John Price

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.

I have been married to John Price for 33 years now. We have raised 5 children together. We’ve gone through many challenges in those years, but have also experienced lots of joy. We are a family in need of love and support, with our son recovering from a severe stroke and now a new health challenge for my beloved husband, John.

On October 30th, 2020, John had not been feeling well for a little over a week and visited the urgent care that morning because his primary doctor couldn’t fit him in. The nurse there noticed that he appeared a bit jaundiced and they ordered a number of blood tests. Then we left town for our son’s wedding, where John would be the officiant the next afternoon.

On our way to Egg Harbor, WI later that day, we received a call from John’s primary care doc who told him that he needed to be seen ASAP at the nearest ER. We were about 30 minutes outside of Green Bay so drove directly to the ER there. The Green Bay docs first thought we were looking at hepatitis, then possibly a gall stone after an ultrasound showed something possibly blocking a bile duct. After a thorough CT, they informed us that John had a sizable mass in his pancreas and wanted to admit him for a biopsy then and there. He refused, because he wanted the wedding weekend to be smooth and uneventful. Promising to follow up as soon as we returned home, they released him on those conditions.

Once home on Sunday, we contacted a doctor friend and he had us connected to one of the best pancreatic teams in the country by 4:00pm that day. We were in their office the next morning. More scans, a biopsy and blood tests confirmed that John was dealing with stage 3, inoperable pancreatic cancer. A procedure planned for Wednesday of that week to insert a stent to open the bile duct was unsuccessful due to the size and location of the tumor. At that time, John was admitted to the hospital in Milwaukee and scheduled for a gastric-biliary bypass. Last Friday, his gallbladder was removed and his intestines were rerouted to the liver and the stomach for bile drainage and also to help the stomach function, as the normal pathway from stomach to intestines was becoming blocked as well.

This surgery was successful but it takes some time to recover. In great shape other than this cancer, John was setting records in the post surgical recovery gym and was allowed to return home on Wednesday, November 11. While in surgery, a mediport was also implanted to prepare for the chemotherapy to come.

It has been a whirlwind of information, procedures and activities. While we are somewhat in shock, we are remaining positive and pray for more family miracles, like the kind that we received over the last few months for our son Greg after his massive stroke. John has started mistletoe therapy with our family doctor and will visit the oncologist for the first time on Friday November 20.

We need your support now more than ever. We ask that you keep us in prayer. We will attempt to post updates and requests for specific help here. Our first request is for someone to help us manage this site. Contact me (Nancy) directly if you are willing.

Many thanks and so much love to everyone ❤️.