VALERIE FROEHLICHER GISH

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.  
   Some of you may or may not know that my only sibling, Valerie, was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  I know that you have many questions out of concern for Val so I offered to manage this page for her to keep everyone updated,  as she begins her cancer journey.
  Several months ago, Valerie had a health assessment at work that resulted in finding out she was a type II diabetic.  She began taking metformin and made changes to her diet.  She felt sick from the metformin  and started to loose a good deal of weight over a two month period.  Val just didn't feel well and was very tired.  She believed that most of it was either from the medication or her diabetes.  Last week she started to feel worse with heartburn, loss of appetite and finally vomiting .  I encouraged her to go to her doctor as I felt she was having a gallbladder attack.  On Tuesday, she saw her doctor  who had ran some blood work on Monday.  Her liver enzymes were very elevated so she was directed to go to the ER.
After hours in the ER they ruled out a gallbladder stone but found a lesion on her pancreas.   She was admitted as an inpatient to do some further testing and help control her heartburn and pain.  An ERCP was done on Wednesday which is a procedure to biopsy the "lesion" and also to put a stent in her bile duct as the tumor was blocking it causing the "gallbladder symptoms".  A tumor marker blood test was also done (CA 19-9) which helps confirm a diagnosis.   
The  official results of the tumor are not in yet but it has been determined that she has a adenocarcinoma .  The doctor's feel this was caught early.  The plan is to have a port a cath inserted in her chest which will make it easier for chemo treatments and lab work.  Chemo will begin in a few weeks.
We still have many unknowns.  Please try to keep phone calls and messaging Valerie with questions to a minimum.  That is why I asked if I could manage this page for her.  Of course sending her good wishes, prayers and cards are welcome.  She is staying positive.  She knows that the curiosity is out of concern but she is getting very tired and we want to keep her strong! 
Thank you for loving and caring for my sister.


Liz