Day of Hope
SANTA MARIA TIMES
The 8th Annual
Wednesday, August 4, 2021 | DAY OF HOPE | 1
PRESENTED BY INSPIRE SPONSORS
A BENEFIT FOR MARIAN CANCER CARE PATIENTS AT MISSION HOPE CANCER CENTER
Wednesday, August 4, 2021 | santamariatimes.com
PHOTOS BY LEN WOOD, CONTRIBUTOR
Karissa Sanchez, who survived cancer during the pandemic and is now planning her wedding, shows her attitude on her shirt.
Karissa Sanchez shares
A JOURNEY OF ACCEPTANCE, SURVIVAL Fighting cancer during a pandemic had unique challenges IVETTE PERALTA
Contributing Writer
Karissa Sanchez, who survived cancer during the pandemic and is now planning her wedding, crosses a street in Orcutt.
For Karissa Sanchez, adapting to the new “normal” in 2020 was a challenge, but accepting her cancer diagnosis and fighting for her life was her greatest struggle during the pandemic. Sanchez said accepting her new reality, watching her family’s life change, and knowing she had lost control of her future was challenging. She was diagnosed last year in May, just five months after getting engaged and two
months after celebrating her 30th birthday. “So everything got disrupted, and it happened very fast,” she said. She moved from San Diego to Orcutt with her fiancé and two puppies in 2019; they were enthusiastic about new beginnings. “I felt I had everything in life right at my fingerprints. That time was really fun for me. It was kind of when I saw my life kind of coming together. I had my real estate license; I was going to make my way back into that field. And then, I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” Sanchez said. Karissa found the lump herself during a shower self-examination and went and made an appointment.
“I think at that time I went to Planned Parenthood; I went there because I didn’t have health insurance at the time, and so I just needed to go get it checked,” she said. They referred her to a breast imaging center for an ultrasound. “First, they thought it was a lymphoma and asked me to come back in six months.” Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, her follow-up appointment was postponed. It wasn’t until almost a year after her initial checkup that she received a biopsy that confirmed her diagnosis. Unsettled by the finding, her medical team used genetic cancer Please see SANCHEZ, Page 4
Life’s important things in focus after breast cancer diagnosis ‘I have sun on my face, that’s priceless’ JENNIFER BEST
Contributing Writer
When Kimason “Kiki” Brown was feeling at her lowest, sore and sick from the surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy sessions treating her breast cancer, her closest companion knew just how to behave. She stayed away from Brown’s sore spots, cuddled for hours in their Orcutt home, warned off would-be visitors when Brown wasn’t ready for them, and welcomed them into their Orcutt home when she was fit for company. “She knew there was a problem. I would wimper; she would spoon with me. She’s 12 pounds of love,” Brown said of her Chipin canine companion RZA. The pinscher-marked, Chihuahua-sized bundle of affection was
supported in her care efforts by an extensive circle of Santa Maria family and friends after Brown’s annual mammogram turned up breast tissue riddled with cancer. “It was definitely a shocker. I do mammograms all the time. In one year, it went from nothing to breasts filled with cancer. It was just about overnight,” Brown said. She’d considered skipping a year, but well publicized wellcheck incentive programs reminded her to make her appointment, nagged her into carrying on with her annual routine. And she’s thankful. “Had I not gone, I probably wouldn’t be here a year from now. It’s definitely something people should do,” she said. A double mastectomy in October followed by chemotherapy and radiation took down the cybersecurity tech marketing professional. She lost her hair, her nails, and picked up neuropathy, but continued working from home.
