Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
My Story:
As you all know, I was a pretty regular member at the gym. In February, I had begun to really work on watching what I ate and getting to the gym on a regular basis. It was working, because the weight was coming off. This continued all thru the summer. Early September I began to have periods where I just didn't feel like I had enough energy to get to the gym. If I did go, I didn't feel like I could do my full work out. I was just so tired! The next day, I would be fine. Along with this, I was having occasional stomach issues. Food just didn't look good and I just wasn't hungry. I had a regular checkup appointment scheduled with my Doctor mid-September so I held off going in until then. Blood work was all okay so he prescribed something for my stomach and sent me on my way. I continued to have the periodic episodes of no energy. On September 30th, Sue and I had plans to go to the Winona State vs, Upper Iowa football game to see Michael. (Michael is the assistant athletic trainer for Upper Iowa Football). So we headed down to Winona. I had a brief episode of no energy just before we left so thought sitting in the car for two hours would be okay. Not so much.... When we arrived I couldn't walk 50 feet without needing to sit down. Mid third quarter I told Sue we needed to go, so we headed home. (Upper Iowa was getting handled by Winona State anyway....) On the drive home, we both thought that maybe I was just dehydrated because we were sitting in the sun, and I hadn't been drinking as much water as I usually did, so we agreed to swing in to the ER at District One. We get there and my heart is racing, even at rest. Labs are ordered as well as a chest x-ray. Hmmmmm, somethings up as labs are all over the place, and cardiac enzymes are showing the heart is strained. Let's look at the chest x-ray. Looks like blood clots, lets order a chest CT. Yep, blood clots.......and a nodule that appears cancerous. They put me on blood thinners and transported me to Abbott. (Yeah, just so you know.....ambulances ride like a TRUCK!). About 4 am they take me in for an abdominal CT and ultrasound of the legs. Oh look......more blood clots in the legs, and lesions on the pancreas and the liver and more nodules in the abdomen. Biopsy of the pancreas and liver performed, which now confirms the diagnosis of cancer in the pancreas and the liver, and they assume all the nodules in the abdomen and lungs are also cancer. They believe the cancer started in the pancreas, and it is causing the blood clots. Doctors all say they can't operate so our only choice is to fight with chemotherapy and hope to slow and stop progression of, what appears to us to be a very aggressive SOB! So the official diagnosis is: Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer. I've been having incredible back spasms/pain ever since I was hospitalized at Abbot t(probably from the TRUCK ride, and the hospital bed) so the oncologist we met with on Tuesday (Oct 10th) ordered an MRI. The MRI was scheduled for Monday (Oct 16th) and they had to give me Morphine to get me thru that procedure. On Tuesday (Oct 17th) they installed a port, which brings us to today, Wednesday, my first Chemotherapy treatment.
They recommend that I have someone with me for the first 24 hours after my treatment so Sue has created an on-line sign up to assist with this while she is at work. My dad has been an incredible presence, always there to transport me so Sue can keep working, and of course, praying. We appreciate all thoughts, prayers, and any help you can give.
Here is the link to the on-line sign up. Copy and paste it into your browser.
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080448a8ac2fabf94-post 
