Dear Family & Friends,

Much has transpired on the journey to diagnose and rid my body of pancreatic cancer. I cannot thank Sara enough for keeping everyone informed of my status!!! Fortunately for me, my brain/memory rarely remind me of the negative parts of this journey. My 12th and final chemo treatment was June 11. My oncologist said I did well on the chemo regimen…he did remove one of the 3 chemo drugs for the final 2 treatments as I was experiencing more neuropathy than he was comfortable with. In July I’ll have a CT scan and my final appointment with my surgeon, Dr. Malcolm Bilimoria. He’s a “Whipple Wizard” and a most incredible doctor…thank goodness we connected. I’ll also be visiting my oncologist, Dr. Daniel Dammrich, every 3-6 months for 5 years. He’s a wonderful doctor! I got to know many employees at the Lake Forest Hospital Cancer Center over the last 5 months. They were all top notch! The hospital is a beautiful, new, very efficient facility.

As you all know, my kids and their spouses have been with us every minute throughout this journey. They did everything from researching doctors to dragging me out of my chair to get some exercise. And of course Elyse has been here 24 hours/day to give me shots, keep me fed, empty my urinal, and everything else. CaringBridge and all of you reading this have also played a very important role during the journey. I believe I was in the hospital with pancreatitis last October 18th when Sara wrote the first CaringBridge Journal Entry. That week was the worst of the journey, between the pain, hospitalization and receiving the confirmed diagnosis. I didn’t read Sara’s Journal Entries or your Comments for at least a week. When I did, I couldn’t believe the outpouring of love and support from everyone! Thank you all!

My prognosis has not changed. It’s still very positive. Early detection of this most dreaded disease is only diagnosed in about 20% of the cases. The other 80% are too far along for surgery. Of the 20% that do have surgery to remove the cancer, many of these people do not make it to the 5-year cancer-free goal line. My doctors have convinced me that my situation was straight-forward enough that they are confident I’ll make it to the goal line. Thank you all for helping me get to this stage! We are going to Denver and the mountains this week for our first trip away. I can’t wait to breathe in that fresh mountain air. I’ll be thinking about you!

Love,

Randy