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“My journey has been, thanks to Mission Hope, very smooth, but losing your hair, nails, the mucous covering my eyes when my lashes fell out, bleeding nails, that’s all been a horrible, horrible, horrible experience that no one can really prepare you for,” Brown said. Now under the care of Dr. Dustin Stevenson, Brown has taken advantage of programs offered by Mission Hope Cancer Center. Dignity Health nurses have provided in-home care. Nurse navigators have guided her down the path through treatment to after care. Scarf-tying and make-up classes have been godsends, she said. “The Look Good, Feel Good program was awesome. I did the scarf-tying class twice. It was nice to talk to other ladies and see them going through it as well. It was nice to have that camaraderie right off,” Brown said. The granddaughter of Santa Maria 2020 Citizens of the Year
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RANDY DE LA PENA, CONTRIBUTOR
Kimason “Kiki” Brown, shaken by her breast cancer diagnosis, reflects on what’s important in life. Ori and Gladys Johnson has no “I didn’t know who to talk to shortage of family, but when it with this. I was shaking. Even the came to talking cancer, the going got rough. Please see BROWN, Page 4
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Day of Hope The Eighth Annual
PHOTOS BY RANDY DE LA PENA, CONTRIBUTOR
Jamie Williams, of Orcutt, urges women to stay on top of their healthcare and not put off getting something irregular checked out.
PHOTOS BY RANDY DE LA PENA, CONTRIBUTOR
Orcutt resident Bob Chase has been through a number of cancer battles, but he’s never given up hope.
MISSION HOPE
makes a difference in Orcutt man’s cancer journey
Jamie Williams urges women to stay on top of their health-care ‘Don’t take for granted that ... it can’t be you’ JENNIFER BEST
Contributing Writer
‘You aren’t on this journey alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help’ JENNIFER BEST
Contributing Writer
Bob Chase’s medical history is full of seeming impossibilities: diagnosed with a childhood form of cancer well into his 30s; a rare tumor in his heart in his 50s; an even more rare return of that childhood cancer at the age of 60. But he’s also seen the advent of patient care access minutes from home. “Certainly back in 1997 with my first diagnosis, we didn’t have Mission Hope Cancer Center. We didn’t have multidisciplinary people — the doctors, radiologists, nursing staff trained in therapy — and chemotherapy had to be done at City of Hope. Twenty-four years later, they have staff who can handle it, a pharmacy at the hospital who can mix all the dosages for administration locally,” Chase said. The development of Mission Hope Cancer Center has made all the difference in the Orcutt man’s treatments. “Certainly, from a patient’s perspective, it’s simpler to drive 10 minutes to the hospital. It’s less exhausting than my old schedule: going down on Mondays and staying until Saturday morning because the regimen was heavy duty. Now I can take care of it here, and the nursing staff has always been there to get things done on time, even through COVID,” Chase said. Chase began his cancer journey in late May 1997 when lower leg pain led him to see his local general practitioner. An X-ray of his leg “showed a part of a leg bone that looked like it was moth-eaten away.” He was sent to a specialist at USC Medical Center where thennew technology, the now-standard Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan, was available. It wasn’t until early that July that he received his diagnosis—Ewing’s Sarcoma, a cancer which normally strikes people ages 5 to 20, and tends to occur more during puberty when bone growth activity is at its most active. Only 1% of childhood cancers are Ewing’s Sarcoma, totaling about 225 cases per year, Chase said, and few, if any of them, occurred in adults. Again he traveled hours south to go through five consecutive days of chemotherapy, with drip running six hours each night as he tried to sleep. Then came the long drive back home up the coast where his wife would administer daily injections to stimulate white blood cell growth and boost his immune system. In Santa Maria, his progress
