Here, you can see a summary of Erisa's cancer treatment journey since her diagnosis with stage-4 cancer in her peritoneum. You can click the title to read the article.
The newest update is on the top. Thank you for praying for us and with us. God certainly listens to our prayers, and He continues to give grace to all of us.
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(Click the links below for more details.)
March 18: 4 Weeks since Erisa's Passing & Funada's Upcoming Plans (Short-term)
Erisa's memorial service and burial were blessed by God's grace and friends' support.
Toshiki and Naoto are visiting LA from 3/30 to 4/4.
Joe and Noney are returning to Japan on 4/12. Naoto, Toshiki, and Subaru are going with them to Japan. While Subaru will stay in Japan, Naoto will be back to the U.S. with Toshiki on 5/16, and will aim to finish his missionary support raising.
February 22: Erisa's Obituary and Memorial Service Information
Erisa's obituary has been posted online.
Her memorial service will be held this Saturday, the 25th (3PM ET for visitation; 4PM ET for memorial service) at Faith Church East.
February 19: HOME SWEET HOME
On Saturday Feb. 18th, 2023 at 3:55 PM, Erisa went home, to her eternal home in heaven, to be present with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Her memorial service is scheduled on this coming Saturday, Feb. 25th, at 4 PM at Faith Church East.
February 14: Hospice Care Update 2: Almost Home
Joe is here, and he's strong and healthy!
Erisa had suffered many vomits and sleepless nights for a few days. But, since yesterday she's been sleeping a lot without much suffering. She's weakening, and she can do less things now. She also began talking in her sleep. Her dreams/visions and the real world are mixed up. It seems like she's almost home, so much closer than many of us are.
February 7: Hospice Care & Appointment Update
We're rejoicing that Noney and Subaru are here.
However, Erisa is getting weaker day by day. She hasn't been able to have visitors lately. Erisa's dad, Joe, changed his flight and will get here on Thu. the 9th.
February 4: Hospice Care (English)
Erisa's health declined much in January. There's no medical solution. She transitioned to hospice care on Feb. 2.
日本語で記事（2月4日：ホスピスケア）を読む場合はこちら。
January 21: Chemotherapy #6 + Bday + Hospitalization
It's been a rough week. On Jan. 10th, Erisa had chemotherapy #6 on her birthday. Friends from Faith Church came to our home to surprise her that evening. It really brightened her day!
However, her physical issues got worse on Saturday, and she went to the ER on Sunday. She ended up being hospitalized from Sunday to Wednesday. Her physical issues still continue, without clear solutions. She's pretty discouraged, and needs encouragement as well as solutions to the physical problems.
 
January 5: Chemotherapy #5 + ER Visit + Scan Result #1
Erisa had chemotherapy #5, and it was going pretty well at first. But then, she had issues with belly distention and shortness of breath, which led her to go to the ER. Increased pain meds are somewhat helpful to alleviate her discomfort. She also saw her oncologist in Carmel to hear about the CT scan results, which brought some great news that chemo is working!
 
December 23: Chemotherapy #4 + Subaru's Birthday (2 years old)
Erisa had chemotherapy #4. With less dosage of one of the chemo drugs, she's been doing better than before—although with ups and downs.
Subaru's doing well in Japan, and had his birthday on the 21st. He is now 2 years old.
Merry Christmas to you all!
  
  
December 5: Chemotherapy #3
Erisa had chemotherapy #3. For the first time, she didn't have nausea during the treatment. Noney and Subaru flew to Japan. We found Toshiki's nanny.
 
November 20: Chemotherapy #2
Erisa had the second chemotherapy. During the chemo administration, she got nauseated again around the same timing as the first chemo. This time, though, was considerably better than the last time, as she didn't experience shortness of breath.
We decided to send Subaru to Japan when Noney (Erisa's mom) returns on Dec. 5th. Now, we're in the process of getting his passports (both U.S. and Japan).
We are trying to find a nanny for Toshiki. He's been going to preschool part time, and he loves it! But, during the winter season, the risk of catching a cold from other kids is quite high. So, we want a nanny (and other childcare helpers) to watch him during the week.
November 1: Chemotherapy #1
She had a rough experience from the first day of chemotherapy. Nausea was bad and she threw up even during the chemo administration. But what was even worse was shortness of breath. She struggled with breathing for about one whole day.
October 29, 2022 Chemotherapy Is Starting
As her wound from the previous colostomy surgery has healed well enough, Erisa's oncologists decided that now is the time that she begins chemotherapy. It is scheduled to begin this Monday (10/31), being given every other week for possibly about 12 cycles (about 6 months), with a hope that it'll shrink cancer so much that she can receive a surgery to remove all cancer cells.
We got connected with Brad, who is a young man from KY who went through the same (almost exact same) cancer treatment with the same oncologist. With chemotherapy, his cancer shrunk so much that he was able to had cytoreductive surgery with HIPEC. He's now cancer free! And he shared his experiences and tips for Erisa.
October 1: Cancer Treatment Plans
Erisa's cancer is called peritoneal colon cancer, or peritoneal carcinomatosis. Cancer began in colon, and it's spread in her abdominal wall and maybe other organs too. It's a rare and aggressive type of cancer.
When her wound from colostomy surgery gets healed, she'll begin chemotherapy. Hopefully, chemo will work well for her, and the cancer will shrink much. If she has a really good response, then after 6 months of receiving chemotherapy, she is evaluated for a surgery called cytoreductive surgery.
September 23: Discharged!
After the colostomy surgery, it took some time for Erisa to figure out the good pain medications that she could take home with. Finally, she feels like she can manage pain with the prescribed medicines, and got discharged.
 
For now, she is staying with our friends from church who know how to take care of Erisa very well. She will continue to recover there.
The next step will be to talk with a medical oncologist and figure out how to proceed to cancer treatment.
September 10: Colostomy Surgery Update
The surgery went well enough—not everything that was hoped for got done, but at least colostomy was done, which was the main thing, and it went well. She will stay in the hospital until she gets well enough to go home. Then, after her wound gets healed in 4–6 weeks, she'll move on to cancer treatment.
September 7: Cancer Diagnosis
After Erisa went to the ER on Aug. 31, she immediately got hospitalized for a possibility of cancer. Her abdomen was distended, and she was in much pain. On Sep. 7, her biopsy results came back, and her diagnosis was stage-4 cancer spread in her peritoneum. Before she could proceed on to chemotherapy to battle cancer, she would need colostomy surgery first.
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