 This
is my brother David in May of 2004. He was doing great, no problems, was the picture
of health, never drank or smoke and ate pretty well. He weighed about 175 pounds
and is a little over 6 foot. I have started this page to follow the serious medical
situation David had now found himself in. He had Pancreatic Cancer, and I didn't
want to miss anything in his long journey. Maybe his story will be able to help
someone else someday in the same siuation. David was 45 years old, and had 3 beautiful
young children. He had 3 siblings, myself Lisa the oldest sister, then Cindy,
and Greg the baby of the family. Greg and Dave are 10 years apart.
David's
nightmare started with some abdomen pain in June of 04, and by August, it had
gotten bad enough to see his Doctor. Turns out he needed his gallbladder removed.
WHile he was in the hosptial, Shady Grove Hosptial in Rockville, he got pneunomia
and had pancrititis. After another week in teh hospital they finally took his
Gallbladder out. Shortly after he went on vacation, still not feeling well, but
went for the relaxation. On August 21st, David started getting jaundiced, he wasnt
feeling well, and decided to go see his Doc. Monday the 23rd, they did an endiscopy
and found that his bile duct was blocked. THey put in a stent and while in there,
saw a tumor, which they took a biopsy of. He also had several xrays and ct scans
done, none of which really showed anything concolusive. David's doctor sent him
to Johns Hopkins the following week for a consultation with Dr. John Cameron.
They were under the assumption  that
the tumor was about 3.5 centimeters long, and was malignent. They told us it could
be Bile Duct Cancer but without going in couldnt not give us much more info. They
told us he would have to have a whipple right away if there was to be any hope
of a cure. The prognosis was uncertain.
Of course this news that our 45 year
old brother had Cancer was devastating to all of us, but we were told that it
was operable and had not spread, so we were very positive!! Mom had a big get
togehter that weekend before David had to get admited to JHU for the surgery.
Dave had at this point already lost about 20 pounds. Before they got the stent
in, he was really unable to eat much and between that and the gallbladder and
pneunmia, it tooks its toll on his body. Little did we know what was to come.
We had a great weekend with lots of cookouts and Greg and Elizabeth came from
MASS to be with the family during this time. It kept our minds busy and off the
uncertainty of the situation David was  facing.
We even took a big family photo on Mom's deck. The weathter was really cooperating
that weekend!
Unfortunately, we are missing David's kids and Greg's daughter
in this pic, but we got the rest of the gang in there! So before the big day,
there was lots of eating and chatting and generally having a good time. We we
not sure of what the future was going to hold for David, so we wanted to make
the most of this time together before surgery. We knew that the surgery was big
time, hard core, and would take quite a while to recooperate. They said at a minimum
6 weeks. David was going into it with a great fighting attitude so that was good
to see. We lost our father in January of 01 to brain cancer, and to have this
hit our family again so soon, was really hard for all of us to swallow. Some things
just arent fair!
WHIPPLE DAY
Tuesday, September
7, 2004 was the big day. Nancy and David were at JHU at 6:30 am for prep and surgery.
Mom and I were
going to go down later, since we knew the surgery was going to be at least 5 to
7 hours. We were planning on being there at noon. I got a call from Nancy at 9:30,
she was crying hysterically and telling me that it had spread to the Liver, and
that Dr Cameron had considered closing him up and aborting the surgery, but becasue
of David's age he decided to continue on and try to get as much out as he could.
I got dressed and picked up mom 20 minutes later and we were at the hospital by
10:15. We waited impatiently in the waiting room with hopes of any word from the
nurses or Doctor. Finally about 5 hours later, Dr. Cameron met us back in the
"meeting" room. He told us the Tumor was actually 6 centimers long and
had spread to the Liver, and its now called pancreatic cancer, Adenocarcinoma,
stage IV, which I knew was just about terminal... but he felt good about taking
most of the tumor out of the pancrease. 
They also took out 1/3 of his pancreas and the 2 lesions in the liver, and part
of his stomach. He would have to undergo heavy duty chemo in about 6 weeks and
all we could do is hope for the best. Keep on praying. They had sent out the lymph
nodes for pathology reprt which we would have to wait a week to hear about further
spreading.
