Allex

News Coverage

Everett Herald Newspaper story here. King 5 local news segment here.  King 7 video here.

Lost Remains

It has been a long time since we have sent an Allex update and I can't say we thought we would be sending another.  But....

About a month ago we learned: When part of Allex's ashes were sent on April 19th to a company called TechnoGranit in Canada to be turned into a glass memorial sculpture they only made it as far as Canadian Customs.  They should have continued on to the company in Quebec.  We have confirmation from the US Postal Service that the package did arrive in Vancouver Canada and from Canadian Post that the package was received at Vancouver Canada.  They also state it was sent to Canadian Customs.

Solie's funeral home who was handling the process has been trying unsuccessfully since June 6th to find and retrieve Allex's ashes.  They and us have called everyplace we could think of- US Customs, Canadian Customs, US Postal Service, Canadian Post, Vancouver Mail Warehouse, US Consulate, Canadian Consulate, etc.  No luck and most don't want to get involved or it is simply not their thing.

Story is either- "White powder in a package- we seized it and refuse to release", or our favorite- "We have no knowledge of your package-maybe its just lost in the mail".

So we resorted to calling the media!  Alan Schauffler from King 5 agreed to take on the story in his Legally Speaking segment which should air tonight at 6:30 pm.  Also, Everett Herald is doing Part 3 of Allex's story- not sure when it will be in, but should be in the next few days. 

We have no idea if we will ever have her ashes returned to us, but we are hoping and praying.  Part of Allex is missing and we are just not willing to accept the answers we are getting right now!

If you have any connections to make more noise, it would be appreciated!

Aaron & Sharon Snell

Wall of Remembrance

Here is a memorial link from American Lung Association Wall of Remembrance.

Memories to Share

Video
You can now see Allex's Memorial video by clicking here.

Memorial Program
To download Allex's Memorial Program click on this link: Download Program.pdf .

Newspaper Article -- Front Page

"Heartfelt words touched girl's life"

EVERETT - Two cardboard boxes sat on a kitchen table, barely holding all the letters and cards. One card was filled with messages from classmates. "Fight on! We are rooting for you," one student wrote. "Stay strong and remember our love," another said.

Click here to read entire article...

From her classmates:

Spokane, WA Spokesman Review Newspaper on Friday April 14, 2006:

IN MEMORY OF
Allex Apley-Conner
03/17/1988 - 4/6/2006
"Our gentle, quirky friend, with a mischevious
sense of humor who
radiated joy & delight".
-The Students and Staff of North Central High School-

Allex's Memorial Notice

Here is a link to Allex's published Memorial Notice.

Allex Memorial

To Our Extended Friends and Family:

With great sorrow we send out a final “Allex Update”.  On Thursday night (04-06-06) at around 9:00 pm Allex passed away.   Our family is extremely saddened but is comforted in the fact she is no longer suffers.

We were overwhelmed with the amazing turnout on March 10th at the Flying Pig as many of you supported our family in person and financially.  The event was fantastic and Allex had a wonderful time.   She enjoyed meeting everyone, the awesome music by Station House Blues, and Sgt. Britton’s serenade!  Allex didn’t want to leave at the end of the night.  Thank you for spending time with us and your support. 

On March 14th – 20th we flew to Tokyo for our Make-A-Wish trip.  Allex picked the location because she was a HUGE fan of anime (Japanese visual animation) and manga (Japanese written cartoons).   We spent 3 fast and furious days touring two creation studios, the Mandrake anime shopping center, a museum and Tokyo Disneyland.  We met the original creator of “Tech-Mech” creation (Transformers and the like) and the artists of several of her favorite anime characters.   Allex understood everything, but most of it went over my head.  The museum was beautiful - Our tour began 30 minutes before the doors opened and we were allowed to take pictures.  (Aside from marketing – taking pictures inside are prohibited.)   The trip was great and we had a blast.  Allex maintained great spirits and health throughout.  Pictures of the trip are here.

