Scott Strilcov

Scott began not feeling well toward the end of January. He went to the emergency department as he was not feeling well and unable to keep anything down. While there, they did some tests and determined he had extra fluid in his abdomen (ascites). They were able to drain 5 liters of fluid off which relieved some discomfort. They also made a referral to a doctor to look more closely at his liver. However, Scott did not improve. He continued to vomit frequently and was unable to keep anything down. Scott and Charity then made the decision to head to the ED at Sanford in Bismarck. There they began doing some testing, including a CT scan and a partial MRI. They also received results from the fluid they drained off in Minot, that it contained malignant cells. However this did not answer where those cells were coming from. While in Bismarck they drained more fluid from his abdomen and additionally fluid from around his lungs. The doctors were suspicious of cancer and he may be in need of a surgical oncologist so made the referral to Sanford in Fargo on Sunday, January 31. Scott has been there since that day. While in Fargo, Scott had received the news the fluid drained in Bismarck was negative for cancer cells, which gave us all a great sigh of relief. Unfortunately that was slow lived, is until we were told those are only accurate 1/3-1/2 of the time because of the cells floating in the pool of fluid. The testing continued with many ups and downs with Scott being unable to eat and continuing to accumulate fluid in his abdomen. On Friday, February 5, 3 surgical teams worked together in the operating room to see if they could find the problem and fix it. It was expected to be a 3-5 hour procedure but after 2 hours, the results were presented to Charity (in person) and I (Katrina, the nurse of the family, over the phone). What they had found was a tumor that was attached to the stomach and was growing throughout the abdomen. The oncologist stated it was stage IV and was incurable. What a devastating blow. Scott was then brought to ICU and remained on a ventilator as he had aspirated during intubation.