Kathy Quam

Welcome  to my mom's CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
Mom first noticed she wasn't feeling well back in March/April.  She suffered from increased heart burn and upper abdominal discomfort.  At that time, she underwent an abdominal MRI, which revealed a cyst on her pancreas.  Because it was noted to be a cyst, her doctor wanted  to monitor it and re-scan in two months.  In July, mom had a CT of her abdomen thus showing the cyst on her pancreas.  There were no changes, but just to make sure,  mom's doctor wanted her to have an upper endoscopy and EUS.  Mom had this exam on Friday August 4th.  The MD surprised us with his report stating he didn't find a cyst, but a mass on the tail of her pancreas with some cystic material.  The MD told us it didn't look good, but we needed to wait for the final biopsy results.  On Monday August 7th, we received the heart wrenching news that the biopsy was positive for cancer on her pancreas.  This was such a shock and disbelief to our family.  We remained strong and knew we needed to make appointments asap with an oncologist and pancreas surgeon.  On Friday August 11th, we met with an oncologist at MN Oncology.  He believes we caught mom's cancer early and that surgery would be an option.  On Monday August 14th, we met with the pancreas surgeon at Abbott Hospital.  He agreed with the oncologist in that he feels we caught the cancer early and mom would be a great candidate for surgery.   A few labs needed to be collected and he wanted to get one more scan of her abdomen to make sure all is clear, along with a chest CT.  We received promising news that both of mom's scans were completely clear, however one of her blood tests was concerning.  Her tumor marker was elevated to a level the surgeon did not feel comfortable with performing surgery.   Because of this, both the oncologist and surgeon feel there are microscopic cells the imaging did not see.  The best option is to move forward with chemotherapy and then surgery in a couple of months.  We all realize this is just a small bump in the road, and have full faith in my mom's providers that she will receive the best care needed.  
Please keep all of your prayers coming, mom is one of the strongest women I know and she will beat this!