JesseCollier.com | Family and Friends | 1982 | City Supports Bernie’s Battle With Cancer | More About Bernie’s Courageous Battle
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her family and home is something Collier said is even more precious.
Her first few weeks in the Portland hospital were a nightmare, a constant sickness and isolation from her friends and family because of the danger of infection. A common cold can kill a leukemia patient whose lack of white blood cells allows infections of all types to invade the body.
Collier went through two series of chemotherapy treatments with the second dose producing violent physical reactions. A bone marrow test “looked bad” in her words and third series of treatment was scheduled.
“I didn't think I’d be able to live through the third phase,” she recalled. “It was just terrible.”
The third series wasn't necessary. Bone marrow tests looked more promising each time although doctors were not optimistic. Red cells were being produced as well as the white cells.
“I really feel God had a lot to do with it,” Collier said after explaining her lack of formal religious beliefs but a belief in God. “It changed overnight. I can't say it was a miracle but it was a dramatic change.”
Bernie and Greg Collier have lived in the Waldport area for the past four years with Greg Collier working as assistant manager and waiter at the House of Almerik in Newport. The illness of his wife has taken him away from the job for several weeks, a financial beating since August is the peak tourist month. But he isn't worried about the financial aspect of the situation right now.
“I’d live in a tepee if Bernie would just get better,” he said, patting his wife on the back and asking if she's feeling okay. The couple, together for nearly 10 years, have two children - Jesse, 4, and Cody, 7.
“At one point Jesse told me I was a gonner,” said Bernie Collier as she laughingly described her son’s reaction at the hospital.
“I’m not really worried about dying,” she said. “It doesn't scare me. What is warder is that I have a family to raise. They’re so young and we’ve had such a good life together. Greg and I have just had a good relationship.”
There is, according to Collier, only one cure for the type of leukemia she has and that is a bone marrow transplant. In order for that to be possible there must be a “perfect match” with bone marrow from a brother or sister and that match isn't there. Sixty percent of those choosing the bone marrow transplant option die before the operation because of the massive doses of drugs and radiation in preparation for the rare transplant.
“I’ve been positive through all of this,” she said. “l can only hope that I’m in the 20 percent that has a real long remission.”
As startling as her diagnosis was, the reaction of neighbors, friends and others has startled her nearly as much. While she was in the hospital, the house was stocked with groceries, the house was cleaned, the lawn mowed, rugs shampooed, do-it-yourself projects completed.
“It made us so proud of our town. It would never happen in California,” she said, a reference to an area she and Greg lived before moving to Oregon.
After “Bernstock” the family will try to return to a normal semblance of order, the leukemia never disappearing but going into remission for varying lengths of time. Bernie Collier knows that.
“You have to decide when you want to give up.”
