Island keeps arms around its own

Published 3:46 pm Friday, August 7, 2009

Last winter was rough for Katsuko Kimura and her family; her kids were sick a lot. So in early April when Kimura became aware that she herself wasn’t feeling great, she assumed she’d picked something up from them, or that her stomach was just off.

“Being a mother, I didn’t really want to go to the doctor,” Kimura said.

When the busy mom finally made an appointment, a series of tests ensued that was uncomfortable and time-consuming, including an ultrasound, an endoscopy and a biopsy, all of which revealed nothing. Another doctor said her swollen abdomen could be an indication of a virus, but that test, too, was a negative. That led to a PET scan, a laparoscopy and a colonoscopy.

“Just in the course of one week, I lost five pounds,” Kimura said.

Finally came a diagnosis of gastric cancer along with the news that the tumor was too large to operate on without the risk of not removing it completely. Kimura would need to undergo chemotherapy to try to shrink it, with the hope of operating in the fall.

Kimura and her husband, Mark Haley, hadn’t been on the island for long, although Haley had lived here briefly in the early 2000s. When they moved here, Kimura was pregnant with their second child, Akira, now 3; their daughter, Margaret, was a toddler. The family didn’t really feel that it had put down roots; when the diagnosis came, they’d actually made plans to move back to Australia, where they met.

“So here’s this family, thinking about their kids and school, and the promise of the future…and all of a sudden, you’re facing an incredible emotional and physical challenge,” said Orlando Boleda, Arms Around Bainbridge board member.

Arms Around Bainbridge, which will hold its third annual swim benefit next weekend, began when a group of buddies, among them Boleda, Paul Webber and Pete Saloutos, decided that their enjoyment of regular Puget Sound swims could be turned into something good for the community. An around-the-island relay was born, with proceeds going to an islander in the midst of a medical emergency who could benefit from financial assistance.

Past recipients included Olivia Carey and Kristi Rudolph; this year, Boleda and Webber said, Kimura’s story struck them.

“Our goal is humble,” Boleda said. “It’s how can we make a small difference in the life of a family.”

Kimura began chemotherapy on June 10. In addition to on-site sessions every two weeks, she wears a heat-sensitive unit 24 hours a day that releases medication according to her body temperature.

One of the family’s main challenges so far has been making sure that Margaret and Akira are well cared for during Kimura’s treatment; with Haley working full-time across the water in the Nordstrom IT department, he can’t come home at the drop of a hat. In addition, Kimura’s chemo schedule isn’t always predictable, since her white blood cell count has to be high enough to have the shots administered. Following each Seattle session, she’s usually ill for two days.

Summer break has worked in their favor. Kimura’s parents offered to have Margaret for the summer in Japan. Coincidentally, a friend from Bainbridge was making a visit to Japan with her own family and offered to escort Margaret. But Akira is in full-on toddler mode, running, climbing, and occasionally inhaling foreign objects. Kimura said that until they enrolled him at Building Blocks child care center, friends and acquaintances offered to take him for a few hours a day.

This astounded Kimura, as did the news that she was this year’s Arms recipient, largely because it’s taken her a long time to get to know other families on the island. The people were here, she said, but running around with the kids didn’t afford much time to reach out.

“I just couldn’t believe how generous the community was. We are so amazed,” she said. “My friend in Australia said, ‘You are so lucky to be sick on this island!’ And I said, “Yes, I think so too.’”

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Arms Around Bainbridge takes place Aug. 15, with a kick-off party at 6 p.m. Aug. 14 at Edna’s Beach Cafe. Participants and donations welcome; see www.armsaroundbainbridge.com.