Cancer: Not an obstacle for Freese

JESSICA MARRELLA FEATURES EDITOR JRM722@CABRINI EDU

“I wasn’t shocked that it was cancer. I was shocked that the results weren’t what I thought.” This is the first thought that came to mind when Jackie Freese, senior English and communication major, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an extremely rare form of bone cancer.

It all began last April when Freese was running on a treadmill. For days after running, she experienced pain in her lower left leg. Freese didn’t think much of the pain and chalked it up to the uncommonly strenuous exercise. She took some aspirin and moved on. The pain persisted and actually worsened through until the end of the school year.

R e m i n i s c i n g o f R o m e

MARIA D’ALESSANDRO ASST MANAGING EDITOR MAD724@CABRINI EDU

“I can only stay ‘til 7 or so. I have to dance tonight,” Lana Morelli says, entering a reporter’s room with sandwich in hand. “I swear; Radnor doesn’t believe in a turning lane.”

Morelli hurriedly greets the other sophomore girls sitting around the room: Tara Christie, Lynn Talley and Kathryn Franklin, before the reunion interview begins.

“You dyed your hair!” Christie says to Franklin. “I haven’t seen you all together since the plane!”

The four girls traveled to Rome this past fall semester to study abroad through the Cabrini-sponsored program with the American University of Rome.

Talk of schedules and cell phones echo through the small room.

Morelli, a political science and pre-law major, says she feels like she is too accessible now that she is back in America.

The relaxed atmosphere of the Italian lifestyle has clearly dissipated.

Morelli, Franklin and Talley don’t even realize they are sporting at least one article of clothing that came back with them from Italy.

The girls instantly begin speaking of their four-month experience.

Venice, Tuscany, Florence and Pompeii were all stops during their trip.

Only Christie, a social work major and psychology minor, took part in the trip to Tuscany. “They had wine tasting… oh yeah, and homemade pastas!” she says.

The girls were enrolled in an “Art of Rome” course while studying abroad. Christie calls her teacher a “genius.” They say he smoked a lot and resembled Fabio.

“He smelled like a zoo!” Talley, a biology and pre-med major, says. The girls break into laughter. The girls were, and still are, best friends, while in Italy especially, but there were times when they were each other’s enemies. However, at the same time, they were all each other had in a foreign country.

Franklin, a business administration major, says, “Here you can drive to Wawa (to relax or walk away from a fight), but we didn’t have that.” realized after the blackout the signs posted on the doors were notifying residents of the construction, not advertising a carnival.

Things were different when the girls were in Italy. They became more independent. Small events would take place and the girls would want to call home to tell their loved ones, but they realized that they certainly couldn’t call the U.S. for every little thing that happened.

“We are less independent here,” Franklin says. “In Italy we can eat lunch in a café alone and just get a cappuccino without even knowing the language and you enjoy sitting there; appreciating.” high school, doctors discovered benign bone tumors all throughout her left leg. She was one of the first cases doctors ever saw of this nature. Her treatment included low dose chemotherapy and high doses of radiation. through two rounds of chemotherapy before the surgery so that the tumor would be smaller in size. If the tumor was less than 60 percent dead, surgeons would have to amputate her left leg. Freese went into surgery not knowing what she would wake up to. Her doctors were pleasantly surprised when they discovered that the tumor was over 95 percent dead.

Certainly, there are tourist traps, but considering the girls’extended stay, they caught on quickly and grew accustomed to the catch of $30 bread.

On bad days in Italy the girls would be attracted immediately to the Hard Rock Café, complete with fresco ceiling. They craved burgers, comfor food and English.

Jackie tur ned 21 that June and decided to hold on a doctor’s appointment until after her birthday festivities. “That was the biggest mistake I made. I should have never waited that long,” Freese said. By this point, the pain was keeping her awake at night and made it difficult to walk.

Late June, Freese made an appointment with her orthopedic doctor. Xrays showed nothing unusual but after a week of still living with pain, Freese called the doctor again. This time an MRI was performed that showed an abnormality in her leg. The abnormality could have been caused by radiation that Freese had done on her leg in high school, but doctors wanted to take no risks.

The following week the doctors did a bone biopsy on her leg. This was Freese’s third bone biopsy in seven years, so she didn’t think anything of it; she thought that she merely pulled a muscle. Later that week, Freese’s mother called the doctor to order more pain medicine. This is when the doctor told Freese’s mother that her daughter had osteosarcoma.

During the next two weeks, Freese was thrown into a whirlwind of blood tests, x-rays and MRI’s. Not to mention surgery to place a catheter in her chest and meeting her new team of doctors and nurses at the University of Pennsylvania.

“It hasn’t even set in. You’re thrown into everything so fast that you don’t even have time to respond. I’ve maybe cried twice since I found out, just because I’m so busy with it,” Freese said.

On July 29, 2004, Freese began her first round of chemotherapy. Freese will need to go through six rounds all together, each round consisting of three treatments and lasting for f ive weeks.

The first treatment Freese refers to as “the bad treatment.” The two drugs used for the treatment cause unbearable side effects including nausea, vomiting and extreme fatigue. “I can’t even read the newspaper sometimes,” Freese said. This is also the treatment that causes hair loss. After the first treatment, Freese has three weeks off and then receives another treatment on the fourth and fifth weeks. The side effects of the second two treatments are not as severe as the first. However, Freese does get bad mouth sores to the point that drinking water stings.

