November 19th, 2021
A few weeks ago, Maria began experiencing severe pain in her abdomen. It was affecting her ability to eat and sleep, so she scheduled several tests with her doctor (endoscopy, CT scan, etc.). One of the tests showed a mass on her pancreas and lesions on her liver, so they immediately sent her to an oncologist. Last Friday (November 12), they biopsied her liver, and although we were told to wait until November 22 to get results back, they came back yesterday.
The cancer (adenocarcinoma) is aggressive and has most likely spread to the liver and the colon. Pancreatic cancer is a little different from other cancers; by the time it makes itself known (with abdominal pain), it is already too late—usually metastasized and inoperable. It cannot be cured. The best we can hope for is that treatment will cause it to go into remission and buy us a little more time together.
Maria begins chemotherapy on Monday. The doctors will be looking to see whether the cancer is responding to the treatment over the next few months. We anticipate a very difficult and exhausting year ahead for everyone.
We're not yet sure how folks can help or what we'll need. We're all very new to this experience. Right now, you can:
- Tell Maria how much you love her
- Send words of encouragement and strength
- Pray
- If you've dealt with cancer or grief before, suggest any resources that helped you through it
Please do not ask for specific medial information (we're still sorting through it) or offer any diet or treatment options (we have a care team for that).
Thank you so much for your love and support. We'll be updating this page regularly.