Todd Espeland

First post: Jul 4, 2016 Latest post: Jan 30, 2017
Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time when it matters most.

To give everyone some background information, sometime in March of 2016 I started to experience some back pain. The pain had progressively gotten worse and I went to see a doctor. It was first thought that the pain could be a kidney stone. I began using a strainer each time I used the restroom hoping to see some type of stone pass. After a week with no stones and the pain still persisting we had talked about setting up a CT scan. Then thanks to some severe pain one evening and a trip to the ER I had a CT scan done. The doctor had noticed some enlarged lymph nodes in my abdomen and recommended I follow up with my doctor to get a CT scan with contrast. I followed up with my doctor and had a second CT scan done. That is when I was told there was a mass on my pancreas and I would need to talk with an oncologist to discuss things in more details. 

On May 12, 2016 I was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer. I have a mass on my pancreas along with lesions on my liver. We were told at that time that because the cancer had metastasized to my liver we could not do any type of surgery and that chemo was our only option.

At the end of May we took a trip up to the Mayo Clinic to get a second opinion. After speaking with the doctor at Mayo and the oncologist in Des Moines we made the decision to start chemotherapy in Des Moines using a drug combination called Folfirinox. I have chemotherapy treatments every other week. I will have another CT scan after my fourth treatment to see if the cancer is responding.

To learn more about Pancreatic Cancer or how you can help us bring awareness to this disease please visit the website below.

https://www.pancan.org/



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