Orcutt resident Bob Chase has used various options to fight cancer, including walking. would be monitored by Dr. Robert Dichmann, the visionary in the development of Mission Hope Cancer Center as a one-stop treatment facility. Until it was built, Chase and patients like him would continue the long drives to urban areas north and south for various treatments, therapies and surgeries. Chase came to see chemotherapy drugs as “extremely toxic, but they are not the enemy.” And each treatment he saw as a round in a boxing match for which he must prepare. Between rounds at home on the Central Coast, Chase would try to recuperate and prepare for the next infusion with daily stationary bike rides to raise his heart rate, trumpet practice to keep his lungs at work, and prayers in which he repeated, “I am strong, healthy and cancer free.” By August 1998, he was back to work selling tractors, down one fibula, but able to do most everything he had done before. “I felt that I was given a second chance at life and I really made the most of it,” Chase said. Twenty years later, another May illness led him back to his doctor, back to tests, and ultimately to removal of a “rare but very treatable benign tumor” inside the right atrium of his heart. Once again, the Chases were commuting south, this time to UCLA where a tumor the size of a small avocado was removed from his heart. Then came May 2020. With COVID in the air, Chase experienced severe pain in his right shoulder blade area. With Mission Hope, its doctors and facilities in place, partnerships with Marian Medical Center, City of Hope and treatment planning processes wired, Chase was able to line up a needle biopsy, another chest catheter, another trip down chemotherapy lane, but this time just minutes from home. Walking, he knew, would be integral to his ability to remain physically active, recover from the chemotherapy and most im-
portantly, to assist with fighting off its negative side effects. “My view was I could either lay in bed and die feeling sorry for myself, or get up and start my walking battle against the cancer. I was extremely committed to this exercise routine, which also promoted both positive mental and emotional thoughts, and was able to walk 51 miles the week during my second round of chemo, and increased it to 55 miles in round three, and then an amazing 59 miles during round four,” Chase said. Though closer to home, the COVID pandemic presented its own set of problems including patient isolation, which excluded visits by family and friends. Once again, Chase said, local staff stepped up to the plate. “Dr. Dichmann would visit me three times a day to check how I was doing. This was way above and beyond what any doctor would normally do, and it was very reassuring to me that he cared so much,” Chase said. Back down to City of Hope he went, and out went his sixth rib and three tumors on his diaphragm and a portion of one lung. He made quick use of the spirometer, a device used to promote deep breathing and thereby reduce the possibility of lung infection and pneumonia. Within days, he was up and walking again. Now 60, Chase is facing another battle with cancer, this time of the colon variety, but he’s hopeful as he faces another round. “Never give up hope. There’s resources here at Mission Hope Cancer Center. There’s people to help you. There’s chemotherapy that can target different cancers. There are physical rehab programs to get you stronger after treatments. There’s support groups. There’s teams of people to help you. You aren’t on this journey alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. You don’t know when the next breakthrough is going to happen,” Chase said.
Like so many caregivers, Jamie Williams of Orcutt put herself, and her own health, behind that of others. Why not? Her annual exams had turned up clear, she was in the prime of her life, and she was busy with work and family matters. Then came a pandemic that shut down the world, a questionable lump, and scheduling challenges due to COVID-19 lockdowns and limitations. “I normally take care of myself, but I was busy taking care of other people,” Williams said. She had cancelled her 2020 mammogram appointment in favor of taking her husband to appointments for an injury. “I was going to do my appointment later,” she said. But in late winter 2020, during regular self checks, Williams felt what she thought might be a lump in her breast. “But I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t really identifiable because you never know if it’s a lump or your bra’s just too tight, and we were in the midst of coronavirus,” Williams explained. As a Dignity Health employee working on the healthcare campus, she