Richard Raasch

On Wednesday July 26th, Richard went to the clinic with stomach pains.  After some testing they decided being admitted to the St. Cloud Hospital would be a good choice.  The concern at this point was a blood clot in a stomach aneurysm.  After more testing and a reading of his CT scan they saw lesions on his liver that were concerning.  The Doctor then ordered a liver biopsy.  Preliminary results showed we were looking at a cancer diagnosis.  They also did a colonoscopy, where they found a tumor growing around the outside of the colon, essentially closing it off.   On Sunday July 30th we all met with a surgeon to decide to put in a colostomy  bag so that he could eat solid foods again.  He will have surgery for that on Monday morning.  We also meet with an oncologist on Sunday where we found out he has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.  Richard is opting to meet with an oncologist in Alexandria after recovering from surgery to see what options Chemo will have for him.  The goals for chemo would be to increase appetite, decrease pain, and quality of life.