Albert Jolie

Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time when it matters most.

Three years ago, I had a stroke. I was seen by a medical staff in a timely manner and was able to survive with hardly any noticeable after effects. About 6 months after the incident, my neurologist scheduled me for a CT scan to see if there were any potential future problems. 
The CT scan showed a few various issues. One issue it showed was that I had a hiatal hernia. I had always had heartburn so I thought that's what I was dealing with and I didn't bother to follow up on it. I treated it with daily doses of antacids and it seemed to be fine.
Last spring/early summer, I started having problems eating. I thought, at the time, that the hernia was acting up and so I treated it with more antacids. 
I was getting ready to retire in December so I thought I would just hold off until then to see my doctor and get it fixed then.
As the year wore on and I got closer to retirement, the eating problems got worse. Again, I figured I would wait until I saw my doctor, still treating it with more and more antacids.
When I finally went to see my PCP in mid January and told him of my problem he scheduled me for an upper endoscopy. They found a tumor in my stomach and did 4 biopsies and that is when they discovered that I had stomach cancer.
My wife and I were thrown for a loop. 
Needless to say we immediately went into "battle mode" and we have had more tests and scans done to determine to what stage the cancer is in. We still don't know yet as to what stage it is due to a lot of fluid around the stomach. It needs to be determined if the fluid is cancerous as well. 
The cancer is into the 3rd layer of my stomach and 1 lymph node is involved. No other organs are involved at this time. Hopefully it can be treated with surgey and be cut out and monitored for any recurrence. 
At this time we are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best.
We are so fortunate to have a vast support group of family and friends.  

Caringbridge allows them all to follow my progress throughout this journey.
Thanks to everone for your support. 

We love you all!!