
Help Jody fight the beast (esophageal cancer)!
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If you know the background and want to scroll to what is happening now scroll to the fourth paragraph "This week...".
Many of you know Jody as "Foreman" or "Coach Foreman". I know Jody as an amazing husband, father, God fearing family man, and provider. Jody has spent the last 27 years of his life dedicated to his family, students, and athletes he has coached. If you have been lucky enough to know Jody you know there is no place he would rather be than in a classroom or playing sports. The last few years Jody has not been able to enjoy the things he loves quite as much. He has not played sports since the first surgery and now the interaction with his students is limited to zoom and email.
Jody has had a nasty disease called barrett's esophagus since he was a teenager. Barretts is caused by the acid reflux he has fought since childhood. He has had regular scopes since he was a teenager to monitor the barretts esophagus. Sadly in the spring of 2018 we found out the barretts had turned to esophageal cancer. May of 2018 Jody had the Ivor Lewis surgery.. This was a surgery to remove the majority of his esophagus and a portion of his stomach. Over the course of the following year we adjusted to a new way of life. The first months he had a feeding tube as he could not eat enough to get what his body needed. As time went on we adjusted to the "new normal". Every three months we would travel almost four hours away, stay in a hotel, and get scans and labs at the cancer hospital. Always good news! The cancer was gone! That is until October of 2019...
October of 2019 it was confirmed the esophageal cancer was back and it is stage 4. Jody has been through different types of chemo. The first chemo he was allergic to. His body could not break it down and flush it. He dropped 30 lbs in just a few weeks and ended up hospitalized for the chemo toxicity. He was then put on a whole new chemo. After 5 rounds of this chemo, labs, and a pet scan it was confirmed this chemo is not working but, instead his chest wall was starting to thicken. The third chemo Jody was hooked up to a pump for six days straight while it continuously pumped into him. We would have to stay in a hotel close to the hospital and go everyday for them to hook a new bag.
This week... We came over a day early for Jody to get scopes. We got here on Tuesday. He had labs and a port study the same day. The port has not been working correctly. Turns out it is bad and he needs a new port. We got his labs back Tuesday night and to say the least it was a rough night. The white blood cell count was very low and I was pretty sure they wold not do chemo as low as it was. His cancer markers were also back up. Looks like this chemo is not working. After getting over the initial shock I spent the evening and night doing some research. Jody would look over and try to lighten the mood by asking "Well, did you find what is going to save me?". I can now say I might have. I vaguely remember reading in one of my support groups about a couple who had a biopsy done and the tissue was sent to a lab that would actually start testing chemos and different combinations of chemo on the live cancer tissue. The benefit of this is finding what will start killing the actual cancer cells from Jody's body without pumping him full of chemo. The more we pump him full of chemo that doesn't work, the weaker he gets, and the more the cells build a resistance. I made a post in my groups looking for this procedure and I actually had a response by morning. I got the info and started contacting the lab. Jody and I really did not get a chance to talk about it Wednesday morning before his scope though. We were meeting with his oncologist Wednesday afternoon so, I went ahead and started getting all the info so that we could at least discuss it at the appointment. Jody and I discussed it briefly before his appointment and he was more concerned with the cost. Leave it to my husband. The test is considered elective and ins won't pay for it. It will cost us $5000.00 - 9000.00. But, he agreed to talk to our oncologist about it and eventually agreed that this would give us the best chance of finding the right combinations of chemo.
When we saw the oncologist he did confirm Jody could not do chemo because his blood work was to low. He also said that we have pretty much exhausted this chemo with Jody after two rounds. His body will not be able to keep taking it. He then said that he wanted to send us back to Jody's thoracic surgeon and have a pleurectomy done. The surgeon would take out the pleura lining and the lymph nodes with cancer in them. We were totally on board with this and that was my entrance to bring up the Weisenthal test. Our oncologist knew exactly what it was when I brought it up. He agreed that this will absolutely not hurt anything and maybe we can get a handle on what will work for Jody. He said we have been pretty much containing the cancer in the pleura but, we have to find something that works before much longer. We also discussed in detail what his cancer is doing. It is not "like" a pseudo mesothelioma, but it is a pseudo mesothelioma his oncologist said. He said it is definitely esophageal cancer but, also absolutely acting like mesothelioma. It is extremely rare to metastasize to the pleura lining before metastasizing to the lungs or another organ. Because of this there is not much to compare Jody to for standard of care. The few cases that have done this were not diagnosed early enough and usually misdiagnosed as mesothelioma. By the time they realized what was happening it was to late. Our oncologist called our thoracic surgeon right then and put him on speaker phone to discuss all this with him and us. They got us an appointment the next day with our surgeon to get the surgery set up.
