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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2017
Crab season:
Cancer center: ‘They cry with you and
they, you know, help you with everything’ ‘So we’re still
doing crab, just not
from our own area’
Continued from Page 1A
Smith and her husband live
in Astoria and raise four chil-
dren ages 9 to 18 years old.
“My home life was in
shambles because I was never
home,” Smith said. “It was
really hard on my kids. They
would just cry and ask me,
‘Why are you leaving again?’”
In previous trips to the cen-
ter, she would need to drive her-
self so that her husband could
take care of the kids.
“That’s really not cool,
but I had no one to take care
of the kids for a week,” Mike
Smith said. “I’m sure it had to
be rough on her to be alone up
there.”
Because it is located in a
major city, the hospital attracts a
high volume of patients. “Expe-
rience comes with volume, so I
wanted to get her what was the
best treatment possible at the
time,” Mike Smith said.
But Smith was just one of
many people seeking treatment
there. On a given day, upward
of 100 people could be waiting
in the lobby for treatment.
“It’s a wonderful place, but
they don’t know who you are,”
Smith said. “You might get to
know one nurse.”
Tests revealed that the can-
cer had spread into her liver,
lungs, bones, sternum and the
lining of her peritoneum. Her
calcium levels were also dou-
ble what they should have been.
“It was just shocking,”
Smith said. “We were so
surprised.”
Smith returned to Astoria
two weeks later, but she still
felt sick for a few days. She
went to Columbia Memorial,
where people asked her if she
would be interested in seeking
treatment at a new facility that
was operating but not officially
opened.
Despite hearing about the
updated technology at the can-
cer center, Smith — recalling
previous advice from friends
and family — was leery.
‘They cry with you’
One day, Dr. Jennifer
Lycette, the medical director
of oncological services at the
new cancer center, walked into
Smith’s room.
After reading a pathology
report, Lycette told Smith that a
receptor in her body was mak-
ing the cancer grow at a more
rapid rate. She prescribed sev-
eral drugs to specifically target
the receptor.
The Smiths recognized
Lycette’s involvement as a turn-
ing point in Kari’s treatment.
“She is so knowledgeable
Continued from Page 1A
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Kari Smith shows where at the cancer center in Astoria patients can be fitted for wigs
and receive other supportive services.
Kari Smith stands in one of the main treatment areas of
the cancer center in Astoria which features a view of the
Columbia River and the Astoria Riverwalk.
that she doesn’t even need to be
here,” Mike Smith said. “Those
people who stay in a small
community like ours are a huge
blessing.”
Within a month, Smith was
feeling healthy again.
“It’s not perfect, but they’re
always on top of it,” she said.
Her life the past few months,
despite the occasional small
relapse, has been as stable as
it has been since her diagnosis,
she said. She now works one
day a week at Bridgeport Oral
Surgery in Warrenton as a sur-
gical assistant.
When she enters a treatment
phase, Smith will visit the can-
cer center for a few hours once
every week or two. If neces-
sary, she can also go to the cen-
ter for minor procedures.
While there, she makes use
of features such as a chemo-
therapy infusion room, which
includes lounge chairs that face
the Columbia River. She has
also enjoyed peering at X-rays
on a large television screen —
instead of a computer screen —
as well as a resource center that
includes a wide range of cus-
tomizable wigs.
Smith’s face beams when
she speaks about her inter-
actions with staff. The facili-
ty’s small size has allowed her
to develop relationships with
nearly everyone who works in
the building.
“They cry with you and
they, you know, help you with
everything,” Smith said. “It’s
just different. I’d never been
anywhere like that before.”
Smith usually goes to treat-
ment while her children are at
school, a drastic change from
the time commitments that her
therapy once required.
“Now they don’t even
realize I’m getting treatment
because they’re oblivious, I
guess,” Smith said about her
children with a laugh. “It’s kind
of nice that we’ve resumed a
normal type of life now.”
She still advises patients in
a similar situation to seek sec-
ond opinions, as she did. But
she also points to the cancer
center’s proximity to the coast
and support — especially for
women diagnosed before turn-
ing 40 years old — as reasons
to consider the new facility as a
viable treatment option.
After years of skepti-
cism and struggle, Smith has
squashed her fears of seeking
treatment close to home. The
horror stories she had always
heard about small-town cancer
treatment linger, but are no lon-
ger a blockade.
