Welcome to Natalie's Caring Bridge Page. The world stopped spinning Saturday morning when after three and a half months of not feeling well she ended up in a hospital in Ohio while on vacation with Michael and Gianna when it was finally discovered what has been wrong with her. The diagnosis was shocking and impossible to believe to say the least. After being hospitalized all weekend in Ohio for a bowel obstruction, Michael got her back home safe and sound late last night. Thank God for Dr. Kurt Tauer and his wife who worked over the weekend with the team of physicians at the hospital in Ohio, and Natalie was able to get discharged late yesterday and was set up to see Dr. Todd Tillmanns this morning. At this time, we do not know if the cancer is ovarian cancer, fallopian cancer, or peritoneal cancer. It is believed she is stage 3, and it has spread from her ovaries to her liver to her small and large intestine and to the edge or tip of her spleen. Dr. Tillmanns is scheduling her for a biopsy as well as placing a porta cath. This should happen and be done within one week or less. Due to the fact that the cancer is advanced and has spread to the areas that it has spread, Dr. Tillmanns decided that she did not need to undergo surgery at this time and that chemotherapy would be the best route to start. Once she has the biopsy, and it is confirmed which type of cancer she has (he believes it will be ovarian) she will start chemotherapy immediately. She will begin chemotherapy within the next week and a half at the most. Hyperthermic chemotherapy is the chemotherapy she will be receiving. It is a relatively new chemotherapy that has been experimented with the past six months. She will receive three rounds of this chemotherapy with one round received every three weeks. It is estimated that 11 weeks or so will have passed by the time she gets the biopsy results and completes the three rounds of chemotherapy. At that time, Dr. Tillmanns will perform surgery to remove her female goods and whatever else he needs to get rid of because by damn that cancer will have shrunk. Natalie will win this fight. She has faith in God, and as we all know she is one hell of a strong woman and a fighter, and she will beat this. (Natalie will edit this and fix her story and get her page all fixed up this weekend. This was just to get it started and let everyone know updates. She read all the comments on facebook and is anxious to tell everyone how much she loves them and appreciates their prayers and sweet words - Andrea)
Natalie had her post surgery follow up visit with Dr. Tillmanns today. He and the other surgeon were able to get all the cancer off of her liver in surgery, but she still has cancer in her peritoneal area. He is going to start her back on chemotherapy this Friday. She will have the same chemo cocktails as she had last year. She will go every two weeks for chemotherapy. Please keep her in your prayers as she continues to battle and fight the cancer away! She is in good spirits and hasn't missed a beat since surgery :) We love you Sissy :)
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