By Laura Lane
Lisa Muhs is busy. Last Friday, she saw her son Daniel, 11, a member of the North Merrick School District Odyssey of the Mind team, win first place. And of course, there are Daniel's play practices, which she enjoys watching, too.
Muhs will attend a ceremony for her oldest son, Michael, 13, when he is inducted in the Merrick Avenue Middle School Honor Society. And her youngest, James, 5, needs a lot of hugs, which Muhs is happy to provide.
The 46-year-old wife and mother doesn't have time for ovarian cancer. Originally diagnosed in October 2000, she remains driven to be cancer-free. Muhs doesn't intend to let up until she has reached her goal.
"I've beaten the odds so far," said Muhs. "Only 10 to 20 percent of women with ovarian cancer live past five years. And I'm lucky. Even though the cancer keeps coming back, I've never felt sick or in pain."
Before her illness, the North Merrick resident of 14 years was an operating-room nurse at Winthrop University Hospital. She says her medical knowledge has helped her throughout her ordeal. "When my stomach blew up, I immediately went to my gynecologist," said Muhs. She had never felt better, having completed the Avon 60-mile breast cancer walkathon just 15 days earlier. "I thought maybe it was because of the walk, and maybe also because I'd just had a baby. James was only 3 months old. But when my gynecologist, after seeing me on Friday, wanted to have me tested immediately the next morning, I knew it was bad."
Muhs has been on a roller-coaster ride ever since, with surgeries, chemotherapy and months of remission giving her hope, which is dashed when the cancer returns. At one point she was even able to return to work, but that only lasted for a month. "Standing on my feet was painful," said Muhs. "I had neuropathy in my hands and feet from the chemotherapy." She was forced to permanently leave her job in 2002.
Muhs attributes her longevity to her decision to combine alternative medicines with chemotherapy. She has gone to nutritionists in Manhattan as well as Long Island, spent eight months with a local Chinese acupuncturist and endured experimental vaccines.
"My family has always supported me, and it's been expensive," she said. "When I went to the acupuncturist, I had to spend $250 a week in herbs and $75 a session. I met people there who had been dying of cancer in stage four, and this acupuncturist cured them. But after eight months, my cancer came back."
Muhs¹s remissions always seem to last six to eight months. And her cancer has spread. In 2003, she entered a clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, taking a vaccine developed in Germany. But her lymph nodes became inflamed, and she suffered from high fevers. Doctors hoped this was a positive response, but after a couple of months they performed a biopsy on Muhs's lymph nodes and found ovarian-cancer cells.
Refusing to be discouraged, Muhs continued to combine traditional and alternative medicines. In November 2005, she went to the Leonardis Klinik in Germany. "They said they'd combine anti-hormonal treatment and chemotherapy, and they tested my DNA to see which chemotherapy would work best for me," she said. "I'm taking drugs they use to treat breast cancer now, and they were able to make four vaccines for me."
The vaccines were developed after the German doctors removed a tumor from Muhs's left groin. They combined parts of the tumor with her blood. Muhs has had three of these vaccines so far, flying back to Germany every four to six weeks. The results are encouraging: She is once again in remission.
"My doctor at Sloan Kettering said if he could help me this way, he would," said Muhs. "He told me to go to Germany. People are flying over there from all over the world."
But the cost for all of her treatments is taking its toll on the family. Medical insurance doesn't cover alternative medicine. Last year the Muhses spent $48,000 in medical expenses, and that didn¹t include the trips to Germany.
Muhs said the community has supported her. "When I first got sick, the neighbors were bringing dinner over for six months," she recalled. "Another woman did my laundry. Throughout the years, I have had a group of people here who have done whatever I needed."
A number of her neighbors and family members are planning to help Muhs further. They've organized a fund-raiser on March 25 to help defray her medical costs.
"This has been the hardest year because of the aggressiveness of the therapy," she said. "I believe there's a cure out there, and it's a combination of therapies, traditional as well as alternative. But I also believe your state of mind is one half of the battle. For me, there is only one choice: to stand up and fight."
Comments about this story? LLane@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 236.
