Pam's Battle: Surgery for Her Tumor

My sister is a very private person and this is not easy for any of us to ask. On May 9th, I received a phone call from Pam saying she had extreme stomach pain. She has already had her gallbladder and appendix out years past. She is so strong usually that we knew this had to be bad enough for the ER. It was her pancreas. In the scan at the ER, they noticed some lesions on her back. She then contacted her primary doctor and they scheduled a full body bone scan for May 15th. In that scan, they found a 1.4 cm (1/2 x 1/2 in) enhancing osteolytic lesion in the left temporal bone (bone right at your temple). Bloodwork was scheduled and done on 6/17 for further investigation. They then scheduled a CT scan on June 21st. That scan revealed an expansile lytic lesion and confirmed what they saw on the bone scan. On July 7th, she had a telehealth appointment with a doctor in Bangor who wanted an MRI with and without contrast and to make a plan after that. MRI on July 14th showed she has an active abnormal tumor.

Fast forward to yesterday, July 24th, appointment with Dr. P at Eastern Maine, a neurosurgeon. The tumor is so close to her brain that he says it doesn't look to be growing into the brain yet, but he can't be 100 percent sure until he is in there. She has a 6-year-old boy at home who is her whole world. She's only 37. She does and does for everyone, and now it's time for us to help her. She had 2 options: scan every 6 months and keep an eye on it or go in and remove and biopsy it for cancer. She refuses to let this take control and has decided to get it removed since it is active. Surgery (craniotomy) is August 11th at Eastern Med and follow-up will be 2 weeks after. She will be out of work 6-12 weeks with a 1-3 day stay at the hospital. This will help for hotel costs while we are down there with her and while she is out of work, and travel. Any help is very, very much appreciated.