Cancer during Covid: One woman’s journey

Cancer during Covid

Editor’s note: Many in the community have followed the journey of local writer Carey Bradshaw through her “Carey Kicks Cancer” social media channels. For this week’s CVN, Bradshaw tells her unique story of how Covid-19 intersected with a cancer diagnosis, and how the community of Carpinteria has helped her family cope.

BY CAREY BRADSHAW

My quarantine started like many of yours did. In mid-March, my husband George and I began homeschooling our five-year-old while balancing fulltime work. Like many, we were overwhelmed, exhausted and uncertain about the future. We wore masks when we went out (which was rarely).

In late-April, I had a sore throat. Of course, I panicked and started googling Covid-19 symptoms. George looked down my throat and noticed a strange lump on my upper back palate. I thought it was nothing, but I was wrong. Fast forward through two weeks of doctor appointments, a biopsy and waiting for pathology results until we got the call from the ENT. It was an extremely rare type of cancer (myoepithelial carcinoma) and it had invaded the hard palate and bone of my mouth. Surgery was imminent. My local ENT felt he was not the right person to perform the surgery and referred me to UCLA.

Two important things to note: 1. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life, and I take excellent care of my teeth. 2. The sore throat went away immediately after I saw the ENT. I truly feel it was my body’s way of telling me to pay attention.

Thus, followed a flurry of tests and surgery was scheduled for early June at UCLA. I was told they needed to remove a large part of my upper palate and three of my molars. I would be in the hospital for a week, followed by six to eight months of rehabilitation, regular visits with the maxillofacial specialists to fit an obturator (a prosthetic that I will need to wear in my mouth for the rest of my life), possible radiation and five years of checkups and PET scans.

This was a scary and uncertain time, but we had to keep up the façade of normalcy for our daughter. George and I tend to be private people. In this instance, I took advice from our friend Rebecca. She suggested creating a social media page to update friends and family; and then, when it was all over, we would not need to talk about it again. You can follow on Instagram @careykickscancer.

We have no family nearby and our main concern was who would care for our child and dog…and then our

CVN

Chamber blues

Am I the only one who is concerned about the recent merger of our 108-yearold Chamber of Commerce with the chambers in Santa Barbara and Goleta? Although this has been packaged as good for our businesses, I beg to differ.

Before this happened, and before Covid-19, the Carpinteria Valley Chamber of Commerce lost its commercial office space on Eugenia due to finances and now we have no chamber. After all these year, it is gone.

The Chamber’s former CEO is the chief operating officer at Santa Barbara

Through all of this, George and I had some tough choices. We temporarily closed both of our small businesses in order to focus on my health and our daughSouth Coast Chamber of Commerce and “Liaison to Carpinteria.” On their board, we have two committee members from Carpinteria. All other staff, marketing events, management and committee members are from Santa Barbara and Goleta. That’s not much of a voice left for us at all.

On top of that, now the dues our businesses pay go to the tri-chamber’s general fund. All the while the historical Carpinteria Valley Chamber of Commerce takes a back seat to the larger two chambers.

In a July 30 letter to the Carpinteria Unified School District community, Superintendent Diana Rigby announced that schools will remain in Phase One/ remote Learning until Nov. 1.

Rigby expressed appreciation for community input and feedback on draft reopening plans, and wrote that Governor Newsom’s order requires schools to remain closed to in-person operations until Santa Barbara County is off the state monitoring list for 14 consecutive days.

The superintendent also reported that attendance during Phase One/Remote Learning is mandatory when offered by the district, just as a normal school year would be. School hours will be 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for elementary students, and 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for middle and high school students.

“Grab-n-go” lunches will be available

mountain of medical bills. Pre-surgery, our biggest concern was who could we trust to care for our daughter while I was in the hospital. Up stepped Carpinteria’s amazing Russell family who offered to take our daughter in. They cared for our daughter like she was their own and I will never be able to thank them. Unfortunately, the surgery did not go off seamlessly. I was left with a severely dislocated jaw that went untreated for 16 hours. I couldn’t speak and was having trouble breathing. Because of Covid-19, my husband was not allowed in the hospital with me. When George was finally able to see me the next day, he saw the distress I was in. I wrote down that I could not breathe or close my mouth and he went into advocate mode. Another surgery was scheduled, and George refused to leave my side. We stayed in the hospital for 10 days (which meant neither of us saw our daughter). He fought for me and is the reason I am doing as well as I am. When we learned most of our medical expenses would not be covered by insurance, we were worried we would lose everything we had worked so hard to build. I had heard of crowdfunding but was uncomfortable asking for help. Our friends, Kevin and Steve, offered to set up a GoFundMe page. It has been such an incredible blessing as the bills pile up. If you’d like to share the page, visit gofundme.com/f/help-carey-kick-cancer. My jaw was never reset properly and ANDREA RUSSELL PHOTOGRAPHY our angel of a chiropractor, Dr. Austin, Quarantine for Carey Bradshaw included a porch portrait with her has been coming to the house to realign it. husband George and their daughter Ainsley, and a rare cancer diagnosis. Our friend, Rich, set up a meal train and I have been receiving nutritious smoothies and soups as I can’t eat solids.

We have no family nearby and our main Our friends and neighbors have been walking our dog and offering help in so concern was who would care for our child and many ways. The CBB congregation has been wonderfully supportive. My college dog…and then our community stepped up. We friend, Meredith, flew out to help and I’m not sure what we would have done have been so overwhelmed with the generosity without her. This has been a challenging time. I’m in and love within this incredible community. a lot of pain. I’m relearning how to speak and swallow. I can’t speak, drink or eat

Carpinteria is truly a place like no other. without my prosthetic. I can’t hear out of my right ear. I get tired very easily and the maintenance of cleaning and stretching community stepped up. We have been ter. We also learned that the prosthetic I It’s a sobering reality. so overwhelmed with the generosity would need in order to breathe, eat or I know this too shall pass in no and love within this incredible comdrink was considered by insurance to be small part due to the help we have remunity. Carpinteria is truly a place “cosmetic” and would not be covered. ceived from this amazing community. like no other. We were looking at an insurmountable Thank you.

CUSD superintendent

LETTERS

Esperanza Cruzar Carpinteria

updates families

my jaw is time consuming and painful. at school sites for students who qualify for free and reduced price lunches.

Rigby encouraged parents to contact school principals for assistance acquiring Chromebook laptop computers and internet access.

“We were looking forward to safely returning to in-person school this August and we are so disappointed—we miss our students and families!” Rigby continued. “However, I am confident that our CUSD teachers will provide a quality online learning experience for each and every student.”

The superintendent added, “Site principals will post the daily instructional schedules on Parent Square and please contact them if you have any additional questions/concerns. Please stay safe, wear your mask, wash your hands, social distance, and stay healthy… We are all in this together!”