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But the scan ultimately confirmed a diagnosis that Amber never thought was possible at her age.
“The doctor pulls me and my mom into a room and he says to me—so coldly—you have cancer,” she said. “I’m in shock. I’m like, ‘What do you mean? This can’t be right.’”
“He’s like, ‘No. You have pancreatic cancer metastasized to your liver, so stage 4,’” she continued. “‘Now you’re gonna go up to radiology, and they will stick a 20-inch needle into you and biopsy your liver so we can see what kind of tumor you have.’”
After seeking out a second opinion from a separate oncologist, Amber learned that she had a less aggressive case of pancreatic cancer that was “further along” and would need to take chemo pills in order to shrink the tumor.
She’s currently in the midst of that process and won’t know if the pills—which have caused nausea, exhaustion and constipation—are effective until next month. As she put it, “It takes about three or four months. Since the tumors were slow to grow, they’re gonna be slow to shrink.”
However, if the pills successfully shrink the tumor, Amber will be eligible for surgery to remove her pancreas and spleen, and replace her liver.