Support Pam Loehr’s Fight Against Rare Throat Cancer

It all started in March 2024 when Pam (Blenker) Loehr noticed that her voice was sounding a little raspy. In longer conversations, her voice started going in and out. She began drinking hot tea to help.

Fast forward to September when her throat hurt and she thought she had strep. After a virtual doctor's appointment, she received a prescription to resolve the irritated throat.

With continued throat irritation, an appointment was scheduled on Sept 24th with Dr. Richards at the Alexandria ENT Clinic. A visual scope down her throat found a mass on her left vocal cord.

Dr. Richards ordered a CT scan immediately. Two days later, the symptoms worsened and Pam went to the St. Cloud Emergency Department. The results showed a significant mass on her left vocal cord. Dr. Jeffrey Windschitl recommended a visit to the St. Cloud ENT. He asked Dr. Eileen H. Dauer to make a visit to the ER as she was visiting a patient upstairs. Dr. Dauer looked over the reports and said that the St. Cloud ENT would be unable to help her and immediately sent her to the Mayo Clinic.

On Oct. 14th, Pam received her diagnosis of late stage 3 malignant neoplasm of the hypopharynx associated with squamous cell carcinoma that has spread to the left lymph node in her neck. This is a very rare and aggressive form of throat cancer.

On Oct. 28th, Pam has started her 7-week chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Her last treatment will be on Friday, December 13th.