After returning home Allex took several days to recover.  On March 25th (Saturday) Allex was invited by Make-A-Wish to SakuraCon in Seattle (anime convention) where she had a great time as a guest of honor and shared the day with one of her best friends, Barrett Taylor.   She quickly fatigued and her health declined over the next several days.

On March 29th (Wednesday) Children’s ran the 6 week CT and MRI scans again.  The results were shocking.  All of the original brain lesions returned but were dramatically enlarged.  There were also numerous new lesions.  Additional scans showed Allex’s labored breathing was due to a collapsed left lung.  The right lung was 50% filled with tumors and 25% fluid.  The Tarceva, chemo and radiation had failed and the prognosis was days.  Allex was admitted to Children’s Hospital.  If Wednesday was horrible, Thursday was worse.   During a short period of consciousness, Sharon and I told Allex the medications failed and her body couldn’t fight anymore.  Allex replied, “I guess we will see if it really is mind over matter.”   During the next several days Allex’s health declined but much to everyone’s surprise she made it to the weekend.  The weekend and following days were the hardest Sharon or I have ever experienced.   We watched helplessly while Allex deteriorated and her organs began shutting down.  Late Thursday afternoon Allex’s remaining lung began filled with fluid.  The final 2 hours were awful as Allex continued to struggle and fight.  In the end she was finally at peace.

We cannot thank you enough for your support over the past 4.5 months.  Your thoughts and prayers were welcome and calmed our family.   We appreciated the wonderful food, help and financial support.  Allex’s journey was too short and extremely tough but your support kept us strong.  It was wonderful knowing so many people were praying for us.

There will be a memorial service at 2:00 pm on Saturday April 15, 2006 at Timberlake Christian Fellowship (4505 236th Ave NE Redmond, WA 98053) with a reception to follow.  Child care will be provided during service and social time. 

Sharon & Aaron Snell

Links

A local newspaper, The HeraldNet, wrote an aricle about Allex on 3/8/2006. It's called Courage stands in for cure.

And this is a letter to the editor from Officer Jamie French, who was the main organizer for the Benefit event. It was published on 3/18/2006.

Update

Allex is not doing well- she is inpatient at Children's hospital in Seattle.  If you would like to visit, she is registered as Allexandra Apley-Conner and she is in the SCCA, 3rd floor, room 3290.  Visiting hours are 10am till 8pm.

Allex's health has dramatically declined since we returned from Japan.  She had a few days a jet lag, a day of pure fun when she received a huge box of gifts from Japan and spent the afternoon at SakuraCon (An anime convention in Seattle), but then she changed and she ate and drank very little and was not awake or coherent.  Allex complained of sever pain in her neck, shoulders and right arm. 

Last Wednesday (3/29) we headed into Children's hospital for Allex's weekly doctors appointment and the 6 week MRI's and CT's to gauge how well the Tarceva and other treatments were going.  The results were poor.  The MRI shows dozens of new brain tumors and the tumor in her brain stem has regrown.  The CT scan shows her left lung has collapsed - causing her heart to shift right and forcing it to work harder.  The right lung is about 50% tumor and 25% collapsed and is surrounding by a growing amount of fluid.  The tumors elsewhere in her body are multiplying and growing in size.  The news was not good.

Allex was admitted to Children's Hospital that night where she remains heavily sedated. Her oxygen sats have sagged to as low as 72 and she struggles to breathe.  We have her on oxygen to make her more comfortable.   Anti-seizure medication and morphine ease the pain and make her body less aware of the lacking oxygen levels.   Doctors are not pushing a feeding tube and we have discontinued IV fluids because they don't believe it is necessary now.  The optimistic outlook last week was 7-14 days and she has fought for each of the last 5 days.  We pray for a peaceful passing but always remain hopeful for one last miracle.

Thank you for your prayers and support.
Aaron & Sharon

Allex Admitted to Hospital

Wednesday is our regular day at Children's hospital and we were scheduled to update all of our MRI's and CT's to gauge how well the Tarceva and other treatements are going.  I wish yesterdays scans would have showed encouraging news for Allex's health, but unfortunately it was the opposite result.

