Local woman looks for positives during battle with cancer, coronavirus outbreak

Last year, Julie Shallis got the news nobody wants to hear: the diagnosis came back as cancer.

With things going as well as they can given the stage 2b, HER2 positive breast cancer, Shallis remained working and continued to be strong as a wife and mother of four. While COVID-19 has made things more difficult, she remains strong and focused on the positives in life.

"I was diagnosed in September with an aggressive form of breast cancer. They referred me out to Mercy in Baltimore," Shallis said. "I had six rounds of chemo there with a cocktail that was not fun. The side effects were a lot to deal with. As a mother of four, my goal was to protect them as much as possible while fighting on my own."

In the home stretch of recovering from a mastectomy and treatment, the coronavirus outbreak added another level of stress for Shallis and her family.

The virus outbreak added one wrench after another from being told not to continue working her job at the VA hospital to having to go into the hospital for treatment alone, a building already a little risky for her with a compromised immune system. Shallis continues treatment throughout the outbreak.

"Before, I could have someone sit with me during treatment," she said. "The whole overall feel of everything is different. Fighting cancer is daily. It's a constant struggle, and when you add coronavirus, it adds a whole level of worry. It makes you much more uneasy with a compromised immune system. You catch something like that, it can be deadly.

"I'm very thankful that when I had my initial treatments, I was not alone. Once it started and had to go in by myself, it was totally different. Sometimes having that extra support next to you makes a world of difference. It's new to everyone and scary to everyone, but when you add a compromised immune system, it adds to it."

Shallis' father still drives her for every trip to Baltimore and sits in the parking lot while he waits for his daughter to finish treatment.

"God bless him. That's not fun for him. We're talking hours," Shallis said. "Luckily, I haven't done it all alone. Those are the silver linings."

Still through every scary moment, eerie feeling and minute of uncertainty, Shallis has remained focused on her family and being dedicated to being the best mom and wife she can be.

"They say attitude is half the battle," she said, adding the goal from day one has been to fight and find the silver lining. "It's been interesting to say the least. Each time I finish is a step in the process."

Shallis has made friends throughout her treatment, realized it was time to slow down in life and appreciate the small things and spent more time with her family, always finding some sort of positive.

"Homeschooling is no fun, but we are able to spend time with family," she laughed.

Even just something as simple as looking at a photo from her daughter's birthday, a photoshoot that was supposed to be just for her but in which Shallis was able to slip in a family portrait given the circumstances, gives her a smile and a little happiness during everything.

"That's a picture of us along this road," she said. "My focus had been (from the start): I was going to fight and beat this. I was going to prove to myself and my kids that if you put your mind to something, you'll make it happen."

Shallis, though, had a good example of what it means to find strength during the battle — her mother being a cancer survivor herself.

"I watched her fight it twice," Shallis said. "With the support system I have, I remain strong."

It's a constant circle of Shallis finding strength in her family and them finding strength in the example she sets every day.

"To some degree, that does give me strength, knowing people can feed off that," she said.

Shallis' friend created a GoFundMe for Shallis and her family that has been immensely helpful for medical bills, something Shallis said she has been very grateful for. The GoFundMe page can be found at www.gofundme.com/f/help-julie-tackle-breast-cancer.

Article courtesy of The Journal Times written by Jessica Wilt; photo submitted