Melonee Alvarez Could Use Some Help

Melonee Alvarez was living the dream. She’d been with the police department she loves for nearly two decades and had worked several specialized units, many in a supervisory capacity, in an effort to help make San Francisco a better and safer place. She worked hard too, always giving more than 100% of herself for her team, station, the department, and the city itself. She wanted to make the world a better place, and has. She is one of the good ones. She was also engaged to the love of her life, Francine, who she refers to as her “rock.”

On June 15, 2016, while attending cycling class at her gym, Melonee felt a strange tingling sensation in her left arm, then neck and eventually face. This odd feeling made Melonee attempt to get off her cycle, but prior to being able to, she unexpectedly had a seizure and suddenly collapsed, and went unconscious. Fortunately, someone was able to catch her and led her down to the ground gently. 911 was called and she was rushed to Stanford Hospital. By then, she began to slowly recover consciousness and understand where she was.

Francine was at her side as Melonee underwent first a CT scan of the brain and later an MRI. It was then that Melonee received the devastating news that she had a large tumor in her brain. After viewing the scan, the neurosurgeon believed the tumor was likely a “Meningioma.” These tumors, as was explained, are in 85-90% of the cases, benign and easily resected. Until surgery, they would not know exactly what they were dealing with. Surgery was scheduled less than one week later at Stanford.

Melonee had asked Francine to marry her prior to learning of the tumor. But, rather than wait until the planned event in February, in Hawaii, they instead decided to get married among a small group of friends, in their backyard on June 18th in the week between discovering the tumor and having brain surgery, with the concern of not knowing where life would take them next. Melonee had her brain surgery on June 21st. Sadly, post operative results revealed that things were much more complicated than they had hoped.

Post surgery, it was revealed that Melonee’s tumor had invaded her brain and attached itself to the motor cortex region as well as the dura of the skull itself, to the extent that the neurosurgeon was forced to scrape the tumor from the dura. Furthermore, the neurosurgeon was only able to remove about 90% of it as the slightest damage to the motor cortex region could mean permanent paralysis on the left side of Melonee’s body. Pathology results presented even more bad news - the tumor fell into the 7%-10% Atypical Stage II Grade tumor, which, by definition, is not benign, and thus, cancer. So Melonee is left with the devastating news that her tumor is not only invasive, aggressive, attached to the brain, Stage II, and malignant, but also they were unable to remove all of it. She was told she should undergo radiation in an effort to contend with the remaining tumor and prevent it from growing.

Also, due to the fact that there is still approximately 10% of tumor remaining on Melonee’s brain, she has suffered several seizures since her surgery and is currently under constant concern of suffering from additional grand mal seizures, which, in her case last approximately ten minutes per episode. Melonee’s seizures are still not under control and she is currently also under the care of an Epilepsy doctor, due to their complexity, and to help manage her seizures, and find the right combination of medications to control them so that she may return to living a more “normal” life. Melonee hopes to get her driver’s license and independence back, and get on the road to return to her beloved career in law enforcement and helping others. Once the right medication is determined to control Melonee’s seizures, she will be on lifelong daily seizure medication and twice yearly MRI scans to monitor the return of any tumor growth.

Throughout this living nightmare, Francine has been by her side every step of the way. She has also had an outpouring of support from family, friends, and colleagues, something for which she is immensely grateful.

On August 1, 2016, Melonee underwent 30 radiation sessions over a grueling period of 6 weeks. She completed radiation treatments on September 12th. Hoping to shrink or eradicate the tumor, Melonee was anxious for her next MRI scheduled for mid December to see what effect the radiation has had. Unfortunately, Melonee’s neurosurgeon broke the news that the tumor was unchanged - it had not grown, nor shrunk. The hope is that Melonee will not have to undergo any radiation or chemotherapy treatment in the future.

All the while, and as a result of the surgery and radiation, Melonee was dealing with swelling and excess fluid in her brain causing weeks of excruciating pain and immeasurable exhaustion. To alleviate these symptoms, her radiation oncologist put Melonee on a 3 week course of steroids, which act as an anti-inflammatory, which start high and titrate down. She began the steroid course on January 10th and is still on them as of this writing. Her next MRI is scheduled for March 6th.

Melonee has dedicated her life to helping others. She is proud and strong with every intention to beat this thing and hopefully return to the job she loves.

In the meantime, her 1 year of cancer presumptive disability is running out and she will quickly burn through her own time. The financial costs have been significant despite her current status as she faces expensive medical co-pays, transportation to and from medical appointments and procedures while Francine is working, loss of overtime and future financial uncertainty.

Any financial assistance would be so helpful and believe me when I tell you, it took a lot of talking her into allowing me to start this campaign.

Here are the different ways you can give if you are able and willing:

• On this GoFundMe page (they take a small %)

• Her personal Paypal account: [email redacted]   / 100% goes to Mel

• (BALEAF) Bay Area Law Enforcement Assistance Fund www.baleaf.org (By donating through BALEAF, your donation will be tax deductible which may be appealing to some) PLEASE NOTATE ON THE DONATION THAT IS FOR MELONEE ALVAREZ! / 100% to Mel

Thank you and please consider passing along this page on social media and any other way that may be beneficial.

Regards.