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ALAN
My husband Alan was diagnosed with pc the end of August 1998 and underwent
the Whipple at St. Luke's in Milwaukee in early September. He will be 50
February 29th (28th this year). He has a very strong family history of
cancer including in a sister, brother, and grandfather and his dad died of pc
at 56. He also smoked until about five years ago and eats quite a high fat
diet without much exercise. Alan finished his 28th treatment of radiation in
conjunction with a 5-FU infusion pump on December 18. He will have about
four weeks off treatment and will begin his four months of chemo alone on
January 11, 1999, with a regimen of one week on followed by three weeks off
chemo. He tolerated the initial treatment quite well only experiencing
tenderness in the abdomen, some itching there also, and a little less
appetite. He is 6 feet 3 inches and still weighs about 285. He lost about
50 pounds right after his surgery and has not gained that back. He was off
work for about 6-1/2 to 7 weeks following his Whipple and seemed a little
discouraged at that point. He was recovering very normally but was
frustrated that he still wasn't back to his old self. He also complains he
is more tired and has no energy but I kid him about that pointing out that at
his baseline he was not exactly a dynamo. We initally had quite a time of it
trying to find an onc who we felt was right. We live in southern Wisconsin
and although the oncs are generally amenable to what you want to try they
don't seem to have the experience of dealing with a lot of pc patients and
the overall response to pc is that treatment is of little use. We took the
advice of several people in this chat room about finding an onc who will
treat the pc aggressively and going to a larger learning/university hospital
where they are offering studies, trials, etc. Fortunately, Alan works in
Chicago and a friend he rides the train with suggested Northwestern where she
was treated for breast cancer five years ago. She was nice enough to go with
Alan on his initial appointment with the onc, showed him around, asked the
onc questions, and generally remembered stuff that Alan couldn't at such an
emotional time. It was a very hectic daily schedule for him - up at 5
a.m.,the 6:20 train to Chicago, work until 3 or so, take a cab to
Northwestern, receive his radiation treatment five days a week, and then the
train back home getting home after 7 p.m. if all went well and he was on
schedule. Changing the dressing on his PICC line (for the infusion pump)
meant another apointment every week. I honestly don't know how he does it.
If I had the pc, chemo and radiation would be all I could handle. I would
not be working. Alan said that he prefers to work because he is so busy he
does not have time to worry, brood, etc. Returning to work has certainly
seemed to improve his attitude. Also very fortunately, he felt well enough
to go to work every day and so he never missed a radiation treatment, and he
was concerned about how he would hold up. He had a prescription for Zofran
for nausea but never needed to fill it. He was on insulin for about the first
month and a half after surgery but now is on just Glyburide, Pancrease, and
Zantac. His radiotherapist and onc think he is doing very well and all test
results so far are good. They plan on a CA19-9 next week and a CAT scan
three months after his chemo ends in May. We don't know what the future
holds but have a strong faith in God and believe only he knows how long any
of us have to live whether we have pc or not. I always enjoy the good news
others have posted and am encouraged by all the survivors. I'm grateful for
all of you who post here and know we are not facing this alone. God bless
all of you.
Posted 01/06/1999 03:06 am by Judy H
E-mail Address: jhellen@hughestech.net
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