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Jarboe Strong
In July of last year, Steele native Adam "A.J." Jarboe was diagnosed with a grade 3 malignant brain tumor. Now one year later, Jarboe is now well on his way back to his former self. He said it's the support of his friends and family that have kept him "Jarboe Strong".
A 2004 graduate of South Pemiscot High School in Steele, Jarboe joined the United States Navy in May of 2007. Serving as a U.S. Navy Hospital Foreman, a position similar to a paramedic, he was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina when a typical day at work changed his life forever. leading him to learn he had a grade-three anaplastic astrocytoma--a malignant brain tumor.
On July 3 of last year a Marine came into Jarboe's office to get his blood pressure checked. When he stood up, Jarboe said he took two steps and was hit with a sudden dizziness and hot flashes. He quickly realized he needed to sit down, but as he turned to head back to his desk Jarboe said his whole body shutdown and he collapsed.
"It hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn't know it was coming and it just hit all at once and it hit hard," he said. "I turned to go sit down and when I went to lift my right leg it was like my whole body shutdown and down I went."
Although he never lost consciousness conscious through the ordeal, Jarboe said while he was lying on the floor his body seemed to be paralyzed, unable to move. After lying on the floor for a few moments Jarboe said a fellow Hospital Foreman, who was also a close friend, found him on the floor and helped him up into a chair. Within a few short minutes Jarboe began to regain control of his motor functions, and once he was back on his feet Jarboe was taken to the Camp Lejeune hospital emergency room as a precaution. Jarboe said at this time he felt fine, but knew he still needed to be checked out.
"At this point I was fine--I felt fine. So I walked in and checked in there," Jarboe said. "I told them I'd had a pre-syncope episode, which means I was almost at the point of passing out, so they took me right back and started running vitals and talked to me about what was going on and what had happened."
During this time Jarboe said he was still calm, and didn't think the incident would amount to anything except perhaps a bad reaction to some pre-workout supplements he had been taking regularly.
"I was staying pretty calm because I didn't think it was anything. To be honest I just thought it was because I taking pre-workout (supplements) because me and my buddies, a couple of Marines there, we'd go out and they had a small gym out there and workout," he said. "So I just honestly thought it was the pre-workout that I was taking that was giving me issues and they were going to tell me to stop taking it and that's pretty much it."
Jarboe was put through the full gamut of tests including a full cardiac workup, regular blood sugar tests, a chest x-ray and finally a CT scan. It was the last of these that revealed a large, unidentified mass in Jarboe's brain which doctors said was either a parasite or a mass. He was then sent to the Duke University Medical Center for further testing, which determined that he had a potato sized brain tumor. Although he had been calm before, Jarboe admitted that he began to get a little nervous when he heard the news.
"As soon as he told me one or the other, parasite or a mass, I started getting kind of anxious. I started shaking a little bit and not really believing it at first," he said.
On July 10, seven days after the initial episode that lead to doctors finding Jarboe's tumor, he successfully underwent surgery to remove the mass. Five days later Jarboe and his family got the news that the tumor had in fact been malignant. Even though he had only known about the mass for a short time, Jarboe said it was already becoming a life changer for him and his wife, Mandy Jarboe, and their then 18-month old daughter, Reese.
A week to the day after his surgery, Jarboe met with his oncology team to discuss what his future would hold. Doctors ordered six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy followed by 12 months oral chemotherapy doses, which he will continue to take once a month until his doctors give hime the all clear, hopefully in October.
After the surgery people from across the country began to rally around Jarboe and his family to show their support, and the rally got its biggest boost from a fellow Hospital Foreman and long-time friend who paid tribute to Jarboe in a unique way.
"It all kind of started when my buddy Matt came to see me after the surgery. He was a volunteer fire fighter at the time--still is--but he had on his helmet "Jarboe Strong". So when he showed me the picture I sent it to my mother because I knew that she would love that," Jarboe said. "And then it kind of just went that way. My mom sent me a text message and said she had talked to a co-worker there and said they wanted to make "Jarboe Strong" bracelets and maybe sell them for a couple of bucks and donate the money to cancer research. I figured why not, and it ended up doing really well. I honestly didn't think it would go as far as it did but it did."
Jarboe's mom, Jeanna Oxford, who works at the Mississippi County Courth House in Blytheville, said she sent out at least 1,000 bracelets all over the country with the help of Jarboe's wife Mandy and his dad Tony Jarboe.
Jarboe said the support he's received has been very uplifting for him, adding he and his family were honored by the overwhelming support they received, due in large part to the Jarboe Strong campaign.
"When you don't here from people for years and then you have an illness like this happen...it's just nice that people want to show there support, show that they're behind you," he said. "And it's been really appreciated of course by me and my wife and my mother and dad, and even my wife's parents, they're behind me 100% and they appreciate the support people are showing me and us. I'm so thankful for that. I really didn't know I had that much support behind me and then to find out that I have all of this support from so many people, I'm just really grateful."
Over the last 12 months the grey bracelets that read "#JarboeStrong" seemed to pop up all over the internet as people started making sure Jarboe knew he had their support by sending in pictures of themselves wearing the bracelets as well as leaving a comment on a page that had been set up for the family.
"It's also been really cool. You know, to see the pictures people post with the bracelets and they tag me and everyone else or they send me a picture--I never asked for any of this, it just kind of happened," Jarboe said.
Although still taking oral chemo doses Jarboe is currently back at work and working back to his former self with great success, jokingly adding that the only thing he has lost is his hair.
"Chemo kills cells, bad one and good ones. It just happened that the good ones it killed were my hair. But that's all just a part of it," he said.
Even with all of the support, Jarboe said one of the biggest goals over the last year has been trying not to let the cancer have a negative impact on his life or keep him too distracted to enjoy what's around him--his family.
"I don't really think about it that much unless I'm meeting with my oncologist and we'll sit down and talk about it and he'll give me the exam--of course I always pass with flying colors. He told me I'm his best patient and I want it to continue to be that way," Jarboe said. "I don't want to have to lay up in a bed all day and have me wife feed me or bathe me or clothe me. I have almost a three-year-old daughter and I want to be there for her. I want to see her graduate high school, graduate college, get married, I want to see myself become a grandfather. These are the things I want to live for. It's not so much about me but about them, my family."
Jarboe is now stationed in Ft. Smith, Va., with his family. He will finish up his chemo in October, and will, if all goes well, get the official word in November that he's one year cancer free. As that one year mark approaches Jarboe has a little advice for anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation.
"You've just got to take a day and run with it. You can't get too caught up with the next day or the next day after that. Make sure you're living today and living it memorably, because you never know when your card's up."