of 25 Pennsylvania residents chosen to tell their story at last year's
Vision of Hope at Penn State.
Emer feels very strongly about Relay for Life. "It is a very inspirational day. ou see a lot of caring people, and it's great to know that they are supporting you. It's a very memorable event, and very emotional, both good and bad."
The good outweighs the bad, though, according to the 10-time survivor. Her motto, which she passes along to others in bad times, is "Always Think Positive." She has become an ambassador of sorts to other people facing difficult times. Incredibly, instead of feeling sorry for herself, Emer looks at others around her and says that things could be worse. "I am still able to do whatever I want to do.
I don't feel sorry for myself, I feel sorry and sad for John and Allison. They have lost and missed so much because of what I have gone through."
While hearing that you have cancer is one of the worst things one can ever hear, Emer says that it is important to keep fighting after you hear it. "Even though I have heard it 10 times, it is still a really scary word." Those who know Emer marvel at her stength. "You can not let cancer take over your life. Keep moving and put a smile on your face, because you can beat it, just look at me." In other words, "Always think positive."
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