While Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird, the sister of Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell, tells PEOPLE that she is “doing a little bit better,” Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell is still fighting stage 4 adrenal carcinoma.
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Lauryn, 23, tells PEOPLE about the mother of Kaitlyn, 11, and Kylee, 7, and the oldest sibling. “She’s been able to still go to the grocery store and still do everyday things, which is actually pretty much a blessing,” Lauryn says of the woman.
This past January, Anna was diagnosed with cancer after she went to the doctor with stomachaches. Cancer was found in her liver, kidney, and lungs. .
Since then, Anna, 28, has been irregularly posting on social media about her progress and chemotherapy treatments. At one point, she posted a video where she jokingly discussed her favorite snacks.
As Lauryn confirmed to PEOPLE, Anna is seen in the video sporting a pink turban and is completely hairless. She did shave her hair, shaving it all the way off because it was falling out in chunks and other such things.
She also has no brows or anything else.
But aside from that, I believe she is doing slightly better physically. ”.
In fact, Lauryn tells PEOPLE that aside from her hair loss, chemotherapy appears to have made Anna feel a little bit better overall. “The chemo didn’t drag her down as much… When people think of ‘chemo’ and similar terms, they automatically conjure images of elderly people, and I feel like it makes them sicker. I believe it has benefited her. She claimed that her pain was lessening. ” .
However, Anna’s next steps are still up in the air as her family comes to terms with her terminal diagnosis, as Mama June Shannon recently told Entertainment Tonight.
“It occasionally takes me on an emotional whirlwind. It occupies my thoughts constantly, said June, 43. “We realize it’s fatal. “.
“She’s stage four.”. She will not enter remission, the woman continued. We have all come to terms with that, so I just advise people to take each day as it comes because you never know. “.
And Lauryn tells PEOPLE, “She’s done taking chemo treatments right now because the doctor only suggested doing four because it could be very toxic to her body.”.
Nevertheless, Lauryn notes that the patient must currently undergo scans every three months and that clinical trials or immune therapies may be an option in the future.
The family gained notoriety after sister Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson made an appearance on TLC’s Toddlers and Tiaras. She later earned her own show, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, which followed the lives of Shannon and her four daughters, including Jessica “Chubbs” Shannon.
Mama June: Family Crisis, a WE tv reality series, features June and some of her kids.
