A first-year student may be completing her last chemotherapy treatment session in the next few weeks which would allow her to move back to Wartburg’s campus. 

Freshman Julie Jack has been living at home in Independence since October while undergoing chemo in hopes of combating adrenal cortical carcinoma. 

“I’m ready to come back, but I’m a little nervous,” Jack said. 

Adrenal cortical carcinoma is a rare form of cancer that only 300-500 Americans are diagnosed with each year, according to the American Cancer Society Web site. 

In January 2008 Jack tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). 

Although she had surgery to repair the ACL, Jack began experiencing severe pain from her left side to her lower back and in her leg.  Throughout the summer, Jack’s pain got increasingly worse.    

“I would wake up with this horrible pain. I would wake up screaming. I thought it was my appendix, but it was on the wrong side.  Then my doctor scheduled [me] for an ultrasound, because she thought it was a cyst on my ovaries,” Jack said.

During the ultrasound, doctors discovered a nine-inch tumor on the adrenal gland of one of Jack’s kidneys. 

The ultrasound took place on July 7, and by July 9, Jack was at the University of Iowa Hospital to have the tumor removed. 

A three-pound tumor was removed after a five-hour operation, which then tested positive for adrenal cortical carcinoma. 

“Supposedly the tumor was about the size of a football,” Jack said.  “The doctors said it had probably been growing for a year or two.”  

Jack stayed in the hospital for a week, and Jack’s doctors deemed the surgery successful.

“I felt better within a week. My face wasn’t so puffy or red.  My blood pressure was normal.  Right away things were different,” Jack said. 

However, before Jack was about to come to Wartburg in the fall, an oncologist from the University of Iowa Hospital told her family that he thought she should go through chemotherapy. 

Jack’s family went to Mayo Hospital in Rochester, Minn. for a second opinion.  The Mayo doctors found spots on Jack’s lungs and a blood clot in Jack’s right lung after doing a CT scan. 

Jack moved to campus during Orange EXCELeration in late August.  In September, however, the Jacks were notified the cancer had spread in Jack’s body. 

Although Jack left Wartburg in October to start chemo, she continued her coursework via online contact with her professors. 

Jack has chemo three days in a row every three weeks as part of a seven-treatment series. 

“For about a week, I’m worn out.  I just feel a little nauseous, but I’ve only gotten actually physically sick once.  After that week, I’m fine, and I feel normal.  I start doing softball stuff, and I go to basketball and wrestling events,” Jack said.   

By doing the treatments, the doctors hope Jack’s cancer will go into remission, she said. 

Although Jack has lost a majority of her hair due to the chemo, The American Cancer Society donated three free wigs and makeup to Jack. 

“It’s kind of fun to change up the wigs,” Jack said.

Jack said she tries to remain optimistic.

“At first it was hard.  I wasn’t depressed, but it seemed like everything was happening all at once. …It’s been hard, but it’s not like I’ve ever lost hope.  I’ve always just thought it’s not forever,” Jack said. 

The hardest part for Jack to deal with has been missing out on the social aspect of college. 

“When I was here, I didn’t tell anyone.  Back home, it’s all everyone talked about.  So it was nice to come here and not have anyone know.  When I found out I was going to have to do chemo, I didn’t tell anyone either.  Because you just don’t know how people are going to react. 

I don’t want people to feel sorry for me, because I am normal.  You don’t know when to tell someone ‘I have cancer,’” Jack said.

Jack has started to practice softball again in Independence. 

“I’m a lot weaker, but I’ve just started exercising again and hitting softballs.  Just to be able to do that again feels really good,” she said.