Published: June 03, 2009 02:20 am      

RELAY FOR LIFE: Teacher turns cancer into life lessons

BY JULIE OBERMILLER

newsroom@lockportjournal.com

“Warning: The use of tobacco products may cause lung cancer.”

What they don’t tell you is that lung cancer also happens to people of all walks of life who never smoked a cigarette.

Just ask third-grade teacher Julie Wilson of Cambria. As she battles the drugs that battle her lung cancer, she has a message and a mission to bring awareness to the disease.

National Cancer Institute statistics show that lung cancer is the second-most-common cancer, yet it is the leading cause of cancer deaths. And it’s a common misperception that victims of lung cancer are tobacco users.

Growing up in Clifton Springs, wanting to be a teacher, Wilson never dreamed she would be the honorary survivor at an American Cancer Society Relay For Life, and that lung cancer would be the reason.

The diagnosis

Four years ago, Wilson noticed blood on her toothbrush while she was getting ready for a wedding reception. She ignored it and went to the party, only to end up in the emergency room that night. Doctors found a mass in her lung and one told her, rather bluntly, that “it was really bad.”

She spent her 43rd birthday in the hospital and received the diagnosis the next day. Further tests at Roswell Park Cancer Institute showed no lymphoma on a PET scan and no apparent gene mutation, so plans were made to remove the mass surgically, along with part of her left lung.

On the day of the surgery, the doctor’s found cancer in the lymph nodes, and surgery was immediately halted. Doctors went out and told her family to take her home and “get her life in order” as she began six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation. She had gone into surgery with a diagnosis of Stage 1 lung cancer, and within minutes it changed to Stage 3B. Wilson jokingly told her brother, the Rev. Jeffrey Galens, that it looked like she had to make a pilgrimage to Lourdes for a cure.

The effects of treatment

Four weeks of toxic drugs took their toll, and Wilson was taken to the hospital for dehydration. The petite schoolteacher had not been able to eat or drink and was down to 92 pounds. She battled on, and the next CT scan showed no real reduction in the size of the tumor. All she could do was wait, missing her third-grade students at Lockport’s Washington Hunt Elementary School, worried about her own children. “When the doctor told me I had lung cancer and less than 12 percent of sufferers made it past five years, I told him I needed 10 years. I had to get my three children raised first,” said Wilson.

Galens decided to lift his sister’s spirits by offering the family a trip to Lourdes. Wilson and husband Tim made the journey and did a lot of praying. Back home, Wilson heard about a new therapy from another teacher and decided to explore her options. At Rhode Island Hospital, doctors performed a Radioactive Frequency Ablation, a process that involves sticking a needle into the tumor and microwaving the cancerous tissue until it dies. Wilson suffered an uncommon lung collapse after the procedure and had to stay in the hospital for two weeks.

Heart-warming support

Out of school from March 2005 to May 2006, Wilson discovered that she had many supporters. Wilson’s sister, Pat Howard, put 30,000 miles on her car driving from Clifton Springs to help Wilson during her treatment. The Washington Hunt faculty and community put together a schedule to visit, cook meals for the Wilson family and to keep the communication open. “One teacher sent me a card every single day of my treatment, even slipping in a Christmas card to see if I was really reading them. She wrote ‘You don’t do it alone.’ The outpouring of love and caring was truly humbling,” recalls Wilson.

There have been prayer chains and well wishes from people she doesn’t know. Galens, Pastor of good Shepherd Church in Reinbeck, sent a prayer card from the entire congregation. A fellow priest said a Mass for Wilson in India. Another priest got special permission to say Mass where only bishops are allowed. The prayers, and love, continue.

Return to the classroom

Finally back in the classroom with her students after more than a year of treatment, Wilson felt energized and full of life, despite remaining on Tarceva chemotherapy. High doses caused horrible body rashes, so the dose was lowered. Wilson was dealt another blow when her father, Robert Galens, died on her 44th birthday. She recalls, “Dad and I used to talk a lot and he would say that his job was done, but I needed to hang in there to raise my own kids. I believe Dad asked God to let him take my place, because I don’t believe in coincidence. Everything happens for a reason.” For the next school year, Wilson was feeling fine and doing what she loved. In the ’07-’08 school year, there was mysterious myofacial pain, thought to be related to chemo and cancer stress on her body, but the summer of ’08 was wonderful, and Wilson dared to hope it would last.

School began on an upswing last September, as three-month CT scans continued. In October came the devastating news that the cancer had spread to her breast bone. A second opinion in Boston confirmed the worst. A new doctor put her on an IV drip for bone strength and increased the Tarceva to maximum strength again, with other drugs to battle the side effects. Full of drugs, determination and hope, Wilson pressed forward to get people to be aware of lung cancer.

The fight continues

It is a statement of strength and determination that during this ordeal, Wilson organized the kids at Washington Hunt to hold a “Step up for Cancer” walk in November, and they carried on with another recently, raising more than $7,000 for the Stacy Scott Lung Registry at Roswell. That awareness is Wilson’s mission. “We need to do for lung cancer what we’ve done for breast cancer. We need to get it out in the open to be prevented. We need to educate people to get it detected early and to find a cure,” says Wilson. “For a long while before my mouth started to bleed, I had felt tired and run down, but a healthy mom of 42 tends to ignore those things. It isn’t just smokers who die painfully from lung cancer; it could be anybody. I grew up in a household where my parents smoked but none of us kids did, so we thought we were safe.”

Participating in the Relay

When the Relay For Life approached Wilson about being the 2009 ‘poster child’ for cancer awareness, she saw it as an opportunity to get her message across. Wilson will speak at the opening ceremonies of the June 20-21 Relay For Life at Emmet Belknap School track in Lockport. The Washington Hunt Helping Hands team will be there, along with family, many students and friends who have been behind her during her fight for that precious 10 years. Sadly, a recent scan showed the cancer in bone and tissue is growing, insidiously robbing her of strength, but not determination. The drug of choice is now an Atlimta drip at the Amherst Roswell site, every three weeks for nine weeks. Then there will be another CT scan and more treatment options. There is no playbook when it comes to cancer, and doctors and patients just take it one day at a time. “The waiting is the worst,” she said.

The Wilson children, Mary, 17, Anna, 16, and Christian, 13, have known all about the cancer and procedures their mother faced, even taking a tour of Roswell. “The family has been open and honest, but what do you tell your children when you can be certain of nothing? We just take it one day at a time,” Wilson says quietly. “The hardest thing is needing understanding when your reserves are totally drained, but not wanting sympathy. Yes, I have this awful cancer but I have been so blessed by the awareness that there is so much good in life. There are so many wonderful people sharing my world, and so many precious things we take for granted in our busy lives. Yes, it is very tiring to have the cloud of cancer overhead, but the sun does break through and we’ll keep on fighting until there is no more cancer.”