David spent the first day in ICU and they let us take turns going
in to see him, only 2 at a time. He was pretty druggy up, asking us if the alien
was out of his body and kinds of crazy things! It was probably his nutty sense
of humor coming out with all those pain meds! I think it was morphene they had
him on, a pump that he could push every 6 minutes for pain, and he was in alot
of pain later that day when the anetheesia wore off.
This
picture with his fancy white socks is Day 2 post whipple. David was doing great
and was in pretty good spirits that afternoon, of course until we had to tell
him the grim news. But Cameron never showed up and David was asking questions...he
cried... he was sad beyond belief, he thought his life was over.. but we told
him that chemo could save his life. So hopefully we could keep him strong and
keep him going for as long as possible.The nurses made him get up and walk, which
he did like a champ, and he was really doing well. There was alot of pain the
first few days, but he was off the pain pump by now, and only taking it when needed.
He was always afraid to become addicted to pain meds! Like that could ever happen!!
He
was doing so well,
the kids came to visit on day 4 and he was eating real food by then too, no more
mush! THat was unheard of for most post whipple patients. We were so happy to
watch him fight so hard to get out of there. They took good care of him, but he
really wanted to go home and spend time with his kids and family. It was hard
to sleep at the hopsital since they wake you up constantly for this and that!
Fortunatley they let Dave's friend Nancy stay over, so he wasnt so lonley and
they even got to watch fireworks one night that were going off at Fells point!
It made for a memorable evening for them.
POST
WHIPPLE
The stay after a Whipple can last up to 2 weeks, but David
was out of there in 5 days! Sept 13 he was released! What a record he was breaking,
of course I personaly thought it was too early, but he was ready to get out of
there. He went home to Mom's house for recooperation, which ended up lasting 4
to 8 weeks really. He had lots of pain and was not able to eat much. Lots of things
made him sick, they had rearranged his insides and taken out 1/4 of his stomach,
1/4 of his pancrease, rerouted a bunch of stuff <get details corect here>
He was a picky eater on top of everything else, so feeding him was a real challenge.
Mom did the best she could. My sister and I were always trying to find goodies
for him to eat,
like rice puddng from Sams club, he loved that. Cindy would make him sweet potatoe
which he loved and since it was soft, was easy for his stomach to take. It seemed
like forever getting him through this period, but before you knew it, 4 weeks
had gone by and it was time for his appointment with his oncologist, Dr. Dan Laheru.
Now
since the day David was diagnosed I had been on the JHU PC board and had been
researching everything under the sun, so I had a big list of questions prepared
before we got there. You have to have your own advocate when dealing with busy
docs and hosptals casue no one else is going to do it. Also before David left
the hospital, I emailed his new ONC asking about the pathology report, it had
come back, and it wasnt a pretty picture. We were corresdponding via email, by
the way.. Here is what he had to say:
The pathology is consistent with
a poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma centered around the ampulla. There were
21 lymph nodes sampled and 7 lymph nodes had evidence of cancer. The liver biopsies
X 2 are also consistent with adenocarcinoma. I know this is not what you wanted
to hear. I will not be able to meet with david before he is discharged today but
we will meet to discuss our treatment options once he gets to feeling better.
Dan Dan Laheru, M.D. Assistant Professor of Oncology The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive
Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
 So
once again more bad news to break to David.. they did fax over the pathology report
a few days later to me, so I could read it in detail, but its very complicated
of course... We had a meeting set up with Dr. Cameron on Sept 27th, so he could
check on Dave's progress, and see how he was healing. In the mean time, we had
lots of visiters, that is Uncle Gaby to our left, one of my mom's brother from
Conneticut. It was a wonderful visit, as David was always very close with him.
David
had already lost about 35 pounds since his Gallbladder operation. He was having
some abdominal pain, a bit of bloating and a bit of discomfort, but otherwise
was doing pretty good during his recooperation. e was eating small small meals,
and going to the bathroom regularly, which we were thankful for!
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