Marty Gram Marty's Journey

Dear friends. My son in law was kind enough to put up this site for me yesterday. For those of you who do not know I was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and am being treated at Scottsdale Shea hospital in their cancer research area. We feel that we are in the best place as this group of Doctors specialize in liver and pancreatic cancer and have had some good success.
My journey started in mid July when I began to turn yellow and itch terribly. I went to a walk in clinic in Cortez, Colorado. They sent me to the hospital for blood tests and found my bilirubin was 14. It's supposed to be between 0.1 and 1.1. We drove to AZ the next day and saw my primary care doctor here. That day I was placed in a hospital in Mesa. However, some of the tests they wanted to, do the hospital could not do. So I was transferred by ambulance to Scottsdale Shea. Scans were done and it was determined that a mass on my pancreas was blocking my liver bile duct. So they did endoscopic placement of a stint and took a biopsy. After a week, I was released to home and given the diagnosis. We have been at the hospital weekly waiting for blood tests to see if my bilirubin was dropping and for insurance approval. We finally have both and will start chemo on Wednesday.

My daughter who is an oncology nurse has been a wonderful help through this process. She may write to update you if I don't feel good.

Thank you for your expressions of support. It is good to know people are praying for you.