Maria’s Story

Site created on March 1, 2021

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Hi! Alexis here (the fave child). A little late making this site, so let's start from the beginning. We go way back to May 2020, mom felt a slightly tender lump in her pelvis. She went to her lady doc-the ultrasound showed a cyst, nothing they were concerned about. Followed up a few months later-still no change in the ultrasound result. But it seemed to be a little worse. So she went to her PCP- she was told it was just musculoskeletal pain and it was nothing of concern. Mom still wanted an answer, so she went to her spine specialist who was a good enough doctor to order a CT and bone scan. While waiting for results,  she went to her cardiologist because her heart rate was consistently elevated and she was short of breath. Everything checked out with the ticker. The cardiologist said it is probably caused by an infection or something else going on in the body. I was getting anxious so i asked one of the surgeons to take a look at her CT for me. The report only read a benign ovarian tumor, but when he looked at the scan himself he was perplexed. This wonderfully nice man took it to the radiologist for a second look and they decided she had a sketchy mass in a weird place in her abdominal fascia as well as some enlarged lymph nodes. He took her in for a biopsy the next week. This went from "nothing" to cancer real quick. Adenocarcinoma to be exact. 
The moral of this long story is to please advocate for yourself-because the medical system is flawed in so many ways and if you dont push for yourself, they might miss a nothing that is a big something.
We needed to get more scans to see where else this little ass hole tumor may have spread to, after a lot of insurance bumps in the road and a trip the ER-we finally got those scans. The ass hole cancer had spread to the lungs and liver. We are not sure where it started, definitely somewhere in the lady parts. The oncologist told us that we can slow it down, but it has spread too far and it is not likely that there is a cure. Mom started chemo in November. It makes her feel much better, minus some of the pesky side effects like nausea, and her new hair style. The latest PET scan shows that all of her lung nodules have disappeared!  She is currently being treated at the James Cancer center at OSU, and they are doing an amazing job. I will keep this site updated as we go along. Thanks for checking in!!

Newest Update

December 08, 2021

Journal entry by alexis hopper —

Happy winter y'all. Mom had another CT scan done this week to check and see how everything is responding to treatment. Drum roll please..... it's doing SO good. Like her tumors and lymphnodes finally decided to run away and hide somewhere because most have just been vanishing this past month. The bone and pelvic lesions are much smaller and the huge lymphnodes in her chest area seem to be gone :) luckily its the weekly treament with annoying side affects that is working so well and she gets to continue...ha. 

Besides her cute new hair style falling out again, her fingertips feeling like they might fall off, and her leg that is almost as big as she is...she's doing well! She has been extra cold lately, but hopefully her blood transfusion today will help. Send her warm hugs ! 
Read More of the journal titled "December 08, 2021"
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