The story of Doug
Pat Dunks, a 25yr resident of Park County WY and a medical lab technician at Powell Valley Healthcare has been diagnosed with a rare tumor with 1 in 60 Million odds. Surgery is on February 12. We leave this Thursday on the 4th.
Full story https://patspara.com
In early December Pat was diagnosed with, and a second opinion confirmed on Dec. 23rd, as having one of the rarest tumors known. “Paraganglioma of the Carotid Artery”. So rare that only a handful of doctors in the country will do this surgery.
1 in 60,000,000 chance of having this tumor where she has it, between the base of her skull and her jaw line wrapped in with her carotid artery. She is the second one in our town of 6500.Â
Our doctor is the best of the best and he’s only done 30 in 14yrs. He’s a head and neck specialist. His team consists of 3 surgeons and 2 pre-surgery specialists.
Paragangliomas are rare tumors that make too much adrenaline. Paraganglioma are found in 2 out of every million people each year
https://columbiasurgery.org/conditions-and-treatments/paraganglioma
Approximately 85% of paragangliomas are in the abdomen, 12% are found in the chest, and only about 3% are in the head and neck. This figure shows where paraganglioma can be found. Â Paraganglioma in the head and neck are less likely to be metastatic than tumors in the chest, abdomen and pelvis.
https://pheopara.org/education/paraganglioma
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After her 3yrs in the military and Jerry’s 12yrs the military they settled in Cody WY.
In 2010 Jerry was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. He encouraged her to start college and she enrolled in Northwest Community College.
After things got worse she was forced to put off her medical degree to take care of her husband until he passed from in September of 2013.
Pat returned and finished her 2 semesters of college while working at Powell Valley Healthcare as a phlebotomist in the lab where she also completed her clinical training.
She graduated with honors with a Medical Laboratory Technician degree and passed her national certification exam a week later. In 2015 she was offered and accepted a laboratory technician position at Powell Valley Healthcare. She’s been with the hospital ever since.
Doug and Dani(Pat’s daughter) will do their best to work remotely while there.
When they return Doug will have to move his office into the home to be able to continue working and take care of the daily things Pat previously took care of and take care of her. She is expected to be bed/recliner bound for at least a few weeks.
Financially…
Pat has 10 weeks of PTO, (paid time off) and after 12wks away, they can replace her. It’s not likely as there are few people who do what she does, which makes it all that more important for her to have a speedy recovery. She works in the Powell Valley Medical Center lab running tests. After 6mos. of being out of work, she’ll have disablity at 50%.
Pat doesn’t really want to ask for money outright but is aware she needs help.
Pat is a closet artist…
Pat loves art although hasn’t painted in a long time. She got a little buzz again and enrolled in November into a pretty intense online course and bought all the stuff to get started again.
Paints and chalks and pencils and Santa gave her an easel for Christmas and she was really looking forward to painting again, until all of this.
Pat has quite a collection of previous art that she’d like to offer on masks for those who choose to support her. She also has t-shirts available
Please visit https://Patspara.com for more information and to show support.