“We didn’t have treatment
like this then.” Smith said. “I
wouldn’t hesitate to recom-
mend it to them or encourage
them to come here.”
“Whatever’s better for
the commodity is best —
which is letting the crab
sit and grow,” said Crystal
Adams, of Hallmark Fisher-
ies in Charleston and a pro-
cessor representative on the
Oregon Dungeness Crab
Commission.
“It’s hard for the families
that work here and the fish-
ermen that fish on the crab
because they rely on that for
the holiday season,” she said.
“But to continue to have this
for years to come, it’s what-
ever’s good for industry.”
The company is process-
ing crab from California later
this week. After several years
of bad luck and curtailed sea-
sons, the Dungeness season
opened in California south
of the Sonoma-Mendocino
county line as scheduled on
Wednesday.
“So we’re still doing crab,
just not from our own area,”
Adams said.
Last season, commer-
cial crabbers landed more
than 20.4 million pounds of
crab into Oregon for an aver-
age price of $3.08 per pound.
The opener for that season
was also delayed, but saw
the highest ex-vessel value at
$62.7 million, according to
the Oregon Dungeness Crab
Commission.
Crab quality testing for
this season began in Novem-
ber, with Washington state
opting to do early testing in
October. Washington, Ore-
gon and California man-
age the Dungeness fisher-
ies together under a tri-state
agreement. Of the three,
Washington was the only
one to conduct optional early
tests.
While Washington fishery
managers reported a meat
rate recovery of 20 percent
off the Long Beach Penin-
sula, elsewhere some per-
PAST SEASON
Commercial crabbers
landed more than
20.4 million pounds of
crab into Oregon for an
average price of $3.08
per pound. The past
season’s opener was
also delayed.
centages were lower. Off the
Oregon Coast, meat recovery
percents were mostly under
23 percent, with 18 percent
in Astoria and Brookings.
Coos Bay came in with a 24
percent meat recovery.
All areas have to be at or
above 23 percent before the
season can open.
For Oregon fishermen,
the delay was not a surprise
given the test results, but now
there’s not much for many to
do except wait for the results
of the next round of tests and
Dec. 16 to arrive.
“There’s lots to do on the
boats, but right now we’re
done,” said Brian Boudreau,
a commercial crabber based
in Clatsop County. “We’re
pretty much done and ready
to go.”
Unsafe levels of the
marine toxin domoic acid
have shut down recreational
and commercial harvest of
crab in bays and estuaries,
beaches, docks, piers and jet-
ties from Cape Foulweather
to Tahkenitch Creek, and
from Coos Bay’s north jetty
to the California border.
Commercial harvest of
Dungeness in Oregon’s bays
that are still open will close
on Dec. 1, but will reopen
with the ocean commercial
fishery. Recreational harvest
of the crabs in the ocean will
open Dec. 1 as scheduled
where there are no health
advisories from the Ore-
gon Department of Agricul-
ture, according to the Ore-
gon Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
Forum: Student goals are
another metric of success
Continued from Page 1A
students. Nationally, about 70
percent of recent high school
graduates require at least one
remedial course, he said, and
only 7 percent of those stu-
dents who keep attending and
take remedial courses end up
reaching college-level courses.
Breitmeyer said putting
students in remedial courses
is like telling them they’re not
smart enough or going to fin-
ish. “It’s almost a self-fulfilling
prophecy.”
Community colleges are
starting to do away with devel-
opmental courses, instead
placing students into col-
lege-level courses, providing
extra support, allowing them
to sink or swim and letting
them know it’s OK to fail and
try again, he said.
The same strategy was
tried at St. Charles by placing
development English students
into college-level courses,
with strong results, he said. He
called for a similar growth-ori-
ented mindset locally.
“They’ve also got to figure
out what’s important to them,”
Breitmeyer said.
Goals are another metric of
success, he said, and colleges
need to do a better job of steer-
ing students into certain path-
ways so they have goals.
“That doesn’t mean you
can’t break out of that path-
way, but once you’ve got a
goal, you’re two to three times
more likely to continue and to
persist and to make it,” he said.
Breitmeyer said there is a
movement in the state and U.S.
toward such guided pathways.
“When you come into any
community college five years
from now, you’re going to
pick one of maybe five majors,
and that’s it,” he said. “That’s
going to be a very proscribed
course for you to take.”
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