Hello family and friends!!

    As many of you may know Cliff was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer on February 19th 2021. We (his kids) are setting up this site so his friends and family have a place to get updates throughout his journey. This site also has an option for comments, and we will make sure that Cliff gets all of your messages.

  Here is where the journey has taken us thus far. (This post will be a bit of a long one but the future posts should just be quick updates)

So this all started when Cliff had his second covid shot on February 19th, and seemed to be having a bad reaction. We took him into our local ER and after a long night and a lot of tests we discovered he has a ping pong sized tumor on his pancreas. 

Right away they were able to determine that it was likely cancer. They were also able to see that the tumor has entwined itself with a major artery that supplies blood to the digestive track. Because of the involvement of the artery, surgery is not going to be an option for removal. 

He was referred to an oncologist at St Joe’s in Lewiston Idaho. We met with this team and referrals were sent out for more testing. This turned out to be a bit of a struggle as we tried to wade through a number of offices around the inland northwest and insurance. 

During this time we took a trip up to Couer D’Alene Idaho to get Cliff a new suit for Dan’s wedding (a suit that he absolutely rocked and had a wonderful time celebrating the day in, by the way)

After a great afternoon Cliff had some pretty significant pain and so as a precaution we took him into the ER at Kootani Medical Center. They were able to help with the pain and get a few more tests done while he was there. 

 This actually  turned out to be serendipitous because they have an amazing oncology team up there, and actually offered a referral for the tests he needed done. All of the tests we had spent weeks just trying to get a call back on, Kootani was able to get scheduled for us immediately. 

One of the major tests he needed was a biopsy. They were able to get this done and it came back confirming that the tumor is an adenocarcinoma. 

We tried working with St Joe’s some more but decided that Kootani  is just a better fit and they have just blown our minds with the level of service they have provided. ( we HIGHLY recommend them!!)

So, that pretty much brings us up to speed and to today. 

Treatment has begun!

Yesterday Wednesday April 7th 2021,  Cliff went back up to Couer D’Alene to have a port put in,  this will be used for chemotherapy, fluids and anything else the drs would need access for- pretty much a long term IV. 

He spent the night last night and today was his first round of Chemotherapy. It went really well and he is still feeling great as of this evening. 

The plan going forward is to do chemotherapy once per week for three weeks and then reassess. We are hoping that this will shrink the tumor a bit and relieve some of the pressure of that artery. 

We will also be closely watching how well the chemo is tolerated, so the plan is for three weeks but that plan is also flexible depending on how he is feeling. 

Cliff, as always, is in great spirits and optimistic about this plan. 

He has been spending a lot of time with Kim, Dan, Sarah and Sharon- pulling out his favorite records, enjoying phone calls from many of you and never missing and opportunity for a good dad joke. 

We will continue to update this site throughout this  journey and appreciate all of you who love our dad so much!!!