A mom of 10 has died weeks after being diagnosed with a rare cancer that began with a sensation of fullness in her belly. Angela Goodrich was 45.
She had just started chemotherapy and was exhausted after her first cycle of treatment, but wanted to be interviewed to spread awareness about the disease — adrenocortical carcinoma, a malignant tumor that started in her adrenal glands.
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“It was definitely a huge shock … (but) we’re going to get it figured out,” Goodrich, who lived in Toquerville, Utah, told TODAY.com about her diagnosis.
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SIGN UP “I think sharing in a journey binds people together and gives the information out to help other people as well.”
She died the next day, on Friday, April 25, surrounded by her husband, Matt, and all their children.
“It was a peaceful experience,” Matt Goodrich, 46, says. “We are so blessed to have had her in our life.”
The couple married after meeting in high school, and she gave birth to 10 kids — one son and nine daughters — who range in age from 7 to 26. Eight still live at home.
The couple also recently became grandparents when their son and daughter-in-law had twin boys, who recently turned 1.
The family was shaken by Angela Goodrich’s sudden diagnosis.
Mystery symptoms
Earlier this year, she noticed a fullness in her belly and swelling in her legs, but thought it was a reaction to coming off a medication for polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).
Her husband saw the changes, too: “The swelling was pretty bad,” he recalls.
When the family went on a cruise, Matt Goodrich also noticed his wife had shortness of breath climbing stairs and was experiencing abdominal pain.
“About a week before the cruise, I kind of had like this little flash in my head that it was possibly cancer. But I just kind of shook it off out of my mind,” Angela Goodrich recalled about wanting to stay positive and pushing away bad thoughts. "We’re not doing that kind of thing.”
She promised a family member she’d get checked out. When she went to an urgent care in early March, the blood test results were “very strange,” she said.
Her levels were so dangerously low that her doctor urged her to go to the emergency room for an intravenous infusion of the electrolyte. Imaging tests were ordered, too.
After a CT scan, an ER doctor came in “and just kind of said, ‘Tumor this’ and ‘Tumor that,’” she recalled. “That’s how we found out.”
The diagnosis: Stage 4 .
She had a baseball-size tumor on her adrenal gland, several tumors in her liver and several in her lungs that were marble to golf ball size. The cancer was aggressive and growing quickly, Matt Goodrich says.
What is adrenocortical carcinoma?
The adrenal glands are two small organs located above each kidney. Their outer layer produces hormones important for the body to function properly, including controlling water balance, blood pressure and the stress response, the notes.
Adrenocortical carcinoma is a cancer that develops in this outer layer of the adrenal glands. It’s more common in women than men. The average age of onset is 46, according to .
Symptoms include abdominal pain or fullness, fluid retention, bloating and high blood pressure.
A tumor can produce too many hormones, which is what happened to Angela Goodrich.
“It’s just a very strange cancer,” she noted, likening some of the effects to end of pregnancy symptoms.
Her cortisol levels became “super high,” Matt Goodrich says, which can lead to — a disorder that causes a round full face, weight gain, fat around the midsection, back and bone pain and mental changes such as confusion. It’s also associated with low potassium levels in the blood.
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The cancer runs in families 50% of the time, but Angela Goodrich said she had no family history of the disease.
There were few treatment options available since so many tumors had already grown in her body by the time the cancer was discovered.
She began chemotherapy just before Easter. The family was grateful to people who brought meals, cleaned the house and offered help.
“I really appreciate all the support and love we’ve received from the community and friends and family, and just from everywhere. So a lot of gratitude,” Angela Goodrich told TODAY.com the day before she died.
Her cancer was extremely advanced and her body was failing before she started chemotherapy, her husband says. He was glad she had the chance to be interviewed and share her story before she passed away.
Friends of the family have set up a GoFundMe page, titled “Help Angela & Matt Through This Tough Journey,” to assist with medical bills and other expenses. The organizers called her “a wonderful daughter, dear sister, and incredible friend.”
This story first appeared on . More from TODAY:
