Hello fellow warriors . . . I have kept my journey very much to myself and a few close family members and friends. You see, I tend to absorb other people’s anxieties, worries, concerns – and if there is one weight a cancer patient doesn’t need to carry with everything that they are trying to process themselves – it is the stress of their trusted loved ones.
My journey began earlier in 2024 with a couple of weeks of experiencing intense itching on my hands and feet and what looked to be the beginning of jaundice on my face and eyes. After a checkup with my doctor, resulting in a CT scan that didn’t provide much information to identify the source of the issue, I ended up in the emergency room with a clogged bile duct. Four weeks and three bile duct stent replacements later it was officially confirmed that a mass on the head of my pancreas (approx. 3.3 cm) was the cause of the blocked bile duct. It was confirmed to be cancerous, but doctors were hopeful that it was detected early enough for Whipple surgery.
Unfortunately, further scans/tests were not able to confirm that there was no distant metastasis and doctors decided that I should begin 6 rounds of FOLFIRINOX chemo with the hope of reducing the mass for better probability of cancer removal with surgery. I managed to maintain a healthy weight and was fortunate that the first 6 rounds did not cause much nausea (that came later towards the final 6). I definitely had my downtime dealing with fatigue and that pesky neuropathy (mainly due to the oxaliplatin in the chemo), but thankfully it helped reduce the size of the mass and allowed me to move forward with surgery.
Surgery (albeit scary) was honestly not as bad as I imagined. I was moving around (though slowly) in two weeks and focused on trying to give my body the fuel it needed with the new "plumbing" to get back on the remaining 6 chemo infusions. (Coincidentally, November 21st, 2024 will be my final (12th) round of chemo.) The next conversation will be with radiology since the surgery was able to exhibit that one lymph node was detected to have tested positive for cancer. Ultimately, the goal is to be given a "status" of being in full remission and long-term, cancer free.
So here is my takeaway – and I truly hope it helps anyone reading this – I knew, the minute the word "cancer" was mentioned, that time was of the essence. I could not have moved as fast as I did with tests, diagnosis and treatment had I not advocated so much for myself – and had the fortune of my sister and friends doing so for me as well. If I hadn’t admitted myself into the emergency room early on, knowing something just wasn’t right, my only option would have been to "take a number" and wait.
Cancer doesn’t wait, nor should you. But you must stick to your guns – be persistent and if you are overwhelmed (and you will be) ask for HELP! Ask a family member or close friend to be your second set of ears and an advocate for you too. My bullheaded persistence allowed me to get released by the gastroenterology surgeon quick enough after my 3rd stent replacement to have my sister help me make the 3-hour trip to the nearest facility that could schedule me for port placement in order to start chemo the following week. For the duration of these chemo treatments, I did my best to nourish my body, rest and still try to push myself activity-wise for the sake of normalcy.
Don’t give up on yourself! Don’t give up on your loved ones either! Our bodies are wonderful, miraculous machines and you need to have faith in your body and not quit on it. I will tell you that there are not many positive stories out there – but I believe there are lots of success stories that go untold and the reason we don’t get to see those stories is because those warriors are busy living. I pray that we are very close to a successful solution, not just to cure, but to proactively assess the possibility of pancreatic cancer early on.
I realize that very little is known of this aggressive killer and the information that is out there can be daunting and discouraging for new and long-term patients. I believe that we need to not only shed light on how much more common this disease has become, but will give hope to fellow warriors, their family and friends, especially as new information is discovered for the treatment and cure.
