Pat Rudolph

Welcome to Pat's CaringBridge website. We are now using this site to keep family and friends updated in one place. Please look for the most
recent updates here. We appreciate your continued love, support, and words of hope and encouragement! Thank you for visiting.

On July 7th, 2016 mom was hospitalized after experiencing dizziness, balance issues, and severe headaches, which began to interfere with her ability to function. The doctors discovered a brain tumor and swelling which was causing these symptoms. They have determined that after 12 years mom's breast cancer has come back, resurfacing in her brain. On July 11th, 2016 she underwent surgery to remove the tumor, but unfortunately they were not able to remove all of it.  She has experienced some short term memory and balance issues, as well as battled with nausea and vomiting since her surgery. Mom was hospitalized until July 15th when she was transferred to a rehabilitation unit at St. Therese of New Hope.

The plan going forward was to get her stronger through her therapies at St. Therese and start her radiation treatment. We met with the radiation oncologist in order to get her treatments set up. We were thankful that she was able to receive a special type of radiation that allowed her to
need only 5 high-dose treatments.  Mom continued to work on her therapies over the next few weeks to get herself stronger and independent enough to go home and was discharged from St.Therese. 

August 12th, 2016 marked the last day of radiation treatment. She pushed through her radiation treatments like a trooper, despite how tired and very weak it made her feel. Nausea and vomiting still continues to be a struggle for her, even more so since the radiation treatments. She encountered a setback on that last day of radiation, and was hospitalized again for uncontrollable abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. She spent the weekend in the hospital trying to get things under control. She was discharged Sunday August 14th, 2016 in the evening and seemed to be doing better at that time.

Things started to progress in the opposite direction shortly after and mom was readmitted to the hospital again Tuesday, August 16th, 2016 for uncontrollable nausea and vomiting with abdominal pain. We are now working with palliative care to help use some alternatives with medications to help get a better handle on this, and get mom feeling a little better!

As of Friday August 19th, 2016 she is still hospitalized. Mom is finally starting to keep some food down! She is slowly making progress and continues to try to stay positive and push through.