Currently, Freese is approaching her fifth round.

“We really got to know each other and ourselves,” Morelli adds.

The girls had a kitchen, dining room, living room and two bedrooms. There were no clothes dryers, no microwaves and no television remote, although the television was never on anyway. The girls were too busy seeing the sites of Italy to watch TV A step to the front of a bathroom turns a sink on and the button on the wall behind a toilet is the key to flushing.

Despite their lack of American appliances, the girls did manage to keep fresh garlic and basil plants in the apartment for the whole trip. An elderly man in his 70s, Angelo, and his wife lived near the girls during their stay. He acted as their grandfather, especially when a blackout left the building in the dark. Talley

The girls found that not many people spoke English and would apologize that their English skills were not up to par “Language is a passion for them,” Talley says.

“They have a drive to learn it,” Morelli adds.

When the girls were heading back to America, they were sure to say goodbye to their new Italian family: Angelo, his wife, the waiters, the landlord, the pizza guy and the fruit lady.

“Angelo tried to get in the van with us when we left,” Christie says.

The girls agree that this experience was the “best four months of my life,” Morelli said.

“Amazing.”

“Best decision I ever made.”

“I want to go back…”

Osteosarcoma is so rare that only 900 new cases develop world wide every year. To put that number into perspective, testicular cancer is considered to be rare and 9,000 new cases develop each year. The disease occurs in children and adolescents, mostly between the ages of 14 and 25. This was not the first time that Freese was faced with life altering news. When she was a freshman in

Locks Of Love

After her f irst chemotherapy treatment, Freese decided to donate her long curly hair to Locks of Love, an organization that collects hair to make wigs for cancer patients. Freese, who never had short hair before, loved her new hair style. One week later though her hair began to fall out in clumps. She couldn’t take the tickling feeling on the back of her neck as her hair fell out and hated waking up to a pillow full of hair in the mor ning. Freese decided to shave her head, which is not uncommon for cancer patients to do.

“Its hair, it’ll grow back,” Freese said.

On Wednesday Nov 3, Freese underwent surgery to replace her tibia bone with a metal rod and to have a full knee replacement. She went

JESSICA MARRELLA FEATURESEDITOR

JRM722@ CABRINI EDU

Last year 177 donors went to “The Shear Touch” salon in Bryn Mawr to donate their hair to the Locks of Love foundation. With each person donating between four and eight ponytails, “The Shear Touch” sends out packages of hair every month.

Locks of Love is a non-profit organization that provides hair pieces to children 18 years and younger who suffer from long term medical hair loss. Because the hair that they use is donated, Locks of Love is able to provide high quality prosthetics. The organization began in 1997 and since then they have helped over 1,400 children.

After she woke up from surgery, the first thing that Freese did was ask for anti-nausea medicine. After taking the medicine and coming to, Freese looked down and thought “cool, I still have my leg.”

After the surgery Freese had to use crutches. “I’m still on crutches, but I’ve graduated to only using one,” Freese said with a chuckle. Freese is in physical therapy where she is learning how to walk properly again and how to bend her knee.

Despite her current medical condition, Freese needs to stay in school for insurance reasons. She tried to pick professors that she has had before and who knew her work ethic. In her opinion, she is lucky to have gone to a small school. If she were at a big school, Freese feels as though she would have had to take a year off and graduated late. “It’s frustrating. I’m very used to

Locks of Love provides the hair pieces to children free of charge or on a sliding scale based on their financial need. The cost of a custom made hair piece begins at $3,000.

“The Shear Touch” has been participating in Locks of Love for approximately eight years. So as not to be an expense to the donor, “The Shear Touch” pays to ship the hair to Florida where Locks of Love begins the process of turning donated hair into a hair prosthetic. “The Shear Touch” also presents each donor with a certificate of appreciation from the Locks of Love foundation.

Each donated ponytail has to be a minimum of ten inches long, clean and dry. Hair is then pulled back into a ponytail or braided. The being on top of my school work,” Freese said. Freese is planning on graduating on time this May with her fellow seniors. Freese was scheduled to live at the Cabrini Apartment Complex with seniors Jana Fagotti, English and communication major, Cristin Marcy, English and communication major and Christa Angelloni, religious studies major. She was a commuter during the fall semester and planned to move in this March pending that her chemotherapy was complete. Unfortunately, her therapy won’t be finished until May. Nevertheless, Freese still visits when she can and spends a few days in the apartment with the other girls. “I feel lucky to be part of what she considers to be her support system. She is an inspiration to me every day,” Fagotti said. Fagotti will never forget that day in July when Freese called her to tell her the news. All Freese had to say was “Jana,” and both began to cry. Once when Fagotti, Marcy and Angelloni were in the kitchen of their apartment, they all stopped what they were doing and simply looked at one another. Without saying a word, they each knew what the others were thinking about; Jackie. ponytail or braid is then cut off, placed in a plastic bag and then in a padded envelope. Permed hair is accepted but bleached or extremely damaged hair is not. Long blonde, black or red hair is in the highest demand right now. The majority of hair donated is from children that want to help other children. Children make up over 80 percent of total donors. “The Shear Touch” has even gone out to schools and cut hair to be donated on the spot. The salon has gone to Cardinal O’Hara High School for the past three years towards the end of the school year after prom season. For more information about Locks of Love, visit their website at locksoflove.org.