After meeting with the surgeon he said he is going to take the entire pleura lining in his chest out as well as the lymph nodes with cancer. He also said he was going to do the HiTC that was previously discussed. They will pump hot chemo into Jody's chest after the pleura is taken out. There is only three hospitals that do this procedure and we happen to be at one of them. Thankfully our thoracic surgeon specializes in mesothelioma. The hospital stay will be around a week in Atlanta, give or take. When he gets the pleura out of his chest part of it will be sent over night on dry ice to the Weisenthal lab in California and the other part will go to another lab for foundation testing. Our surgeon is hopeful he can get the cancer out and Jody will be on a "chemo honeymoon". If it still shows cancer or it comes back again we will have had the Weisenthal testing done and know what chemo combos work if there is a chemo that will work on him. Jody is scheduled for surgery on August 13th. They wanted to do it next week but, he had to get an injection yesterday to start boosting his white blood cell count. This should stimulate enough growth to move forward with the surgery. Due to covid-19 I will not be able to stay in the room with Jody at night and will have to get a hotel right next to the hospital.
The Weisenthal testing is a lab based out of California. This is the only lab that does cytometric cancer profiling. Like I previously mentioned, cytometric profiling will test Jody's live cancer tissue with different combinations of chemo to see what will work on it. Many of the chemos may not be chemos typically used for his type of cancer and we would never know if they could be the chemo that saves his life without this testing. Most testing done on cancer tissue is advanced genomic testing. Advanced genomic testing studies the tissue and looks for traits in the cancer cells but, does not actually try the chemo on the tissue. Previously the Weisenthal testing was covered by ins but, a few years back when the insurance companies had to cut cost this was deemed elective and now is not covered. We are going to take the money from the fairy fundraiser and some we have been able to put away to help cover the cost of the testing and expenses that we will incur from the surgery and recovery. We estimate the cost of the testing and expenses related to the surgery and recovery will be in excess of $10,000.00. We know many of our friends and family have already been a huge help and blessing to us through this. We can not thank everyone enough for everything they have done. If you feel compelled to help in anyway we greatly appreciate it. If you can not but, will continue to pray for us and share this we would appreciate it more than most people will ever know. I do believe every ones prayers are what lead us to find the lab for testing and help Jody to continue this fight.
We are also asking people for any suggestions for fundraising ideas. If you do want to donate and not use GoFundMe please let us know. We have cashapp, venmo, paypal, and snail mail.
Many of you know Jody as "Foreman" or "Coach Foreman". I know Jody as an amazing husband, father, God fearing family man, and provider. Jody has spent the last 27 years of his life dedicated to his family, students, and athletes he has coached. If you have been lucky enough to know Jody you know there is no place he would rather be than in a classroom or playing sports. The last few years Jody has not been able to enjoy the things he loves quite as much. He has not played sports since the first surgery and now the interaction with his students is limited to zoom and email.
Jody has had a nasty disease called barrett's esophagus since he was a teenager. Barretts is caused by the acid reflux he has fought since childhood. He has had regular scopes since he was a teenager to monitor the barretts esophagus. Sadly in the spring of 2018 we found out the barretts had turned to esophageal cancer. May of 2018 Jody had the Ivor Lewis surgery.. This was a surgery to remove the majority of his esophagus and a portion of his stomach. Over the course of the following year we adjusted to a new way of life. The first months he had a feeding tube as he could not eat enough to get what his body needed. As time went on we adjusted to the "new normal". Every three months we would travel almost four hours away, stay in a hotel, and get scans and labs at the cancer hospital. Always good news! The cancer was gone! That is until October of 2019...
October of 2019 it was confirmed the esophageal cancer was back and it is stage 4. Jody has been through different types of chemo. The first chemo he was allergic to. His body could not break it down and flush it. He dropped 30 lbs in just a few weeks and ended up hospitalized for the chemo toxicity. He was then put on a whole new chemo. After 5 rounds of this chemo, labs, and a pet scan it was confirmed this chemo is not working but, instead his chest wall was starting to thicken. The third chemo Jody was hooked up to a pump for six days straight while it continuously pumped into him. We would have to stay in a hotel close to the hospital and go everyday for them to hook a new bag.
