Great Community

“Cancer not only affects the patient but everyone around him. It’s something that can consume and isolate you and your family if there is no support. As long as it’s in my power to help and the disease exists, Great Community will do everything in its power to help”
-Omar Carranza, Founder Great Community
Omar Carranza is a proud father and husband. He enlisted in the US Navy back in 2003 and was stationed in Lemoore, CA where he became an Aviation Storekeeper, Petty Officer attached to an amazing F-18 Strike Fighter Squadron, VFA One Four Seven Argonauts. He proudly served his country making several detachments and two amazing tours to the gulf while aboard the Air Craft carriers USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and USS Stennis (CVN-74). While attached to VFA-147, Omar was away from his family up to eight and nine months at a time.
Regardless of the sacrifices Omar always served his country proudly. In July of 2006, before leaving on a two month detachment to Fallon, NV Omar and his family were given the worse news they could have ever imagined. Omar was diagnosed with second stage cancer and needed treatment right away. During this time, Tana (Omar’s wife) quit her full time job, got everything in order and started packing their house.
Omar and his family were sent to Balboa Naval Medical Center San Diego to have the tumor removed. After the biopsy and confirmation that the tumor was indeed cancerous, Omar was scheduled to see an oncologist to schedule his immediate chemotherapy.
Omar was told he would need a minimum of three intense chemo cycles. This was by far the hardest thing for the family to deal with, between the sleepless nights, keeping everything completely germ free (including food) lack of appetite, stomach sickness, and not being able to be in public, they were secluded in the home most the time. These three months took a huge tool not only on Omar but his whole family.
After the chemo cycles were done another CT scan was performed and an additional tumor was found in his abdomen, it was resistant to the chemo and had actually increased significantly in size and was attached to the renal artery next to his kidney. Omar’s doctors were concerned and were contemplating salvage chemo which is administered daily while being admitted to the hospital for the entire treatment. After consulting with the same specialist that helped Lance Armstrong it was decided that the best option would be to dissect all the lymph nodes in his abdomen as well as remove the cancer resistant tumor. One major concern was how the tumor was attached to the renal artery and that they would have to cut into the artery and possibly remove the kidney. The decision was finally made to proceed with an RPLND (Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Dissection). The surgery took place on January 10th, 2007 and lasted over 8 hours. The doctors were able to dissect all 39 lymph nods and called it a complete success with minimal complications, which was a huge relief to the Carranza family in the waiting room.
After being released from the hospital two weeks later and returning to the E.R a couple of times due to complications Omar is finally on his way to recovery and .. watch every three months.
During his time in and out of the hospital and recovery time, Omar and his family became very close to other families in the hospital. Some lost their loved ones and struggled emotionally, while others sat in their rooms by themselves because family and friends were too far away to visit. Most struggled financially because if the active duty military member or child was the one diagnosed the spouse had to quit his/her job to become the full-time caregiver. This is something the Carranza family experienced first hand and wondered as they watched the other families struggle how this could be avoided if their was only a little bit of support from somewhere.
Omar and his family tried to help as much as they could even while in the hospital. It’s amazing the difference they could make just donating a little bit of their time and caring for the well being of others. This is how Great Community was born. Omar and his wife decided that they would be able to help various families throughout the year, and make a difference in the lives of those diagnosed. The vision started as helping maybe 5 to 10 families a year as long as their finances allowed. After a couple of months they knew this was not the case and that there was a great need within the Military and San Diego community.
In 2007, Great Community was officially born and was able to directly affect over 35 families, feed over 12 families during the holidays and donate over 200 unopened toys to kids diagnosed and their siblings. (100 Toys just during the holiday season) Omar made the decision to pull money out of his retirement fund and start Great Community. Since the day cancer became a part of Omar’s life he has vowed to help all those around him and not let any of them struggle alone.