POINT PLEASANT — A horseshoe tournament is coming to the Point Pleasant Moose Lodge to help raise treatment funds for Kristi Halpin, who was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer last October.
Point Paws, a local nonprofit that works to help find stray and abandoned cats homes, is spearheading this fundraiser, as Halpin is the daughter of Patti Ascolese, who runs Point Paws.
Halpin told The Ocean Star that all the money raised from this fundraiser will go toward helping her with the expensive medical bills that have come as a result of the treatment. “With insurance and stuff there are always extra bills you don’t anticipate, and medications are very expensive that you don’t anticipate the cost, either.”
KRISTI’S STORY
Halpin, who currently lives in Bayville, grew up in Point Pleasant Beach. In October, she was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer, which is an incurable but treatable form of cancer.
Metastatic means the cancer has spread beyond the breasts and now is in multiple parts of her body, including her bones.
“Mine will typically never go away. I will have to see treatments for the rest of my life, but it is treatable so I can still live a long, hopefully long, life and a good quality of life,” she said.
She said the beginning of her treatment process was “a lot harder” than what it is now. “It has gotten a little bit easier to navigate everything now that I have a better understanding of what is going on. In the beginning, of course, it was like a whirlwind…there are so many different things you have to do to find out the plan of the best way to treat you.”
Her first treatment was relatively unsuccessful, according to Halpin, which made her “really sick.” She further said, “The one medication caused my hemoglobin to drop really low, so I had to get blood transfusions for that.” After that, another medication was tried that caused her liver enzymes to increase rapidly, which is not healthy for the liver or the body.
“We finally found one, my doctor. I am on an oral chemotherapy right now that I have been on for eight weeks and it seems like it is working, as far as my bloodwork looks, so we hope it is working,” said Halpin.
Oral chemotherapy is a cancer-fighting drug given by mouth in tablet, capsule or liquid form.
In mid-May, Halpin will be getting some scans done that will shine light on how the treatment is going and how the cancer in her body is reacting.
She discovered she had cancer after experiencing severe back pain last summer, right after her son turned 1 year old. She, along with many of her friends, had thought the pain might be caused by the size of her son, and the fact that she was a new mother.
“I didn’t realize that the crazy amounts of fatigue and the pain I was having was because I had so much cancer in my body. My whole spine, actually pretty much all my bones have cancer in them,” said Halpin.
She said, “The main event that precipitated finding all of this was I went to give him a bath after his party, and I am getting the tub ready and I felt something spasm in my back and I couldn’t get off the floor. My husband was like ‘do you want me to call an ambulance?’ and I told him no. I am a nurse and we are just the worst patients.”
She said this spurred her to seek medical advice, and she learned that the cause of the pain in her back was from four compression fractures caused by the cancer.
She then had two rounds of radiation, in November and another in January. The type of radiation is called palliative radiation, or palliative therapy. She said this treatment is not meant to cure the cancer, as in her case, it is incurable, but rather to mitigate the pain caused by the cancer.
This helped “to an extent” she said but did not yield the results she was hoping for. So, Halpin had a back surgery in New York called a kyphoplasty, or vertebral augmentation. In this surgery, injects special cement into the vertebrae to help reinforce the support of the spine.
The biggest issue the back pain had caused Halpin was her not being able to pick up her son. Only about three weeks ago, Halpin was able to pick up her son again, as she had regained enough strength. “Now I can lift him finally. That was one of my main goals was to lift him again cause that was so hard to not be able to do things for him.”
Halpin told The Ocean Star, “I am doing a lot better than I was in the beginning because it seems the treatments are working. I am hoping and praying that the cancer is starting to die off and my body is starting to fight it off.”
She now is heavily involved with the metastatic breast cancer community, and continues to advocate for not only those going through cancer, but also encourages individuals to get checked up regularly.
TOURNAMENT DETAILS
The tournament, which will be at the Moose Lodge, 706 River Ave., will be on Saturday, June 15, with a rain date of Sunday, June 16. Check-in begins at 10 a.m. and the tournament will start at 11 a.m.
The event costs $60 per team of two, or $30 per person. If residents do not want to play, it costs $15 per person. Beer, wine, soda, water and food are included.
Trophies, prizes and a 50/50 will also be at the event. To register for the tournament, contact Ron Stoner at 732-267-7423. For any other questions, contact 732-600-8444 or 732-779-8650.
This is an excerpt of the print article. For more on this story, read The Ocean Star—on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition.
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