was well aware of the multiple impacts COVID had on the healthcare system. Still, she tried to schedule a doctor’s appointment, attempted to get in for a mammogram, but scheduling was tight. “I also was extremely tired, exhausted. I would come home from work, sit in the chair and fall asleep, so it was hard to do follow-up phone calls because I was tired, and I was also unsure. I wasn’t on top of it,” Williams said. In October, a mammogram showed a tumor. “It was the holidays, there were authorizations to wait for, there was the biopsy and the scan. Right before Thanksgiving I had the tests, but I couldn’t get in to talk to a physician until December or January,” Williams recalled. By the time she talked to Mis-
sion Hope Cancer Center’s Dr. Wei Bai in January, the tumor had more than doubled in size. “I think coronavirus limited everybody in getting people in, and I wasn’t 100 percent on top of it in the beginning. I would advocate for women to, if you think you have a lump, push to be let in right away,” Williams said. Still, she said she feels fortunate. Her diagnosis turned up HER2-negative breast cancer that, she said, was relatively easy to treat. She went through four months of chemotherapy. Took leave from work. An unrelated illness slowed her progress, and a lumpectomy may be in her future as her health improves. “Mission Hope people are great. They’re like angels. Everybody there knows your name. I really appreciate that. If you have to have treatment, you’re definitely not treated like second class there,” Williams said. Though she said she typically keeps her private business to herself, this time she reached out through social media. “I had people praying for me all across the country. That really helped. I felt the love and support of not only my family, but the community and strangers. I’m telling you, I felt like it’s helped others to put my business out there, and it helped me,” she said. Williams, who lifted her hands in thanks to God for her recovery, said she hopes to continue serving as an advocate for women seeking healthcare. “Even if you had your mammogram last year, you just really have to stay on top of it. They say the sooner they can find something, the better they can treat you. But, especially as a woman, you need to be able to push people, to get them started on providing you the care you need,” Williams said. These days, you’ll find her following her own advice with daily walks she greatly enjoys, eating well, dabbling in her favored crafts, her garden, fashion and jewelry and, forevermore, keeping on top of her annual checkups. “Just taking care of yourself will help you to prevent yourself getting to the point where you are too tired to do anything Please see WILLIAMS, Page 4
Jamie Williams, of Orcutt, is moving forward after a breast cancer diagnosis made more complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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‘Don’t be scared of doctors. They really are important. Trust your doctor, and keep fighting.’
PHOTOS BY RANDY DE LA PENA, CONTRIBUTOR
Isaac Orozco, of Santa Maria, overcame his fear of doctors to fight his testicular cancer.
Isaac Orozco savoring life after testicular cancer JENNIFER BEST
Contributing Writer
There are certain things our society doesn’t share, doesn’t talk about, or titters about when uttered. But the fact remains: cancer occurs in the most private body parts, and awareness is as important as treatment. “Testicular cancer tends to target younger people, and those are the people who don’t want to go to the doctor and get checked up. I guess this whole experience has made me see the importance of doctors, going to annual checkups, and made me appreciate the effort they went through to learn about diseases,” said 29-year-old Isaac Orozco of Santa Maria. Orozco’s life was rolling along nicely when his testicular cancer diagnosis brought daily life as he knew it to a standstill. “Initially, I was scared and I cried that day when I found out. I went to see my mom, and I just cried. I didn’t know what to think,” he said. The postal worker’s life had been going down a straight and narrow path: he’d met and fallen for the love of his life. He and Jenneli Orozco got married, had a baby, and bought a house, all within two years. “But then I woke up one day and had really bad back pain, and it just kept getting worse and worse throughout the day. I had to go to
Isaac Orozco and his 2-year-old son.