Based on the test results Allex was admitted inpatient at Childrens yesterday.

The MRI shows dozens of brain tumors and the tumor in her brain stem has regrown.

The CT scan shows her left lung has collapsed and this has caused her heart to shift in her chest and it is now working even harder.  Her right lung to be about 50% tumor and then 25% collapse and is surrounding by a growing amount of fluid.  Her oxygen sats were as low as 83% last night and she is struggling to breathe.

The tumors elsewhere in her body are also multiplying and growing in size.  We have her heavily sedated and on anti-seizure medication to ease the pain and make her body less aware of the lacking oxygen levels.   

She is at Childrens on the 4th floor due to admit timing but we expect to transfer her to the HemOnc inpatient ICU sometime today.

The doctor says we only have a matter of days left.

Sharon

Tarceva

We've received many emails from people wondering how Tarceva works, so we thought we would post it online for everyone to read:

Many different types of cancer cells, including non-small cell lung cancer, have a "receptor" on their surfaces called the "epidermal growth factor receptor." This receptor receives signals that tell the cancer cells to grow and multiply. Tarceva works by blocking this receptor and depriving the cancer cells of these signals.

Sharon

Japan Trip

We are finally back. Check out the pictures by clicking here.

Japan was the whirlwind to say the least! We left on Tuesday March 14th- arrived in Tokyo on Thursday afternoon... went Seattle to Atlanta, GA to Tokyo-Narita. Someone with a private jet really should consider the tax deduction of a donation to Make A Wish!

Thursday night we went to bed early to adjust to the 17 hour time difference and to be rested for our adventures to come.

Friday we spent 2 hours driving to Sunrise Studios where Allex spent her time learing how to draw Anime from an artist.  I think her picture is quite good too. Jordan and Ryan also tried their hands.  Not only did Allex meet the artisit Nao, and get her autograph on the picture, but she also received a cell, a stuffed character and a framed sketch!  She was so excited! Of course it was also her birthday so we celebrated with a cake and a nice dinner.

Saturday found us Shopping at the Mandrake shop for Manga and the local toy store then on to having lunch at a noodle shop in the mall.  Then it was off to Satelite Studio.  We met not only the man who designed the Valkyrie fighter plane and turned it into transformable toys (from 3 planes into 2 unique battle creatures), but also the director of Hellsing, and the owner of TokyoPop, Stu, who is working on a joint venture movie with Satelite Studios.  Lots of excitement to tour the facilities, meet lots of people and learn a ton about Anime from many different perspectives.

Sunday was a private tour of Ghibli Museum.  We were able to go in an hour before anyone else (the line was a block long too) and we were given special permission to take a few photos.  Ghibli is where Hayao Takahashi preserves all of his best work and lets you into the inner workings of his anime.  We were also able to see a short movie that just started playing.  I think we could have spent days there exploring it all.  But after all the crowds came in it was very difficult to get Allex around in her wheelchair.

Our afternoon was also booked with Tokyo Disneyland!  We took the minvan cab out to Disney -- about 90 minutes away from Ghibli.  Our timing was not great for weather and we had a very cold and rainy afternoon.  It was also a very busy weekend for Disney and there was thousands of people there.  We were able to get on the "It's a small world" ride and Allex voted for the "Star Wars Adventure" ride too.  I was a little worried about it being a simulator ride (nausea and fagility and all) but she really wanted to go...She had a blast and was smiling the whole time.  Finally we went to the mouse house.. a tour of Mickey Mouse's house where we were able to snap a quick picture with Mickey himself.  We took the train back to the hotel and now have a greater appreciation for cattle cars.  Just kidding- it was crowded, but still lots of fun.  Allex was loving the whole adventure.

