Hi all-

I was diagnosed with stage IIA at 54 in January following a CT looking for kidney stones. I had been feeling very fatigued since the beginning of December, but I was finishing up my last semester at school so I thought it was just finals stress etc. I started having mild to moderate back pain in late December, which is why I had that CT.

I needed a stent placed in February because my liver enzymes were rising due to the blocked bile duct. The tumor was borderline resectable in the head of the pancreas, so they wanted 4 rounds of FOLFIRINOX prior to the Whipple, ended up having 3. Whipple was done in late May. Began GEMCAP in late July. Currently finishing up round 2 of 4 this month.

The pathology report was mostly good news - no nodes involved but the tumor was poorly differentiated with iffy margins in the bed of the pancreas. I’ll have a consult with radiation oncology next month.

This is my second primary cancer - I had Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2001. That was a cake walk compare to this treatment.