the hospital,” Isaac said. Tests and scans couldn’t explain the pain. “They said they had no idea what it was, but they found something else: either I had an infection in my intestines or I had cancer,” Isaac recalled. That got the ball rolling. There were more tests, more scans, more doctors. “They confirmed I had an infection, so at first that was a relief, but the doctor wanted to continue with more tests just to rule out cancer. These tests came out positive for cancer as well. I thought, ‘Wow. That’s great,’” Isaac said. It wasn’t the cancer diagnosis alone which frightened Isaac, but a lifelong fear of doctors. As a youngster, he’d watched his father going through a liver transplant. “Seeing him go through all that traumatized me,” Isaac said. His experience with Mission Hope Cancer Center changed his tune, however. “Once I got to Mission Hope, it was a lot easier because of the way they talked about it, the type of people they had there for me. They just had a lot of help and everyone was really friendly. Everybody wanted to know how I was feeling. Everybody wanted to give me these tips. Even though I felt terrible and miserable and the treatment made me nauseous, I was glad to go to have my treat-
ment because I got to talk to all these nice people, the staff, the nurses, the patients as well,” Isaac said. He found a support system he never expected. Through the aid of a GoFundMe account and a Mission Hope social worker, the Orozcos were able to find the financial assistance they needed when Isaac became too ill to continue with work, particularly as his immune system weakened and a global pandemic loomed. “Surprisingly, a lot of friends, family, relatives from all over the world, co-workers, people we didn’t even know, they supported us through all of this. We surprisingly had enough to make our payments and bills because of all that support,” Isaac said. Mission Hope also provided moral support. “Seeing everyone going through their own journey surrounded me with people who understood what I was going through. I felt like I was going to a family gathering, and even though we were all feeling cruddy, it was nice to be around people who wanted to have a good talk, a good laugh,” Isaac said. He found a good friend in “Jodi,” another patient. “He would always tell me, ‘Isaac, we’re warriors!’ When Please see OROZCO, Page 4
Two-time cancer survivor says ‘hang in there’ ‘Yes, it’s devastating, but life has to go on’ JENNIFER BEST
Contributing Writer
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Two-time cancer survivor Brendalynn Consul has a very clear message for cancer and others battling through it. “You have two choices: you can either sit there and cry about it and be depressed, which did happen to me, but then I decided I just couldn’t let this happen, I couldn’t be sorry for myself; or you can tell cancer where to go and fight. Yes, it’s devastating, but life has to go on,” Consul said. Consul, of Santa Maria, was working for Dignity Health Home Health & Hospice when she had her first diagnosis in 2019. She worked through treatment for the ductal appearance of her breast cancer including surgery and radiation. “The next year comes along and doing the follow-up mammogram, they found the second cancer on the other breast. This time it was more invasive and triple positive, so it was a shocker. It was really scary,” Consul said. She’d thought she was in the
clear, finished with her treatment, and headed toward her professional dream as a newly accepted student in the licensed vocational nursing program at Allan Hancock College. Under the supervision of Mission Hope Cancer Center Dr. Wei Bai, Consul underwent chemotherapy to shrink the 4-centimeter tumor before surgery and finally chemotherapy. “It was a shocker. I just thought, oh, my god. Just when I got over the first one, here it is again, and it’s worse,” Consul recalled. The second battle more deeply impacted her daily life. Consul lost her hair, lost weight, and ultimately left her job to focus her energy on healing, school, and surviving each day. “I wonder how I did it, but becoming a registered nurse one day has been my goal. I just stick to that. There’s days I just want to give up, just want to die because you feel so sick, but in my head, I tell myself, no, I have to do this. Cancer’s not going to stop me,” Consul said. She said the support programs at Mission Hope Cancer Center Please see CONSUL, Page 4
RANDY DE LA PENA, CONTRIBUTOR
Santa Maria resident Brendalynn Consul credits Mission Hope Cancer Center with smoothing her road to healing.
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Sanchez From 1
testing to look for gene mutations linked to cancer. “Everything came back negative. I don’t have any family history with cancer, so it really came out of nowhere.” She had no pain or significant symptoms for a long time. “But you know, this can happen to anyone, and it’s happening to younger and younger people. I met women who were 24 or 25 who also had it,” she said.
“You kind of have an instinct, you know your body and when things are right and wrong, so if you notice something, you need to get checked,” she said. “Make changes in your life before it makes the changes for you.” She could only have a family member’s company during her in-person consultation appointments. Typically, her fiancé would be there. “So that was wonderful! Dr. Stevenson would also allow me to call my mom on speakerphone,” she said. Mission Hope’s social worker,
Ashley Hahn, “was a godsend,” Sanchez said. “She helped us with everything, like applying for medical insurance to help cover the costs.” During her scariest and most challenging times, she felt the nurses’ support in the admission room. “When I was just sitting there without my family, undergoing chemotherapy or radiation and being the youngest woman in the room, they were like so awesome, super welcoming, and inviting,” she said. “They made me feel like ok, I can do this!”
