Rob Odden

A little less than a year ago (2017) we were out to dinner and Rob had trouble swallowing prime rib. The server wasn’t alarmed and said ‘oh, you have that thing - that acid reflux thing - it’s always men and it’s always prime rib’. Well as time went on Rob had good days and bad days eating certain foods and thought it was just dysphagia from having occasional acid reflux over the past years. In about mid to late February Rob started to have pain in his lower back. 40 years ago he had been diagnosed with a slight birth defect in his lower spine and it was treated and helped by a chiropractor. Rob thought his back pain was related to his back issues he’s had off and on since then. He went to see a chiropractor in early April and at first it seemed to help but then on May 5th. he slipped in the garage and thought he twisted his back. The chiropractor wasn’t helping from that point and the pain continued to get worse. Finally, we went in to have his back pain evaluated and that’s when the MRI and CT scan revealed that there were abnormalities and masses that looked to be cancerous. Rob was checked into North Memorial and had a liver biopsy which along with the MRI and CT scan revealed the worst possible diagnosis - Stage 4 esophageal cancer with multiple areas of metastatic disease, lymph nodes, lumbar spine, and multiple lesions within the liver. He’s had an endoscopy that revealed that his esophagus is almost completely blocked by a tumor. He has adenocarcinoma, which is the most common type of esophageal cancer and the most receptive to current treatments.