When It Rains, It Pours

Hello, it's Pam's daughter, Caitlin! Well, it's been about 6 months since my mom's updated this blog, mainly because there hadn't been much news to report. Unfortunately, life is taking us on yet another adventure, so I'm here to update my mom's blog and keep you all informed while she's out of commission. You have all been so amazing to me and my family the past year during our difficult time and for that we are so grateful! We are truly blessed to have such a LARGE and wonderful support system! So here's the update....

For those who don't know, my mom had been complaining of discomfort in her stomach for the past few weeks. Then, about two weeks ago her stomach became very tough, and within a short period of time it looked like she was 9 months pregnant! She went to her doctor and they found a fluid buildup in her stomach, so they drained 4 liters of fluid out and she instantly felt MUCH better! A week later it was back to a large size with a great amount of discomfort, so they drained it again, this time taking 4.2 liters.

After the second time her doctors were growing very curious as to where the buildup was coming from so they admitted her into the hospital last Thursday (July 1st) and all her different doctors began to run tests to find the cause. Sunday rolled around and they still had no answers so they scheduled an exploratory surgery for Sunday afternoon at 4. The surgery went well and they finished about 8, but unfortunately they found ovarian cancer. They went ahead and performed a histerectomy and removed both ovaries, along with her uterus, and tubes (her response when she found this out was "shit, I wanted more kids!"....typical sarcastic Pam!). I'm happy to report that she is on LOTS of meds right now (proof that they're working- she informed me yesterday that Oprah bought her a new car, and she thought her night nurse was a bird), and her pain is minimal most days. But obviously, she was not pleased to wake up Monday morning to the news that she has yet ANOTHER cancer!

There is still a lot of uncertainty that even the doctors are confused by . . . she just finished 6 months of chemo in March, and she had a CLEAR PETscan in April ("no signs of any recurrent cancer" is what we were told). So her main surgeon, Dr. Roberts, whom we adore, still isn't sure how this is possible but hopes that questions will be answered once we get the pathology report back, which will hopefully be this afternoon.

I got home from the hospital late last night and she is doing well. As a result of the chemo she is quite anemic (she had a blood transfusion back in May), and they gave her another blood transfusion yesterday which will help. The main question now is whether this is from her original colon cancer that has now spread to the ovaries, or whether it's a new primary form of ovarian cancer. Dr. Roberts is fairly certain that it is a new cancer (the ideal situation out of the two), but we won't know for sure until the pathology report comes back.

That's really all there is to update now. Please keep her and my family in your prayers (especially my dad!) and pray for the best case scenario! We are so grateful to have such amazing friends and family and such a LARGE support system! Thank you all so much for everything! I'll keep you updated!

Love,
Caitlin