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about staying on top of doctors’ appointments, about making calls every day, if you have to, to force them to see you when you need to be seen, calling every day if you have to. Learn to push, because they will push you back. They’re busy. They’re doing a job. It’s
Orozco From 3
we met, he told me, ‘It doesn’t matter what race you are, doesn’t matter your beliefs or political views, cancer doesn’t discriminate, we’re all the same here, we’re all on the same level, we’re friends. I’m here for you.’ Every time I saw him, it just made the day brighter,” Isaac recalled. Today, Isaac is cancer free,
Consul From 3
Orcutt resident on the road to recovery after double mastectomy. RANDY DE LA PENA, CONTRIBUTOR
Brown From 1
family doesn’t know what to say, but these women knew because they’re all going through it, too,” Brown said. She credited the positive daily presence of her care team with driving her forward. “The team has been just awesome. There’ve been days I can barely drag myself out of bed, but they’re there with smiling faces and just helpful. They adjust to your mood when you come in and you feel personally cared for,” Brown said. Now she’s looking toward healing and recovery.
“I’m having trouble with the plastic surgery thing because when you first see it, it’s not what you expect. It’s not pretty down there,” she said. And there’s a lot of work to go toward reconstruction: spacers, radiation, and finally implant surgery. “You can keep this diet, but I had been in the middle of a weight challenge, so there’s that,” Brown said of the weight loss her treatment brought about. “This whole experience has really, really made me think of what’s important in my life. The chase of the money, the mansion, whatever, none of that matters. None of it. What
have been key to her treatment, of course, but also her recovery and financial survival. “They have support groups, but with school I wasn’t able to take advantage of that. They were able to help me with my financial program, and that really helped me at the time, especially when I had to quit my job,” Consul said. Mission Hope Cancer Center’s services include nurse navigators
matters to me is when I wake up and I can see light and I’m alive, I have sun on my face, that’s priceless. It’s not that I didn’t notice it before, but I appreciate it now. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate and love my family and friends before, but I’m going to tell people how I feel. I’m not going to wait for a special occasion,” Brown said. As she heals and the pandemic clears, she’ll return to karaoke, church camaraderie and wine tasting. As her neuropathy dissipates, she’ll return to building modern miniature doll houses. “Cancer is not the end. With folks like Mission Hope you can make it and you’ll be just fine,” Brown said.
who help guide patients through care, social networking, nutritional counseling, transportation, lymphedema therapy and genetic counseling. There are support groups, exercise groups, art therapy and sessions on scarf wrapping and make-up tutorials. “My message would be: hang in there. If I can survive it and still continue to reach my goals, I don’t see how anyone else can’t continue with their life. Cancer doesn’t mean it’s over for you. Cancer’s not going to stop me from living my goals,” Consul said.
RANDY DE LA PENA, CONTRIBUTOR
A Benefit for Marian Cancer Care Patients at Mission Hope Cancer Center
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thankful for the time he and his wife have had together with their now 2-year-old son. “I probably wouldn’t be here if I didn’t get that back pain, so for once, I’m glad I had back pain. They call testicular cancer the silent killer. You don’t have any symptoms up to the very end. I wasn’t doing annual checkups. They could have found it earlier if I’d done those. Don’t be scared of doctors. They really are important. Trust your doctor, and keep fighting,” Isaac said.
Brendalynn Consul isn’t giving up on her goals after two-time fight with cancer.
Day of Hope The Eighth Annual
your job to know your body, and to push for what you need,” Williams said. “Don’t take for granted that, you know, it can’t be you. I did because for all my years, there was never anything, so quit thinking, ‘it won’t be me.’ You think, ‘I had a good report, so what’s just one year missing an exam,’ and there you go,” Williams said.
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