Tumor leaves woman with passion, purpose

On May 22, North Side resident Joan Ambriz will celebrate life while walking in the second annual Joggin for the Noggin walk/run along the Centennial Trail. The walk, which had 130 participants in 2009 and is her brainchild, is a testament to her triumph over a brain tumor.

Less than two years ago, in October 2008, Ambriz was tired of constant headaches and unsettled by numbness in her fingertips. She’d started waking up with neck pain so severe she had difficulty moving her head. Hopeful it would be something simple like a pinched nerve, she went to the doctor. But they discovered something far worse. The 42-year-old mother of three had a golf-ball-size mass on her brainstem.

“My reaction was, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die’ ” said Ambriz. “I was devastated. Your whole world stops.”

With surgery scheduled in Seattle three weeks later, Ambriz first cried with her family. Then she focused on living. “I tried to enjoy life in the moment. I was blessed to be given the opportunity to say goodbye to everybody I loved. Everyone in my life knows where they stand with me.”

Recalling the heightened emotion of that time still brought tears as Ambriz described how friends delivered meals every night and family traveled from Australia, Alaska, California, and Indiana to hold vigil during the 16-hour surgery. “There were 30 people in the waiting room the whole time and a prayer vigil every hour at Assumption Parish. I do believe that’s how I got through.”

When it was finally over, Ambriz began healing while counting her blessings. Not only was the tumor benign but she had no lasting impact or neurological damage from the risky surgery. She was discharged after four days and went back to work in January 2009, less than three months later.

That’s when the energetic woman began looking for a way to give back. She wanted to help other families face what she’d been through and raise money to fund research. After learning there wasn’t an existing local event or organization, she and her family planned Joggin for the Noggin. The benefit walk, only seven months after her surgery, raised more than $8,000 for the American Brain Tumor Association.

“The day of the event, it brought tears to my eyes to see what we had done,” she said.

This year Ambriz has a planning committee and hopes to crush that amount and educate the public, since May is Brain Tumor Awareness Month. With sponsors funding the event, she said 100 percent of proceeds go to the American Brain Tumor Association.

“I was so overwhelmed by how well I did,” she said, explaining that she needed a way to channel her gratitude and relief. Along with spearheading the walk and fundraising campaign, she serves as a mentor to other people diagnosed with brain tumors.

“Joan is very vibrant person,” said Liza Carlson, a registered nurse at Spokane Brain and Spine. “She has a dynamic personality and is very well put together and outspoken and eloquent. She is always available and willing to speak to people who have been newly diagnosed.”

Carlson said it is inspiring to see how hard Ambriz works to educate others about brain tumors, “to let people know there is help and support in the community, and just because you’ve been diagnosed with a brain tumor, that doesn’t mean it is going to kill you. You can go on living.” She added that Ambriz is proof that “one person can make a difference.”

Getting a brain tumor, said Ambriz, forever changed her life and perspective, and she wants to use that to help others. “My goal is to give hope. It taught me a lot. It’s given me a new outlook on life. I don’t know that I’ll ever get over that. I hope I don’t.”