Like I said, a whirlwind tour.  We had to leave Monday morning at 1030 to get out to the airport in time for our 1630 flight.  International airports are chaos enough and trying to get a wheelchair thru was an adventure only second to the Tokyo trains.  We managed to only loose 1 piece of luggage -- Jordans suitcase.  She claims she really did not need her favorite clothes and school books with her homework anyway.. She says I should just send a note to school and take her shopping... hmmm... not sure how that really works.  She is dissapointed to loose her digital camera card and some souveniers.  Hopefully we will track down her bag.

Today was getting life back to normal- catch up on sleep and another day at Children's Hospital.  Not any news from the hospital this week.

Next week Allex will go back to UW Medical Center to meet with the Radiation Oncologist to start radiation treatments on her right arm and sternum and have an MRI to check the status of her brain tumors.  She will also have a CT scan at Children's to see how the fluid build up around her lungs and heart is progressing.  Based on how she is feeling it seems to have gotten worse.  All the flying time probably did not help much either.  But she says it has been worth it to see Japan and meet such amazing people.

Thank you to everyone at Make A Wish-Seattle, Make A Wish-Japan and all the amazing people at Sunrise Studio, Satelite Studio, TokyoPop, Ghibli Museum, and Disneyland who made all of this happen.   I have not seen Allex smile this much in years!!!

March 1, 2006

Other than a few minor complications on Monday, the surgery went well overall.  She is having a lot of trouble with nausea and we just added 3 new meds to her list so hopefully something helps.  Her counts are all dropping left and right and we are really pushing to get her trip fast.   Wish it was better news.

Tarceva is going- will take a few weeks before we know if it is working.  We will run the set of tests that will confirm or deny success around the end of March.

Another Surgery

Hey All..

We just got back from a weekend trip to Childrens hospital... Allex's central line refused to flush or draw last night which is an immediate cause of concern.  We did yet another chest x-ray and it shows her line is now kinked off- somehow it is no longer placed properly and has slid down into the very top of the right atrium just above the valve.

sooooo.....
Monday will be surgery where we will be removing her line and placing a new one.  Guess it will be another long day at the hospital.  Not sure what time the surgery will be as we are working into the schedule.  Since she has a fluid build up around both her lungs and heart the surgery carries more risks than it did back in December.

We'll let you know more later...

Sharon & Aaron

ps- We did start Tarceva on Saturday.. woo hoo!

More Tumors

Last Thursday she was having difficulty breathing so we did a chest x-ray, this showed fluid build up around her right lung and continued growth on a lung tumor.  Today we did a new chest CT which confirmed the fluid around the right lung, but also fluid around the left lung, and heart, as well as growth of 3 tumors.  A further heart echo showed definite fluid around her heart now too.  The fluid levels are not at a critical level today, but they seem to be increasing rapidly so we will be back at the hospital on Friday to run additional monitoring tests.
Based on current lab results and these findings Chemo is no longer an option.  The chest radiation we were looking to start is also out of the question due to the dose size that would be necessary to deal with these 3 fast growing tumors.

So we are left with trying to get our insurance to approve Tarceva.  They contend is it not FDA approved for use in anyone under 18.  We know that, but we have a valid Rx and doctor approval.  So Childrens has decided to order the drug for us and we will just have to either gain insurance approval or we will soon have a huge bill to deal with ($80 per pill/ 60 pills per month= $4,800).  Success rate is not great- 10% see a 2-3 year life, but it is the last option available so we have to try.  There are still no clinical trials available.

Make A Wish trip needs to happen very soon or it will also be out of the question.  The next month may be about as far as we will get with travel approval from the doctor.

Buzz Cut

Last week was a 4 day week at Children's Hospital- lots of testing and the discovery of fluid build up around her right lung.  Round 2 of Chemo continues tomorrow, chest radiation is now needed for a lung tumor that is not responding to the chemo- it will begin as soon as there is an opening in the schedule at UW, and the shingles (adult chicken pox) are finally starting to heal.  The blood transfusion from a little over a week ago has helped with Allex's energy level and she was able to attend her grandfathers funeral this last weekend.  She came home exhausted from the trip but happy that she could go and say goodbye to him.

