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An Update on My Mom’s Battle with Pancreatic Cancer

Mar . 10 . 2010
posted in: personal
tags: ,
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First of all, thank you so much to everyone for your support during this difficult time. A few weeks ago I wrote about what we were going through as my Mom was recently diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. Last week, she finally started chemo and radiation treatments. We also received some great last-minute news. The doctors were able to work with the insurance company to get approval for her to be in a study which will shoot chemo directly into the tumor. We got this approval literally the day before she was scheduled to start chemo after 6 weeks of waiting. Phew!

She is now in the second week of Chemo and will have to endure about 4-5 weeks more in hopes of shrinking the tumor so that they can remove it by a Whipple procedure. Because of all of the complex veins and organs in that area – it makes surgery rather difficult. The good news is, my Mom’s cancer has not spread but they need to shrink the tumor in order to remove it because it is tangled up in some major veins. This gives us a lot of hope that she can kick cancer in the ass. It is also very painful as the tumor often pushes on your organs causing the patient to be in constant pain.

Most people diagnosed with this cancer do not have symptoms until a much later stage and after it has spread. This is one of the reasons, statistically, it is a very dangerous cancer. That said, I hope anyone with a history of cancer’s take this to heart: if you smoke, please stop. This is one of the leading causes of all kinds of cancer. I can’t say enough how many horrible things smoking does to your body.

So, right now my Mom is enduring some pretty sucky side effects from the medicines, chemo and radiation. For one, it changes the way things taste and smell, causing her to have constant nausea, making it very difficult to enjoy food and can easily cause dehydration.

There’s some other crappy side effects that I won’t go into detail here, but one thing I have learned is that being diagnosed with cancer can be a really confusing process. The communication in hospitals is really disorganized. And having to deal with many different doctors who are often in a hurry can make it difficult to get your questions answered. I can only hope that one day our health care system gets fixed.

I also have to give a huge shout out to Agencynet for being so supportive during this difficult time. Without their understanding and support, I wouldn’t be able to work from St. Louis and be with my family. I’m cherishing every moment of every day and I’m blessed to work for such a great company who is not only very capable of producing award winning work, but also excels in being empathic and human.

That said, thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

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  • http://prescottwebsitedesign.com Bill

    Larissa,
    I’m so sorry to hear about your Mom and the cancer, but glad that the insurance will help with the expenses. You and your Mom will be in my prayers.

  • http://www.SohTanaka.com Soh Tanaka

    I’m very sorry for your mom Larissa, this post was back in March, how is she doing now?
    I recently found out my mom has stage 2b breast cancer and she is currently going through chemo as well. I know what you mean by the confusion and disorganizations in hospitals, my mom and dad were going through the same thing at the beginning trying to get some answers and help.

    Its such a hard thing to face and accept but being by her side and having family support really makes a huge difference. I hope for the best for your mom and will keep her in my prayers :-)

  • Nada

    Hi Larissa,

    I am sorry to hear about your mom. Your story is all too familiar because my mom was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in June 2010 and she just finished her first round of chemo, and will be doing a CTscan to check on the tumour now. Your words were all too familiar because my mother is also 57 and her tumour also caused her bile duct to collapse giving her jaundice which led us to finding the tumor. They could not do a whipple procedure at the start because her tumour was also pressed up against a major vein.

    I hope your mom is doing well, and here is to hoping that trial studies will find a cure for this vicious type of cancer and all cancers out there.

    I hope your mom is doing well, and here is to hoping that trial studys will find a cure for this vicious type of cancer and all cancers out there.

  • Catherine

    Sorry to hear about your mom.

    My mother was 66 yrs old when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last November 2009. She struggled for 3 1/2 months before her body could not handle it anymore and she left us. Chemo did not help. I love her forever and I feel like I need to live for her. I want to carry her the rest of the way through life even though it is probably impossible to live for someone else.

    I hope that your mom does better than mine did on the chemo.

    You are not alone. There are lots of us daughters out here dealing with this. :-(

    Catherine

  • Dave

    Larissa-
    Was the chemo successful and did she have the Whipple procedure? How is she doing?

    I’m a 51 male, and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer late July. Similar to others, the cancer was caught early because of bile duct blockage, and it hadn’t spread. Initially they thought they could do surgery, but the EUS showed the tumor was too close to a vein. I did four sessions of chemo and the CT and PET Scans show major shrinkage. So much, that the surgeon requested I do two additional rounds to see if we can achieve more shrinkage. Either way, it looks like I’m going to make if for a December Whipple.

    I was talking to my Oncologist at Yale New Haven, and the combination of chemo drugs is new and is in a phase III trial. They said they just start giving a a few months ago. They appeared to be schocked and pleasantly pleased at my results. My Oncologist even smiled — twice… I knew I was lucky. I’m going to Yale-New Haven Smilow Cancer Center in Connecticut. They just started giving (within the past few months) the combination of drugs below for pancreatic cancer. I believe they’re in Phase III trials.
    FOLFIRINOX: oxaliplatin, irinotecan, leucovorin, fluorouracil

    I hope your mother was able to have the surgery!

  • Shar

    Dave;

    I hope your doing okay and wondered where you were scheduled to have the Whipple operation?