Photos by Erin Nelson.
Ashley Huffstutler, loves on her daughter Diana, 2, as the family plays in the living room at their home in Bluff Park. When Ashley was pregnant with Diana in 2017, doctors discovered Ashley had an aggressive brain tumor.
With a father who died of skin cancer and a mother who survived uterine cancer, Ashley Huffstutler thought in the back of her mind she probably would get some of kind of cancer in her old age, but she never imagined it would strike her at age 29 while she was pregnant with her second child.
That’s exactly what happened two years ago. The Bluff Park mother was having a hard pregnancy when she started losing her vision. She went to the emergency room, where doctors thought she might have had a stroke.
However, they couldn’t perform all the tests they needed to do because of her pregnancy, so they waited about four weeks until they could deliver her second daughter at 36 weeks into the pregnancy. Six days later, an MRI with full contrast revealed Huffstutler had a brain tumor.
“That was when we found out I had cancer,” she said. “It was really hard.”
When doctors performed surgery in October 2017, they discovered she had a glioblastoma, which is the most aggressive type of tumor that spreads quickly to other parts of the brain. Huffstutler started having full seizures, and they had to stop the procedure and put her into a medically induced coma for 36 hours.
Four weeks later, around Thanksgiving, she started radiation five days a week and oral chemotherapy three times a day.
“That was tough,” Huffstutler said. “I didn’t realize how hard radiation would be. It takes a lot out of you. It was so exhausting.”
She finished the radiation in January 2018 and in February began a full year’s worth of oral chemotherapy, five days out of every month. Now that it is over, she goes to the doctor for an MRI checkup every two months.
NO CURE YET
Her condition is considered “stable,” which she said is the best news she could have heard. But there is no real cure for brain cancer yet, her neuro-oncologist, Dr. Rhodemarie Maron said. “At some point in time, it will come back.”
Life for Huffstutler, now 32, has changed dramatically. She had to go on long-term disability from her job at United Ability, where she was a pediatric physical therapist, mostly for infants. “I loved doing that,” she said. “It was wonderful. I miss it.”
She and her husband, David, had to adjust to one income, and both of their daily routines changed greatly.
Ashley’s tumor has affected her speech, writing and balance and made her physically weak, especially on her right side. Due to limited energy, she spends most of her time at home. She might go to Target, to church or out to lunch, but “that’s about it,” she said.
She would love to be able to keep her two girls, now 4 and 2, at home with her all day, but it’s too physically draining, she said. David takes them to daycare while he goes to work as an engineer for Alabama Power. He has also taken on more responsibilities at home.
Because Ashley’s time on Earth may be limited, she has made videos of herself to relay information to her girls later in life. She has also written a children’s book about the love of a mother for her children and is working to find a publisher.
Both Ashley and David said support from their church — The Church at Brook Hills — and other friends and co-workers has been amazing. One couple came over to their house every Monday after she had chemotherapy and brought dinner, washed the dishes, cleaned the bathrooms, did the laundry and helped put the girls to bed.
Because Ashley could not breastfeed due to the radiation, another friend collected breast milk from other women and filled a freezer with it. “Diana lived on strangers’ breast milk for almost a year,” she said. “It was such a gift. That was huge.”
David’s coworkers raised enough money to pay for yard maintenance the past two grass-cutting seasons so he could spend more time with his family.
Photos by Erin Nelson.
David and Ashley Huffstutler read “There’s a Monster in Your Book” to their girls, Evelyn, 4, and Diana, 2, at their Bluff Park home. They plan to form a team for the 2019 Blazer Bolt for Brain Cancer, a 5K to be held Oct. 19 in Homewood, benefiting the UAB Division of NeuroOncology and Children’s of Alabama neuro-oncology unit, for research of adult and pediatric brain cancer.
GIVING BACK
The Huffstutlers are trying to give back as well. Last October, they formed a team to participate in the Blazer Bolt for Brain Cancer, an event with runs of various distances that raise money for the UAB Brain Tumor Tissue Bank Bio-Repository, which stores specimens from patients who have undergone brain tumor surgery at the UAB and Children’s of Alabama hospitals.
Last year, about 350 people attended the 5K, 1-mile fun run and 200-foot survivor walk, said Dr. Maron, who is the race director. Another 550 people registered for the sleep-in donation option, which allows people to donate money that can’t be there in person.
The 2018 Blazer Bolt raised about $30,000, and this year’s goal is to raise $50,000 to support the purchase of a $250,000 machine to be used in genetic research, Dr. Maron said. The goal is to study tumors and create new therapy and treatment options, she said.
Ashley, who walked the entire 5K last year, said it was great to see so many people come out to support the cause and especially to see other families they had met as she went through treatments.
“It’s not about the race,” she said. “It becomes about the people and showing support and rallying around those who are battling for their lives.”
She and David plan to have a team this year as well. This year’s Blazer Bolt is set for Oct. 19 in downtown Homewood. More information is available at blazerbolt.com.
JOURNEY OF FAITH
Dr. Maron said she knows Ashley has her good days and bad days, but she has been so encouraged by Ashley’s attitude through it all and said Ashley has handled the journey with such grace and patience.
Instead of focusing on the negatives of cancer, Ashley and David said they try to find the positives. For example, they’ve been able to spend a lot more family time at home than most people, which they consider a blessing.
Also, Ashley said it’s a miracle that she is doing as well as she is. “A lot of people don’t make it as long as I’ve made it,” she said. “It’s just a gift from the Lord. … I’m not doing what I used to do, but I’m grateful for a lot of things. I still get to be with my girls, and I still get to be a wife.”
Ashley said she knows the odds are not good for people with her level of brain cancer, but she doesn’t get her comfort from the odds. “God can do anything beyond statistics,” she said.
David said their journey has been painful and it would be easy to get caught up in the idea of having no hope and no future, but they choose to use this opportunity to praise God.
“The whole reason we are in this world is to make God’s name bigger and bigger and bigger,” he said. “You just have to look at the big picture, and you’ve got to stay focused on the one who created it all.”
Ashley said she knows other people who go through difficult situations who don’t have any hope. She said despite her cancer diagnosis, she can have joy and hope because of her faith in God and likes to share with other people how they can have that same hope.
