david wood

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as most of you know daves journey  with pancreatic cancer started shortly after an injury at work messing his back up.dave was a cdl driver for a private contractor of the united states post office. he delivered mail to small rural country towns along the Oregon coast twice a day six days a week.he was doing his route one day,and went to pull down the door of the truck when he fell off the back of the semi onto the ground and messed his back up.
dave being  the hard worker he was,dave continued to work with his back having slipped discs and needing surgery.however,not being rich like most he was hanging onto his job like no tomorrow going to work in pain until he just couldn't stand it any longer. dave was also having some other medical issues going on that he didn't quite know how to explain,he just explained that he didn't feel right and he was always very tired with hardly any energy,anyone that knows dave knows he would be the first to get up in the morning raring to get the day started and he would not quit until wee hours of the night. so the being tired with no energy was not normal for him at all,as well as he was losing a ton of weight.
I kept telling him as he had dr appointments for his back,he also needed to see a dr about how he was feeling as well,it took a little bit for me to finally convince him to see a dr for being tired and not feeling well.
when he finally made an appointment and we went in,they checked him for diabetes, they said yep that's the problem!" it makes you tired,and just feel crummy and man your levels go all over the place!" start eating better,change your diet etc etc etc. we did all of those things,tried cutting the sugar,fats,a few of the steaks he so loved to eat at the time lol  sent him to a dietician,got his insulin figured out and oh he was going to start feeling better.well between his back issues and not feeling better after appt after appt of the dr  saying the same things, and him continuing to lose weight and just feeling so bad and none of the diabetes treatment was working,we woke up one day, and daves skin just had this tinge of yellow to him I asked him hey does your skin look yellow or is it just me?he said no just you ,lol,then a the next day we got up again,and I took one look at him and said uh no it is not just me you are yellow! so at that point,  I was getting very concerned but had no idea what was wrong but knew it was not just the diabetes and back issues! I mean, I knew if you are yellow that is a sign of being jaundice so we made another dr appointment and we were basically sluffed off again with yea he looks a little yellow,just watch him,if he starts having  major complications take him to a hospital,,,,,ummm hello? he has been sick for months!!!! I bring him to you to find out what is wrong and you tell me diabetes  and he just needs to learn how to manage it but now he is feeling really crummy and his skin is turning yellow!!! needless to say, we left that dr's office.i took him up to the hospital,brought him in the emergency room and told them this man has been sick for months they are telling me it is diabetes but I think something else is going on too,please help him and I am not leaving this place until we have answers!!!!
so,they took him back and examined him,they said yes he is jaundice and we need to run some blood tests  and a ultrasound and ct. they admitted him to the hospital as they found something blocking his bile duct and pancreas area and he was to have a gastronologist do a  temporary stent placement surgery the following morning for the jaundice and he would confirm what it was when he was in doing surgery by taking a biopsy and sending it to the lab as he did the temporary stent.it came back that it was confirmed cancer of the pancreas.