Allex was down to about 10% of her own hair so she finally opted to buzz the last few strands off..on the condition that Pete and Aaron shave all of theirs off at the same time.  Aaron has hair that grows back so fast though it never really got smooth...LOL

Luckily she still has a sense of humor on most days!

We are still waiting to hear on dates for the Make A Wish trip....hopefully soon.  Allex's over all health has been declining so our window of opportunity for travel is diminishing.

Still waiting on approval for Tarceva from the insurance.

Make A Wish does not cover it (Tokyo Disney) since it is not part of her specific wish.  There coverage is for the transportation to Tokyo, hotel for 8 nights and the specific wish to see the Animation Studio.

Donations

Through your donation, we are raising funds to help the family pay the cost of the last drug available to improve and prolong Allex's life.  While the family has a valid Rx and doctor approval, the insurance company is balking at paying.  At $180 per pill and 2 pills per day, that leaves a monthly bill of $10,800.

In addition, we also recommend the following charities:

Children's Hospital - Seattle
Click "Memorial or Special Occasion"
Name of Person:  Allex Apley

Make A Wish
In Honor of:  Allex Apley
Recipients Email:  DesignCafe@aol.com

February 14th

Allex is having a rough time.  Her little face is so swollen you can barely see her nose and the shingles look awful.  She went down to the hospital yesterday for lab work to see how well Friday transfusion worked, but ended up going back today because the shingles rash has grown substantially worse in the past 48 hours.

January 2006

Allex has been having a tough time.  Feeding tube lasted about 30 hours before nausea won out.  We have added 3 new drugs to her mix to combat the headaches, nausea and grumpiness.  She is down to 100 pounds and missing half her hair.  I found a lung cancer specialist in St Louis who called me back and talked for about 30 minutes today.  He has an  associate in Seattle at Swedish who is willing to consult with us.  May lead to a trip to Missouri yet.  Overall her spirits are still good most days.

Contact Me

I'd love to hear from you. Your comments, emails and thoughts are very much appreciated. Please click here to send me an email!

Christmas Picture

We just wanted to share this beautiful family Christmas picture with you. Allex is the one with the glasses. You can click on the photo to see a larger version.

Christmas 2005

Our Christmas was excellent.  The family visited early (12-22-05) and Sharon’s mom stayed over for Christmas.  Many other guests came and showered us with love, prayers, and excellent gifts!  Sharon and I didn’t have much time to prepare for Christmas this year, but everything ended up being perfect.  Our family and friends were overly generous.  Thank you!  The Everett PD gave me Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off.  A HUGE thanks to Molly Spellman, Craig Davis and Mike Bernardi for taking time away from their family so I could be with mine.  We relaxed at home and had several family meals together.  It was really special.  All of the kids (Ryan included) were with us this year.

Allex has been doing well but her overall health is declining.  We settled into a bumpy patter the last two weeks.  Radiation therapy appears to be working, as the pain in Allex’s left hip and knee are gone.  Of course, the generous Morphine dose may be helping too.  Chemotherapy continues.  Just when we were about to give a  “full head of hair” update, it started falling out in big clumps- not a surprise, but not a welcome thing either.   With it has also come intense headaches and nausea.

Allex continues losing weight and is down to 46.4 kg (102 lbs).  During our pre-chemo office visit today, El doctor “incarcerated” Allex on the spot.  Not quite a medical emergency, but it was hopefully a quick fix.  Allex resided at Children’s to gain weight and get used to having the tube.  She came home on Thursday evening with all the new feeding tube apparatus and schedule- as we were just figuring out how to manage, her body decided it had other plans and the feeding tube was dislodged with a massive nausea wave.  As you can imagine, that meant only part of the tube was expelled and it then required it to be finished manually.   

