Pam Petrie
Pam's story, in her own words:
In September of 2009, I suddenly lost control of my bladder. My family doctor treated me for a bladder infection. When it wasn't that, he thought I had kidney stones. When it wasn't that, I was told to see a urologist. The urologist stuck a probe in my bladder and said it looked fine. He told me I just had an overactive bladder and then put me on a medication. I called and told him the problem wasn't going away, so he gave me a different medication with a stronger dose. I only took it for a couple of days and decided there was something else wrong.
I then went to see a gynecologist. I had an ultrasound done which showed that there was a mass in my fallopian tube. I had surgery on December 28, 2009, and they removed the one fallopian tube with the tumor. On January 5, 2010, I was diagnosed with fallopian tube cancer. I had a second surgery on February 9, 2010, and had a complete hysterectomy and seven lymph nodes removed. Four of them had cancer.
I had two ports put in for chemotherapy. One port took the chemo to the bloodstream and the other port was attached to my lower rib cage. That port took the chemo directly into my abdomen area. I had six treatments in my abdomen area every three weeks. I received chemo in my bloodstream once a week for five months. I was told I would lose my hair in 14 to 21 days. 17 days into treatment, I had my head shaved. After that, I took a chemo drug for one more year, called Avastin, which was given every three weeks.
What I didn't expect was how well I would handle the chemo. I never got sick or nauseated. I gained weight instead of losing it and food always tasted good. My oncologist told me because I was healthy before all this started, it helped me get through it. I stayed positive through it all, too. I really think that was the key to my success story. It has been three years and I am doing great. Family and friends helped Dave and I get through it.
My words of motivation to you are, "Keep it up!" This is a great thing you are doing. When I was going through chemo, insurance sent me a letter that they were not going to pay for the Avastin. What Avastin does is kill the oxygen in cancer cells. They said it wasn't approved to cure my type of cancer. The cost of this drug was $16,200 for each treatment. I was supposed to take this for 17 months, every 3 weeks. When I told my oncologist about the letter I received, he told me not to lose any sleep over it. "Insurance might not be paying now, but they will pay," he said. Then, in June of 2010, a study came out on how doctors were successfully treating ovarian and fallopian tube cancer and it included using the Avastin. By September of that year, insurance finally settled and paid for the drug.
I am so very grateful for all the money that gets raised for research. That is why the Relay for Life is so important to me. It is my way in giving back.
I feel like I have been given a second chance at living a long life.
Pam chose Mile 3 because it has been 3 years since she's been diagnosed.
Make a donation in honor of Pam and others still fighting, those we have lost, and those who may one day be spared this fight because of what we‘re doing.
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