Richard Samuelson Sam's Journey

Dear Friends and Family,

Welcome to my CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. I truly appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement.

As many of you know, I have been away from school since December 6th recovering from a left total knee replacement.  The surgery went well, and I am well on the way to a full recovery.

However, while during my recovery phase, I turned quite jaundiced which sent me to the doctor's office on Dec. 26.  After blood work, an ultra-sound and CT scan of my liver and pancreas, I went into surgery where they found a blocked bile duct that was making me so sick.  The surgeon put in a stent to drain the blocked duct and dicovered that the blockage was caused by an atypical cell growth in my pancreas.  After waiting 10 days to get back the biopsies of this cell growth, it was found to be cancerous. As many of you know, pancreatic cancer is nothing to take lightly.

The good news is that the doctors have caught this growth quite early and the growth is quite small.  I will be having surgery in the next 2 weeks to remove the cancer through a prodecure called the Whipple surgery. The surgeons tell me that I am in a group of only 5% of pancreatic cancer patients where they catch this SO early.  The long term prognosis is quite good!!!

I will be recovering from this surgery, which is quite serious, for the next 2.5 months.  If all goes well, I plan to return to work after Spring break. 

Just wanted to keep everyone informed.  My spirits are OK, and I have the best group of family and friends and doctors surrounding me with support and love.  I couldn't ask for anything more. 

Sam