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Survivors
Survivor Story: Karen Delaney
My words to live by these days are: "Don’t live like you are dying - live like you will live 50 more years." My goal is to keep and re-read this story in September 2061 with my friends and family around. I will be 86 years young, wrinkled, but still an amazingly healthy, vibrant senior with a dash of sexiness. Veins will show prominently on my hands and the backs of my legs. I will have my hair and toes done. And I will still wear fabulous shoes. Pancreatic cancer at age 33. How can that be? It doesn’t run in my...
Survivor Story: Mary Dunlevy
I am 41 years old and the mother of four children. I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2005 (the same rare kind as Steve Jobs.) It was a devastating diagnosis as I had a 2 year old and a 6 month old at the time. I had a Whipple procedure within weeks of the diagnosis and had a subsequent surgery due to complications. It was a mix of emotions to find out that it was a very rare type of pancreatic cancer. My husband and I were blessed to go on to have identical twin girls three years after my diagnosis. I had laparoscopic surgery to remove a few spots...
Survivor Story: Maija Eerkes
I celebrated a joyfully anticipated retirement in December 2005, looking forward to spending much of the winter skiing in Sun Valley and having fun with friends. During our 10-hour drive to Sun Valley in January, I complained to my husband, Al, that our next SUV needs to have more comfortable seats for long drives. I just couldn’t get my back in a comfortable position. In the coming weeks, I found myself popping ibuprofen more frequently, adequately addressing the discomfort in my back and chest. This “remedy” remained in place for several months. ...
Survivor Story: Stan Hill
May 20, 1996. D Day. Diagnosis Day. In the spring of 1995 I had my gall bladder removed. Fast forward a year, I started feeling the same way as I had a year earlier. I finally called the family doctor and he had me come in to the office. He said maybe I had a leftover gall stone blocking the bile duct. Arrangements were made for me to get an ultrasound at the hospital. My wife was the chief technician on the CAT scan machine, so I knew a lot of the x-ray technicians. The girl doing the ultrasound was a friend, so jokingly I asked her if it...
Survivor Story Toni Boman
I began having what I thought was a severe case of constipation in April 2011. I had an x-ray which did not show anything. 3 days later I began having severe abdominal pain. I went to see my doctor, when he put me in the hospital to run tests. I was diagnosed with pancreatitis. I was released after a week in the hospital, but my symptoms continued. I had lost about 15 lbs by then. The pain continued, so I went to a Gastroenterologist. The Gastroenterologist put me in the hospital, ran a series of tests, finally finding a tumor in the head of my pancreas, with...
Survivor Story: Virginia Perez
Hola, In October 2007 at age 37 I found out I had a tumor in the pancreas. After several tests and 2 months after I went into surgery. 12/21/2007 Friday is the date when I had the whipple. My doctor told me I had two tumors one 5 cms sitting the pancreas body and another one 0.5 cm in the pancreas neck. The smallest one was cancerous but it was so small that no chemo or radiation was needed. The diagnosis was a neuroendocrine tumor. It has been almost four years :) I'm thankful each morning I wake up, I enjoy every moment in my life. If you're on this journey,...
Survivor Story: Lana Henson
I am a 5 year survivor of pancreatic cancer. I want to encourage anyone who has been diagnosed with this disease that there is hope. I praise God everyday for the second chance he's given me. I was 56 when after 25 days in the hospital and doctors trying to find what was wrong with me, I found out it was the pancreas. I had the Whipple surgery, Feb 8, 2006, 27 more days in the hospital but they were healing days. Chemotherapy followed. I've had surgeries since but am blessed.
Survivor Story: James Edwards
My diagnosis seemed to be like a weird dream, an out of body experience. I was completely alone 1,000 miles away from home surrounded by patients who were three times my age. The reason why I was so far from home was because I was training to become a Corpsman in the U.S. Navy. I had already completed Boot Camp just a few months earlier with no complications and continued onto medical school with my mind full of dreams about the future. The first sign of a problem was a slow decline in my fitness performance. Before, I was running eight miles a day without...
Survivor Story: Bela Greenbaum
Never Give Up and Never Give In - KNOW IT. FIGHT IT. END IT. Thanksgiving, 1999, my mother is in her final stages of pancreatic cancer. At our dinner table I complain to my in-law, who happens to be a doctor, that I keep having hunger pangs. He arranges for a battery of tests which include an ultra sound, endoscopy, and colonoscopy. Test results reveal that I am suffering from Helicobacter pylori (ulcer) and I am put on a 14-day high dose of antibiotics. I am happy to learn that this is all, and that I will soon be cured. However, in view of...
Survivor Story: Bill Shrieves
I am a recent pancreatic cancer victim, but I want to share my story for everyone out there in the battle with this terrible disease... First, let me cover my medical history. I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on November, 19, 2010. I had a Whipple procedure the day before Thanksgiving. The surgery went well and I was home in 10 days. On January 4, 2011 a CT scan showed five lesions on my liver. I started the Folfirinox chemotherapy regime immediately. I have had 9 treatments and the side effects have been challenging. However, a CT scan after the eighth...
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