Friday took us back to Children’s after the radiation treatment to have the tube re-placed, but Allex temporarily refused when her regular doctor was not available- she claimed she was highly motivated to eat as much as necessary to avoid having the tube -- given her age, the on-call physician gave her a reprievale until her next appointment with her regular doctor.  Problem is that requires about 6000 calories a day-not something that is realistic.  So it will be Wednesday when she is re-admitted and we start over again.  This time she will probably stay an inpatient for 2 or 3 days (or longer) to make sure the tube stays in place.

Overall we don’t have any additional good or bad news.  Weekly blood draws indicate decreases in all the various counts, but nothing critical yet.  We evaluate how effective the radiation and chemo were in a few weeks and will have additional information then.  Sharon continues the process of contacting hospitals in the US with solid cancer programs to see if anyone has additional information.  Other than that there isn’t much positive feedback to provide yet.

December 2005

Thursday December 8 was about the toughest day of our lives.  We met with Allex’s team of doctors at Childrens Hospital in Seatlle led by Dr. Blythe Thompson along with all of the other team doctors, nurses and social workers.  The final diagnosis is indeed Adenocarcinoma – stage 4 with lung cancer being the primary source.  Everyone agrees this is something that NEVER happens to healthy 17 year olds.  The cancer is aggressively flowing throughout her body.  The whole diagnosis and types/locations of cancer are extremely rare.  She has treatable tumors in her brain, tumors in her bones at the shoulders, hip, ribs and pelvis as well as 2 places in her spine.  The tumors in her brain are the most crucial to treat since they are in areas that control primary functions and are rapidly life threatening.  Her lungs are also filled with tumors that may respond to the Chemo, but will never be cured and will eventually cause her death.

Over the past 3 weeks we held onto the slim hope that aggressive doctors and treatments would be rough but provide a positive outcome.  Yesterday our hopes were dashed with the prognosis of 8-10 months.  There is no cure at this stage and treatment is solely intended to prolong life and decrease pain.  For the time being Allex will remain an outpatient and her treatment includes 15 sessions of spinal and hip radiation plus a specialized brain radiation session, called Gamma Knife.

Chemotherapy begins next week and will consume each Wednesday.  Although the side effects are severe, the hope is for time and her young body to respond.  After the initial rounds of radiation and chemotherapy we will evaluate where we stand and assess Allex’s quality of life to determine if additional treatments will be given.

Friday felt like a day that stood still.  We checked into Harborview Gamma Knife center at 7am and did not leave until 8:30pm.  Lots of stress and unknows along the way.  We went in knowing there were 3 major tumors in her brain, but the mornings MRI showed 9.  We knew there was one sitting within the area that controls major functions like her heart and breathing, but we did not know about the one on the brain stem, among others. 

Allex was very brave during the process of having a metal headpiece stabilizer attached with screws into her skull.  Doctor said she did not make a sound.  Much better than the other patient who was not doing so well.  To make matters worse, there was equipment malfunctioned -- a broken screw -- in the machine part that loads the Gamma Knife head pieces into place-they weigh 350 pounds and Allex was going to be using 3 different pieces during her treatment.  Luckily the staff had a backup plan and after a few hours delay and the patient who was scheduled to go first, we finally began our 4 1/2 hour wait of her surgery.   

To date Allex has chosen not to be involved with decisions or treatment selection.  However, she understands the global picture and possible outcomes.  We are keeping the gloomy prognosis from Allex for the time being.  Ignorance is bliss in this case.  Allex needs the hope if there is any chance for a positive outcome.  We dread the day hope runs out.

Yesterday was a tough day to say the least…

We have daily radiation and weekly chemotherapy scheduled.  Juggling everything is getting interesting and we try hard not to leave anyone out (the kids).  But we know the day the juggling is over will be the worst.

Thank you to one and all for your prayers and support.  And Thank You to the guys at Graphicode for finding a laptop for Allex (and everyone else who offered to loan one) and to The Everett PD for coming over while were at Harborview and putting up a beautiful Christmas tree for us!  It definately brightened Allex's spirits when she got home!  She said to pass along a huge hug to all of you!

