A longtime Arroyo Grande woman who has faced an endless succession of personal tragedies and health problems for the last 16 years is now battling a new disease and facing a new round of escalating medical bills.

But throughout it all, Carrie Stark has never lost her positive attitude nor her faith. Discussing her latest medical crisis, she is as cheery as an elf.

You’d never know she has suffered two forms of cancer, undergone eight surgeries that included having an ovary and her spleen removed, gone bald from chemotherapy, had a bone marrow transplant, lost twin infant girls, gotten divorced, paid thousands upon thousands of dollars for medical care and is now facing an uncertain job future.

“I think what gets me through is my Christian faith and my family,” Stark said recently from City of Hope in Duarte after spending just over an hour getting her daily intravenous infusion of medication. “That’s what keeps me going.

“I’ve been through eight surgeries and losing the twins, and my family has been there every step of the way.”

The Starks — parents Don and Ruby, Carrie and sister Kathleen — have been Arroyo Grande residents for 30 years. Both girls graduated from Arroyo Grande High School — Carrie in 1978, Kathleen in 1980.

Carrie subsequently went to work for Mid-State Bank & Trust, now Rabobank, in San Luis Obispo and has been at the same branch on Santa Rosa Street for 24 years.

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Trouble begins

Sixteen years ago, at age 31, Stark was diagnosed with polycythemia vera, an incurable disorder that most frequently afflicts men and rarely strikes those under age 40.

Polycythemia vera is a condition where the bone marrow produces too many blood cells — usually red cells — and platelets, she said.

The resulting increased blood thickness and clotting can cause breathing difficulty, dizziness, headache, itchiness, a red coloration of the face, shortness of breath and symptoms of phlebitis — the inflammation of a vein.

Other symptoms include bluish skin, fatigue, red spots on the skin and vision problems. It also results in a person having too much blood, which requires draining off blood to reduce the volume.

“My case is kind of weird,” Stark said, referring to her high platelet count.

Her mother explained, “Normally, the count is about 400. Hers is sometimes 1,800,000.”

Although there is no cure, polycythemia vera can be treated with chemotherapy. But those who contract the disease usually die within 15 years. Stark has made it a year longer.

During that time, she got married and pregnant with twin girls. When complications developed, she was forced to deliver the girls early. One died 10 days after birth, the other five days later.

Her illness and the loss of the girls was too much for her marriage, and it ended in divorce.

“It was devastating for her,” her mother said.

Stark later went back into the hospital for a simple surgery that should have resulted in a three-day stay. Instead, she was there a month, was released and went back a week later.

“She almost died,” her mother said. “They had 50-some doctors on her case. ... Nobody really knew what to do, and she had some really good doctors.”

Surgeons eventually removed her spleen, which stores blood platelets, because it had grown to 12 pounds — normal spleens weigh about a pound — and was starting to affect her other organs.

With no place to store the excess platelets her bone marrow was producing, her condition worsened.

New problem

As sometimes happens with polycythemia vera, Stark developed leukemia — a condition where the bone marrow produces too many white blood cells, which are frequently immature or dysfunctional at fighting disease.

She was diagnosed last year, and doctors told her the only option was a bone marrow transplant. They said her condition could deteriorate — in two weeks, two months or two years — possibly to the point where a transplant would be too risky, Stark said.

It took about a month to find a donor. Her sister was not a match, but the bone marrow registry found a perfect match — 10 out of 10 genetic markers, Stark said.

“He’s a 27-year-old and he’s from Europe,” she said. “That’s all we know about him.”

Stark underwent the transplant procedure Thanksgiving Day at City of Hope. She was released from the hospital Christmas Eve and now stays in a travel trailer with her parents on the hospital grounds, where she expects to stay for three months.

She takes walks every day and enjoys being able to eat real food, rather than the warm broth and Cream of Wheat that were her only staples before the procedure.

“It feels great to be out of the hospital and in the fresh air,” Stark said. “I’m now eating kind of like normal, now that I’m back with Mom’s good home cooking.”

Her reaction to the transplant and barrage of drugs and chemotherapy has been better than expected, her mother said.

“We’re just thrilled to death,” she said. “The doctors told us all these horror stories. Thank God she didn’t have to go through all of them. ... She’s still not out of the woods. We’re trying to think positive and hope she’ll continue to do well.”

Stark credits much of her ability to survive and recover to her attitude, her faith and her family.

“She’s just had a lot of hard-luck things,” said her mother. “The thing is, she’s so good about it. This thing in the hospital, she never complained at all.”

Although constantly beset by adversity, Stark said she’s never thought about giving up.

“I wonder ‘why me,’ because I’ve been through so much,” she said. “So many people seem to skate through life, have kids and have no problem at all. So I wonder ‘why me’ sometimes.

“But I’ve never, ever felt like giving up. I know God has a plan for me. He’s not going to take me through all this to leave me hanging out there.”

Associate editor Mike Hodgson can be reached at 925-2691, Ext. 2221 or mhodgson@santamariatimes.com.