Since early August, Eileen had been having bad stomach issues. After a visit to her internist and some blood work and a scan of her stomach, she thought it was just irritable bowel syndrome, curable via an adjustment in diet. In early October the pain after eating started to get significantly worse. On October 9th, she went back to her internist who diagnosed her with an acute ulcer in the duodenum. The next day, after not eating for more than 24 hours, she went to an urgent care center. They immediately checked her into Methodist Hospital. Two days later, she under went an endoscopy to provide the doctors a better understanding of the ulcer and how to treat it. During that endoscopy, the ulcer was biopsied. The biopsy came back positive for caner on Friday, October 13th.
Upon receiving the news that she had cancer, she immediately wanted to be at MD Anderson. Many friends assisted in transferring her to MD Anderson. She was able to get to MD on Monday, October 16th. The team at MD performed more tests to confirm the size, location and type of cancer. The typical protocol for her cancer is chemo followed by surgery (whipple procedure). However, because her mass was large and in a peculiar place, her doctor, Dr. Jeff Lee, decided to proceed with a whipple surgery first followed by chemo once she is fully recovered (6-8 weeks).
A number of people have sent flowers to the hospital, and we truly appreciate that. However, there is no place to put them in a small hospital room. In lieu of flowers, Eileen suggests a donation to her team on the MD Anderson Boot Walk for 2017. The direct link to her site is:
http://give.mdanderson.com/site/TR/Walk/BootWalk?px=1015616&pg=personal&fr_id=1122 (
http://give.mdanderson.com/site/TR/Walk/BootWalk?px=1015616&pg=personal&fr_id=1122 )
Thanks in advance! Much love to all.
