Dawn's Fight Against Pancreatic Cancer

I am starting this GoFundMe for my daughter, Dawn Kleinjan.

Those that know her know she battled breast cancer 5 years ago. At that time, she was found to be positive for the BRCA2 gene.

In November, she started having problems with her GI system. Lots of vomiting, even vomiting some blood. Her trip to the ED revealed an ulcer and a narrowing in her duodenum. She was diagnosed with celiac and told to change her diet, no gluten.

A week later, she had severe vomiting and had to call an ambulance as she was light-headed and had muscle cramping.

At the hospital, that narrowing became a stricture. So she had an NG tube placed, which brought relief.

The hospital situation was very frustrating as no one was giving her answers. Then, after yet another biopsy of the stricture, they decided surgery was probably best, but she had to go to a different hospital. She waited 3 days to be transferred to that hospital!

Now at the main Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where she lives, she was again on a holding pattern. They decided to do another biopsy with endoscopy of the stricture. This was her 5th in 2 months!

After the biopsy, we waited for the results, which took 3-4 days.

On day 4, the surgeon informed us that the biopsy was positive for cancer. So now they had to do a CT scan to assess for other lesions. It's common for intestinal cancer to spread to the lung and liver. If the CT scan showed other lesions, then she would have surgery to just bypass the stricture and be made comfortable.

The surgeon stated they would do the surgery the next day regardless. In the morning, the surgeon stated the CT was negative; therefore, he was going to do a Whipple procedure.

A Whipple procedure removes the head of the pancreas, bile duct, gallbladder, duodenum, and in her case, the posterior portion of her stomach.

Well, it was a very long haul for Dawn. She was in the recovery room longer than normal as she was tachycardic. She had an insulin drip, PICC line, NG tube, drain, oxygen, TPN, and Foley catheter all when she came out of surgery.

Then the severe pain started; she had pancreatitis, that along with nausea. This lasted way too long!

Finally, she started making a turn for the better. The pain started to reduce, and the nausea was not as severe. Tubes were slowly removed, such as her Foley, then oxygen. Oh, I forgot that her NG was replaced with an NJ tube during one of her many procedures after surgery.

When the stain results came back from her biopsy, it was determined that it is pancreatic cancer and not duodenal. People who are BRCA2 positive are at increased risk for pancreatic cancer.

I'm sure it was her sister visiting, giving her comic relief that helped improve her mental and physical health! She had her PICC line removed as instead of TPN, she was getting an NJ feeding.

Dawn was dismissed from the hospital exactly 5 weeks from admit! Yes, 5 weeks!

She is now home, and family is taking turns helping her during recovery.

This week, Dawn gets a central line so she can start chemotherapy. She will get chemo every 2 weeks; the infusion lasts 6 hours, and of course, there are many side effects associated with it.

Please help me support Dawn in her journey going through her cancer treatment and that very long hospital stay.