Oh what a couple weeks it has been for us. My intentions of this specific blog originally were to help everyone understand in depth some of the treatments that I am pursuing, how they work, and what it's like. Kind of do a "day in the life of Ali" blog. Everyone's support has been so nice, and everyone always asks, "how ya doin?" And I have been doing great. There are things that are challenging, or scheduling is difficult, time off from work is needed for appointments, or running out of hours between shifts or time on your day off to do all the therapies you want in a day. I still intend on doing a blog post of those treatments for those who are interested, and how we got to each treatment we have pursued. 

But for now, I feel like a life update is needed. If you didn't know, my uncle Jason (in the photo above) has been a cop for Minneapolis Police for almost as long as I can remember. My Dad was also a cop for Owatonna Police (where I grew up). I like to tell people I took my mom's job in the ambulance, my dad's nightshift work schedule, and my uncle's location of Minneapolis, and squished them into a job, as a Hennepin County Paramedic. I take so much pride in feeling like I honor them while I work, and we have a statement that Jason would always say at the end of our phone conversations "time to go save the city."  Well, Jason is a very humble man. I know a lot of you enjoy reading these blogs, there aren't words that I could write to describe how much of a gem he is, how great of a cop he was, and how many people greatly miss him as a police officer. We knew Jason's retirement from Minneapolis Police was going to happen but just didn't know when. He didn't want a big party, or really anything for that matter. But me being me, I wasn't going to let his retirement go unnoticed. I showed up in true Ali fashion, with cookies for the other cops at the precinct, in hand. I made sure to make a memory unintentionally though, before we got to the precinct. 

We were driving in Minneapolis on a road I drive often. I knew the third precinct building/parking lot was somewhere on the street but it's kind of hidden, tucked away. I was on the phone with my buddy, a cop from that precinct who was there, standing at the gate entrance waiting for me. Well, apparently I went through a yellow light. In front of Minneapolis Cop. I didn't even notice honestly. All of a sudden a squad is behind me, with their lights on. I thought, "no way. How did I manage to pass Jason in the squad". Then I look in my rearview mirror as I'm laughing, and realize, oh no, that's not Jason. I'm getting pulled over for real. She gets out of the car, asks me if I know why she pulled me over. I said, no, and she was dumbfounded. I said, no really, I am coming into town, looking for the third precinct, to see my Uncle Jason, and can't find it, my cop buddy is on my bluetooth on the car she can see his name, and I said I am a little lost. She proceeds to ask me who my uncle is, almost not believing me. She goes, "well Jason is back there, and points to down the road". All of a sudden, Jason pulls up alongside us in his squad. Gives her the look, and she said, Jason she blew threw a yellow/red light right in front of me! He's laughing, and he goes, she is my niece, she's coming to see me it's my last day....
She didn't believe him that it was his last day. Maybe she thought the last day of that work rotation. She let me off with no ticket, told me to pay attention. Which I was, I was just paying attention to looking for the precinct! She came out to the parking lot at the precinct in tears about a half hour later, looking at our family, and said "no way- you can't leave us". Jason is the man who comes in early for his shift, makes a coffee, cleans the precinct up. brings in treats, he's the Dad of the precinct. Everyone knows him. He would never admit it, but there is now a massive hole the Minneapolis Police Department which will take a long time, and multiple people to fill. We are so thankful for all the years of service Jason gave the community, and it's bittersweet for me knowing that he won't be on the same streets I work anymore. 


Next up, treatment! I have been at a clinic in Mankato that treats the entire body, not just the specific cancer. The goal is to try and identify why you got cancer, but also try and remove factors that allowed the cancer to thrive in your body. I will go into more depth on this on another blog post, but for now, just know that there are things in our life that can contribute to cancer growth, and we have been working to eliminate those things. One of the treatments I receive here are high dose Vitamin-C, and Vitamin K3. Vitamin-C works to help boost the immune system but also has a molecular reaction when it comes in contact with cancer cells that creates hydrogen peroxide which the cell can't live off of causing it to die. Vitamin K3 works with free radicals in your tumor cells and goes to battle with them causing the free radicals in the tumor cell to die. The first week of this I did the infusion too quickly. 

I accidentally had the rate too high on the IV, and if you infuse too quickly it hurts like the dickens. Your mouth, your neck, shoulders, etc. You can get nauseous- ugh. It's not pleasant, but the plus side is, if you just go slower and you will be ok. (and in about a half hour it gets all better). Which means, take your time, sit, be present, and don't rush this. The second week of infusion went well. It was just a weird day though, because that was the day Tony got discharged from his stay at the Hennepin Hotel aka (Hennepin County Medical Center). 