The Diagnosis

November 2005

Our daughter Allexandra was living in Spokane with her grandmother to complete her senior year of HS.  On Tuesday (11-22-05) Allex saw her doctor for breathing problems.  The doctor mandated an ER visit.  After the initial chest/lung MRI, Allex was admitted to Deaconess Medical Center for numerous white spots in both lungs that the oncologist believed were cancer.  On Wednesday a lymph node was biopsied from left side of Allex’s neck.  Additional tests and scans were conducted on Wednesday and Friday.  Results confirmed tumor growths in the lungs, multiple bone locations (5), the spine, and the brain (3).  None of the locations were believed to be the primary source but were metasisized tumors.  The source was unknown and doctors were unsure of treatment.

After lengthy conversations with doctors and family, Sharon and I determined Allex would receive the best treatment at Children’s Hospital in Seattle.  Children’s sent Allex home with strong pain medication.  They believe patients heal best at home and will not admit unless needed.  Last week Children’s started to rerun many tests Spokane performed because they were “incomplete”.  UW Cancer Center also discovered the brain tumors were located on areas controlling sight, balance, and automated functions (heart and lungs).  Immediate radiation treatment is scheduled at UW.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) Allex will be tattooed for radiation and go through a radiation dry-run.  New MRI results will be combined with old results for interpretation and provided to us.  On Thursday we are scheduled to meet with our team of doctors at Children’s.  The types of cancer and locations will be reviewed.  A treatment plan will be created.  After three long weeks we should finally have conclusive information.

Throughout the process each test has provided more bad information and the primary source of cancer has not been found.  The current diagnosis is adenocarcinoma stage 4. This means the endocrine system is being used to transport cancer to various locations.  With the types and locations of the cancer, the case is extremely rare and we have been told that this is just not something a healthy 17 year old ever has.  The odds of winning a  Billion dollar lotto are much better.  On Thursday we will have additional information.  Until 11-22-05 there were no symptoms to suspect cancer.

The support from our family has been overwhelming!  We appreciate your concerns and offers of support.  At this time we continue to wait for more information.  We have watched Allex physically deteriorate over the past 3 weeks.  It is a painful process that is taking its emotional toll on the family.  But we will soon begin treatment.  On Thursday we hope to receive our first piece of positive information.  Unfortunately all reports and speculation have been negative.  Due to the types and extent of cancer, doctors say to worry about the short-term.  Based on the type of cancer we know it is not curable.  Remission, if possible, will probably be temporary.

Allex is doing her best to find the positives and keeps talking about her plans for 10 years from now.  Yesterday she put her beautiful long red hair into a ponytail for the last time and let a stylist at Gene Juarez salon cut it very short.  She looks quite cute with the cut but it was very sad too.

Introduction

Allex is a 17-year-old young woman, born March 17 (St. Patrick's Day) living in the Seattle, Washington area.  In November of 2005, Allex was diagnosed with a type of cancer called Adenocarcinoma Stage 4.  This means the endocrine system (hormones, adrenal glands, pancreas, etc.) is used to transport cancer to various locations of the body.  This type of cancer is EXTRAORDINARILY rare in healthy young adults.  When she was first diagnosed, doctors discovered tumors in her lungs (the source), multiple bone locations (5), the spine (2), and the brain (9) and gave her a prognosis of 8-10 months.  She has been going through both chemotherapy and radiation since her diagnosis.

Allex was born in Spokane, WA and lived there until she was 14.  When she was young she participated in gymnastics and studied the violin.  She has three siblings (Jordan-15, Ryan-10.5, and Braeden-21 mo.).  Her favorite colors are purple and light blue and she loves Japanese anime, especially comics and DVD's.  Her favorite artist is Rumiko Takahasi and her favorite character is Inu-yahsa.  Allex plans to meet Takahasi on her Make A Wish trip to Tokyo. You may contact Allex directly by clicking here. She'd love to receive your prayers and words of encouragement.