Judy Hoots

By Thanksgiving we knew something was not right.
We went to doctor in walk-in clinic the following Monday and he order blood tests, ultra sound and CAT scan. The ultra sound showed a tumor in the pancreas that was blocking the bile duct (thus the symptoms of jaundice).
He referred us to a GI doctor in Corvallis who did the first endoscopy to put a stent in the bile duct and do biopsy of tumor.
A week later we went for second endoscopy  because biopsy samples were not sufficient.
The GI doctor then referred us to Oncology doctor in Corvallis who referred us to Oncology surgeon and team at OHSU.
The oncology surgeon at OHSU said surgery was not possible at this time because of size of tumor and how close it was to critical blood vessels.
The plan is to go through a series of chemo therapy and radiation to shrink the tumor and make surgery possible. 
In order to be ready for chemo it was necessary to have another endoscopy to replace plastic stent with metal stent and to have another procedure where they put in port for chemo therapy.  
Now we are waiting to set up schedule for chemo therapy.