Javier Florez

In January I started having some shortness of breath but thought that maybe it was just being out of shape due to not working out much over the holidays. I had just trained for and run a half marathon in December then rested most of the holidays. Since it continued, I went to my doctor which ran some tests and then referred me to a lung specialist. The lung specialist had some more tests done and eventually referred me to a surgeon to have a biopsy done on pieces of my lung. The biopsy showed adenocarcinoma (cancer) which either originated in the pancreas or the GI system. A scan showed the pancreas was clear then an endoscopy confirmed it had originated in my stomach. Since the cancer had spread all the way into my lungs I was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer and was told that it is not curable. I have started chemotherapy to help maintain a quality of life and try to potentially "add years not decades to my life". After a trip to MD Anderson for a second opinion, I had surgery to get an access port put in for chemo treatments.