More of the story

In an earlier blog Michelle mentioned that I’m part of a study that is looking at a combination of chemo drugs to fight this very aggressive cancer. I’m part of the control arm that is using the standard drug, which is called Gemzar. Only about 40% of the patients that use this drug have significant positive results, that being an increase in the length or the quality of life. As far as I know, it does not send the disease into remission. Usually after 3-6 months the cells become chemo-resistant and start to grow again. From that point on medical science doesn’t seem to know what to do, although there always seems to be more drugs of some kind that they want to put into your body.

I have a port implanted in my chest that feeds into the right juggler vein in my neck. The port saves a lot of poking around as they try to find a vein which seems to be receding due to chemo & disease. The port is a device that is covered with skin. The nurse uses a special needle to access the port which then enables her to get blood samples or to infuse me with the poison/chemo.

Overall the chemo hasn’t been too bad. Tiredness seems to be the #1 problem. Each week there seems to be a new issue of some kind. Fortunately our Heavenly Father seems to lead us to ways to deal with the issues. It has been a struggle to learn how to deal with all of the changes. I need to take a nap every afternoon (not bad). Lack of energy, digestive issues, emotions near the surface and chemo brain (brain farts) seem to be on going. I need to use my energy to fight the disease. Right now I need to rest 3 hours in the afternoon or my liver lets me know that I didn’t. I also know when I eat too much fat. My liver and pancreas are working but they’re not putting out enough enzymes to eat like I used to. I’m also blessed in that I have not gone diabetic. I have to eat the way we’re all supposed to eat & at the same time I’m not to lose any weight & I’m not so far. So all things considered I’m doing great.

The story begins:

The lives of those in the Gordon Ehler family has been on quite a roller coaster ride since October 9^th, 2009 when my family doctor told Jo & I that I probably had liver cancer. I kind of knew that something wasn’t right when my doctor had tears in his eyes. Because my tests, health and blood work all showed normal we didn’t suspect cancer. I did ok until Jo started to cry. At that point I suspected that my life would never be the same. I was right!

It all started with a severe pain in my lower left back and pain under my left ribs on Father’s Day. The pain would vary and most of the time over the counter medicines helped. By the time I decided to visit the doctors it was September. Jo knew that something was wrong as did I, but we figured it was probably the return of ulcers. I was amazed at how many disorders I found as I did research that mimicked my symptoms. My doctor ordered the usual colonoscopy, and an ultrasound of the abdomen because of the possibility of gallbladder problems. If he had not done that we still might not know what was really wrong. When he saw lesions on my liver some benign tumors were suspected. The follow up CT scan lead to a liver biopsy. The rest is history.

After meeting with a couple of cancer docs and some scans I was told that I had pancreatic cancer. The cancer had spread from my pancreas to my liver. A radiologist said that I probably had around 20 tumors in my liver. I’m in stage 4 since the cancer has spread to other organs. Both of the docs told me that the disease was terminal. Estimates of how long I had to live range out to a year. I have learned that only 20% last that long and 2%-5% make it to 5 years.