Welcome to our CaringBridge website, This is Jen, and I am going to use this as my way of sharing information with those who care for my mom Kathy Rissky. In January mom started having some gut pains and went into the doctor the second week of January. This led to a referral for an ultrasound and eventually a CT scan. They had found gallstones, but also found some abnormalities in her pancreas. This brought us to a gastroenterologist to get a better look and do a biopsy. We found out that there is a mass on the neck of mom's pancreas. The next day I received the call which confirmed pancreas cancer. Stage two, borderline resectable tumor. Next stop: more tests and meeting with a pancreatic surgeon at Virginia Piper Cancer Center at Abbott Northwestern. That morning mom had a chest CT and an MRI and then we met Dr. Kamath. He confirmed that mom's tumor could possible be operated on , however, the chest CT scan showed 3 small spots and 1 larger spot on her lungs. The next day we met with a thoracic surgeon and an oncologist who ordered more tests. That week mom went in for a brain MRI and a PET-scan. It was a very long week of waiting for answers, one appointment getting cancelled due to a problem with the machine. Finally on Feb. 13th mom met with a pulmonologist Dr. Patel, he went into her lungs to see her lungs and biopsy the 3cm. mass in her lower lobe of her lungs. The dr. informed us afterwards that they had found cancer cells, but only in the area of the mass. The rest of her lungs looked clear and her lymph nodes did as well. We celebrated mom's 74th birthday on February 15th by having lunch and watching the Lego movie, she loved hearing from he friends and family.
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