I worked through the 24 months of chemo of alternating cycles of Folfirinox and 5-FU/Leucovorin given in groups of six. This occurred from age 55-57. Chemo was in NYC across the street from my research lab at a large medical center that required a daily 2’20” commute by train, subway and a final 4 block walk or bus ride. I went back to work full-time 8 weeks after my 9 hour Whipple procedure. My day started at 5:00 am to make a 6:15 am train and I arrived back home at 7:15 pm to prepare dinner, clean up, do a short walk in nice weather and try to get to bed by 10:30pm.

Weekends was errands, yard work and house cleaning. The Saturday of chemo week when I finished the yard work, the fatigue hit in the evening. I crawled into bed and slept till early Sunday afternoon and that restored the energy level and was fine the second week. During and following chemo the first week, I was given dexamethasone which gave me so much energy I could not sleep Wednesday through Friday night. I worked under the department of pathology and the Chief of Pathology did not expect me to return to work. He was very familiar with my medical case of quickly being restaged to IV a week after my Whipple. He instructed my immediate supervisor to hire my replacement. I was happy to be back at work with great colleagues and wasn’t going to be “put out to pasture”. I was determined to show everyone I was not giving in.

Working in a clinical research lab made it difficult to eat small meals frequently. At lunch time is when I tried to take a short nap. I was never prescribed a pancrealipase after my Whipple. That sometimes resulted in intense abdominal cramping and sudden urgency for a toilet. I was consistently on anti-diarrheals like Lomatil and diphenoxylate atropine taken prophylactically to get me through the daily work week. It was no guarantee and a daily round trip of 4’30” on public transportation was challenging. I survived it and for me, going to work and being with colleagues gave me normality and structure in my life, I survived a grueling commute, full work days and 11 years after being treated for stage IV disease.