Tony was riding his motorcycle home on Tuesday, September 13th from his twin's house. They had spent the evening with family and friends, and riding their motorcycles since it was such nice weather. Tony was riding home on county road 81, and a car had a flashing yellow arrow to turn onto an entrance ramp to 94. The man claimed he never saw Tony, with his 4 lights on his motorcycle, who had the green light and right of way. The man turned into Tony, and he went over the hood of the guy's car, and landed on the ground. He was wearing his helmet thankfully, but unfortunately his foot peg on his motorcycle went through his boots, and through the arch of his foot. He was transported to HCMC where I happened to just be bringing a patient to, and was able to meet him in the emergency room. My supervisor took me off the ambulance to allow me to be with Tony the rest of the night. His mom, dad, and brother swung by to see him, and plenty of other paramedics that were working from Hennepin or North Memorial. Our good friend Dani was working that night for North Memorial EMS, so she was able to show up on the accident scene and check in on Tony before the other ambulance took off with him.  He will have surgery on Tuesday the 29th, to repair a couple broken bones in his foot/ankle, and fix a ligament. He had some road rash and a broken pinky as well, but is doing great otherwise. We are thankful it was not worse, as we all know what it "could have been" due to my job. 

I had an ultra sound just over a week ago, the cancer when diagnosed in July was located in my sternum, left breast, left armpit lymph nodes, and my left and right lymph node near my collarbone. This ultra sound checked my left breast and armpits to see what changes have occurred. The doctor told me "keep doing what you're doing, it's shrinking!" Which was very exciting to say the least. We knew it was going down/had changed, but it's nice to hear a doctor tell you that as well. The doctor had said "well, you still do have abnormal lymph nodes in your armpit". Well doc, as much as I'd like to be cancer free, normally people don't beat stage 4 breast cancer in a month and a half of treatment. So abnormal lymph nodes still is not surprising in any way.

We will continue to do weekly treatments, follow a low sugar/low carb diet, high in protein & fats, sauna, exercise, drink lots of water, supplements, and the really fun part, working through life traumas that have been suppressed (it makes a difference to your cells oddly enough). Tony has been joining me since the accident on acupuncture treatments, and chiropractor appointments for himself as well. He has seen significant reduction in his swelling in his knee from the acupuncture, and has been given the all clear by his chiropractor to exercise (within reason) which makes him very happy. 

Tony and I have learned that we weren't very good at asking for help. We laughed in the emergency room, that we no longer have an option to not ask for help anymore. 



It was a huge deal for us, but my uncle Jason ended up picking up Tony from the hospital, since he is now retired and has all the free time in the world. And my best friend Kelsey had to pick me up and drive me to Mankato for treatments and back as sometimes they can take a toll and make you tired. Some have dropped off meals for us, and others have said, whatever you need just ask. 

Well, be careful what you wish for friends and family! Tony will have surgery Tuesday, and we have this next week taken care of for meals, but at some point we will need more help with food, house work, literally so many random things I have on my to-do list, according to a good friend, I'm supposed to stop limiting someone's ability to help us. 

It's hard to ask for help because I know everyone has their own bathroom that needs to be cleaned, or laundry to be folded, or the guest bedroom that's a disaster and just a straight dumping ground. Everyone has family or friends they haven't seen in awhile, or everyone just has a busy schedule where if they had an hour or two of down time, they deserve to use it for themselves. But my friend Lindsay put it in a great way, if the rolls were reversed, and Lindsay had stage 4 cancer, a full time job, and her husband in a motorcycle accident, how fast would I drive down to Owatonna if she said "i'm so overwhelmed, my floors need to be vacuumed, I have people who want to donate meals but I need to clean out my fridge first, I don't even know what's in my pantry anymore, and I've washed the same load of clothes 3 times before I got them in the dryer." I would get multiple speeding tickets driving down there to help I would drive so fast. And if I couldn't, I'd find another way to help her. Even with my crazy schedule I know Tony or I would do whatever we could to help. So apparently that's how you all feel. 

We will try and be more vocal about needs, when we come upon them. Right now Tony is currently elevating his foot in a recliner taking a nap, next to me while I am getting my third week of infusions done. The drip rate is a little slower this week, going through my IV port, so that it's not painful. We are headed to Iowa after this for my niece's 1st birthday and we can't wait to be in Iowa and getaway. 

NEXT WEEKEND.......we would LOVE to see everyone we know at Mavericks Wood Grill in Champlin from 12pm-5pm. The Vikings will be playing at 8:30am because their game is in London, and so after you're done watching the game, stroll on over to Mavericks for some amazing food and drinks, and even better people. I have no idea how many people are coming, but I would love to see everyone. Literally all of you reading this. You guys all mean so much to us, and we want to be able to spend time together at our favorite restaurant on a beautiful fall Sunday. Also I hear Tony's mom is making her famous caramels for that day.......and I might be wearing a fun wig since I'm still losing my hair from the two rounds of chemo I had. :) 




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