This week... We came over a day early for Jody to get scopes. We got here on Tuesday. He had labs and a port study the same day. The port has not been working correctly. Turns out it is bad and he needs a new port. We got his labs back Tuesday night and to say the least it was a rough night. The white blood cell count was very low and I was pretty sure they wold not do chemo as low as it was. His cancer markers were also back up. Looks like this chemo is not working. After getting over the initial shock I spent the evening and night doing some research. Jody would look over and try to lighten the mood by asking "Well, did you find what is going to save me?". I can now say I might have. I vaguely remember reading in one of my support groups about a couple who had a biopsy done and the tissue was sent to a lab that would actually start testing chemos and different combinations of chemo on the live cancer tissue. The benefit of this is finding what will start killing the actual cancer cells from Jody's body without pumping him full of chemo. The more we pump him full of chemo that doesn't work, the weaker he gets, and the more the cells build a resistance. I made a post in my groups looking for this procedure and I actually had a response by morning. I got the info and started contacting the lab. Jody and I really did not get a chance to talk about it Wednesday morning before his scope though. We were meeting with his oncologist Wednesday afternoon so, I went ahead and started getting all the info so that we could at least discuss it at the appointment. Jody and I discussed it briefly before his appointment and he was more concerned with the cost. Leave it to my husband. The test is considered elective and ins won't pay for it. It will cost us $5000.00 - 9000.00. But, he agreed to talk to our oncologist about it and eventually agreed that this would give us the best chance of finding the right combinations of chemo.
When we saw the oncologist he did confirm Jody could not do chemo because his blood work was to low. He also said that we have pretty much exhausted this chemo with Jody after two rounds. His body will not be able to keep taking it. He then said that he wanted to send us back to Jody's thoracic surgeon and have a pleurectomy done. The surgeon would take out the pleura lining and the lymph nodes with cancer in them. We were totally on board with this and that was my entrance to bring up the Weisenthal test. Our oncologist knew exactly what it was when I brought it up. He agreed that this will absolutely not hurt anything and maybe we can get a handle on what will work for Jody. He said we have been pretty much containing the cancer in the pleura but, we have to find something that works before much longer. We also discussed in detail what his cancer is doing. It is not "like" a pseudo mesothelioma, but it is a pseudo mesothelioma his oncologist said. He said it is definitely esophageal cancer but, also absolutely acting like mesothelioma. It is extremely rare to metastasize to the pleura lining before metastasizing to the lungs or another organ. Because of this there is not much to compare Jody to for standard of care. The few cases that have done this were not diagnosed early enough and usually misdiagnosed as mesothelioma. By the time they realized what was happening it was to late. Our oncologist called our thoracic surgeon right then and put him on speaker phone to discuss all this with him and us. They got us an appointment the next day with our surgeon to get the surgery set up.
After meeting with the surgeon he said he is going to take the entire pleura lining in his chest out as well as the lymph nodes with cancer. He also said he was going to do the HiTC that was previously discussed. They will pump hot chemo into Jody's chest after the pleura is taken out. There is only three hospitals that do this procedure and we happen to be at one of them. Thankfully our thoracic surgeon specializes in mesothelioma. The hospital stay will be around a week in Atlanta, give or take. When he gets the pleura out of his chest part of it will be sent over night on dry ice to the Weisenthal lab in California and the other part will go to another lab for foundation testing. Our surgeon is hopeful he can get the cancer out and Jody will be on a "chemo honeymoon". If it still shows cancer or it comes back again we will have had the Weisenthal testing done and know what chemo combos work if there is a chemo that will work on him. Jody is scheduled for surgery on August 13th. They wanted to do it next week but, he had to get an injection yesterday to start boosting his white blood cell count. This should stimulate enough growth to move forward with the surgery. Due to covid-19 I will not be able to stay in the room with Jody at night and will have to get a hotel right next to the hospital.
The Weisenthal testing is a lab based out of California. This is the only lab that does cytometric cancer profiling. Like I previously mentioned, cytometric profiling will test Jody's live cancer tissue with different combinations of chemo to see what will work on it. Many of the chemos may not be chemos typically used for his type of cancer and we would never know if they could be the chemo that saves his life without this testing. Most testing done on cancer tissue is advanced genomic testing. Advanced genomic testing studies the tissue and looks for traits in the cancer cells but, does not actually try the chemo on the tissue. Previously the Weisenthal testing was covered by ins but, a few years back when the insurance companies had to cut cost this was deemed elective and now is not covered. We are going to take the money from the fairy fundraiser and some we have been able to put away to help cover the cost of the testing and expenses that we will incur from the surgery and recovery. We estimate the cost of the testing and expenses related to the surgery and recovery will be in excess of $10,000.00. We know many of our friends and family have already been a huge help and blessing to us through this. We can not thank everyone enough for everything they have done. If you feel compelled to help in anyway we greatly appreciate it. If you can not but, will continue to pray for us and share this we would appreciate it more than most people will ever know. I do believe every ones prayers are what lead us to find the lab for testing and help Jody to continue this fight.
We are also asking people for any suggestions for fundraising ideas. If you do want to donate and not use GoFundMe please let us know. We have cashapp, venmo, paypal, and snail mail.
Organizer
Shilo Foreman
Organizer
Brooklet, GA