Survivor, family raise money for cancer research

OTHELLO - Rachael Olson said there was no forewarning at all, not even a headache, until she was getting ready for a party.

"Super Bowl Sunday, 2009," Olson said. One minute she was fine, the next "I collapsed with a grand mal seizure," she said. That was bad enough, but the diagnosis that followed was worse. Olson had brain cancer.

That might have been the end of the line. Olson's mom Kathy Rolfs, of Moses Lake, did a little research on brain cancer, and learned the average survival time after diagnosis was about 17 weeks. And with all the research that's been done on cancer and the gains that have been made, brain cancer is still difficult to treat, Rolfs said.

But while there's still part of a tumor, Rachel's cancer has stabilized and she has gone four and a half years without symptoms. The team that treated her at the University of Washington calls her their "poster child," Rolfs said.

Olson, her husband Craig, mom and stepfather will be among the people walking to raise money for research at the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk Sept. 21. "We are called Rachel's Angels," Rolfs said. They're still recruiting team members, either to walk in person or provide support, Rolfs said.

The family is sponsoring a fundraising yard sale Saturday and Sunday at 545 Laguna Ave. in Moses Lake. "Every penny of everything we make goes to the brain cancer walk," Rolfs said.

Olson and Rolfs also made a quilt that will be raffled Sept. 21. People who want tickets can buy them at the yard sale, or contact Olson in Othello or Rolfs in Moses Lake, 509-431-0582.

It's the second quilt they've made in what's become a tradition. Rachael's grandmother made the first quilt, she said, then Rachael and her mom took over.

Olson was pursuing a teaching degree when her cancer was diagnosed. The doctors in North Dakota, where she and Craig were attending college, said the best options for treatment were the Mayo Clinic and the University of Washington. Rachael said her mom and stepfather lived in Moses Lake, so they headed west.

"I had my tumor resection two days before my 22nd birthday," Olson said. It was March 2, 2009.

And the news was even worse than the doctors' original diagnosis. The tumor was more advanced than anticipated, and although they got most of it they had to leave about 20 percent behind.

"A group of them (physicians) came in and kind of lined up against the wall," Rolfs said. "That's when you say, 'uh-oh.'"

The doctors had warned the family there was a 50 percent chance Rachael could be paralyzed after the surgery. For about three weeks "I was mute and paralyzed on my right side," she said.

"You were able to say 'let's get started,' though," Rolfs said.

The doctors recommended six weeks of radiation therapy and oral chemotherapy. But the next brain images contained more bad news. "The radiation wasn't stopping it (the tumor)," Rolfs said. So the attending physicians stepped up the treatment and went to infusion chemotherapy, which lasted for more than a year.

Even while she was in treatment Olson was looking ahead; Rachael and Craig went back to school, this time at Central Washington University. Both graduated with teaching degrees, Rachael's in math for intermediate grades.

Rachael said it would've been difficult to make it without Craig. "I don't know what I would've done without him." He took care of her through the whole treatment regimen, she said, while juggling his own classes.

Craig Olson got a teaching job in Othello, in fifth grade at Lutacaga Elementary. Currently Rachael is a stay-at-home mom for son Michael, 10 months old.

"They didn't think I was going to be able to have kids because of the chemotherapy and all the stuff my body has been through. So he's our little blessing," she said.

She said she didn't wonder why the disease attacked her, at 21 years of age. "I was the one asking why, why, why," Rolfs said.

Nor does she think of herself as a miracle, she said. A devout Christian, she said she believes God has a plan for her life and what has happened, and will happen, is what is supposed to happen.