The Quiet Ride Back Home

Part 3  "Unexpected Journey"

Pancreatic Cancer is like a stealth that silently sneaks into your body and begins it’s evil work.    It is the deadliest cancer that spreads rapidly though the body.   No test has yet been developed for early detection and so diagnosis is extremely difficult.   If detected early, surgery is possible and Pancreatic Cancer is curable.    However, and unfortunately, seventy-five percent of those diagnosed are not diagnosed until it has reached Stage IV and it is too late.    At this point the cancer has metastasized in other organs and the one year survival rate is about 1%.      That is, about 1% of victims will live a year once diagnosed.    In fact, life expectancy without chemotherapy is less than six months and chemo only works in 50% of people. Medical science really doesn’t have much to offer Pancreatic Cancer patients.

The Beginning of the Unexpected Journey

It’s hard to determine just when my "Unexpected Journey" began.    Last summer as part of the regular monitoring of my liver I had an Ultra Sound which revealed nothing.     Just before Christmas I started to feel cold like symptoms of light nausea, cough, and tiredness. These persisted for over a month so I decided to go to my family doctor.    Because my symptoms were so unspecific we decided to wait awhile longer before taking any action.    In January I visited my Liver Doctor who monitors me every six months.    I continued to have non-specific symptoms but also had a slight ache in my left side which I mentioned to my Doctor. He poked around and decided it was nothing.

I’ve been involved in a clinical trial at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre where I am monitored every 3 months including blood tests and examination.     I was feeling increasingly tired so my Sunnybrook Doctor suggested I had Fatigue and should take a break.     Wendy and I took a weeks vacation in Florida but I returned feeling not much different.

However, I had an important ministry trip coming up to Cuba March 12-26.    I was really looking forward to this trip as we had plans to visit and preach in a very remote part of the country not visited by other foreigners.    I wanted to knock out what I thought was some kind of bacterial infection and so went to my family Doctor on Thursday February 20, 2014 hoping he’d prescribe some antibiotics.     I thought it was a pretty routine visit to the Doctor’s office.

My Doctor is not a pill pusher and is pretty conservative in prescribing anything without a thorough examination.    I like that about him.     I climbed up on the examining table like I had many times before, but this time it would lead to an incredible "Unexpected Journey" over which I would have no control.     As he pushed on my abdomen I winched just a little and he noticed it.     Long story short, my good doctor made arrangements for me to have an abdominal ultra sound just to be safe.

I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary when I entered the Ultra Sound lab the following Monday morning (Feb 24) .     Laying on the table with the screen just behind my head where I couldn’t see it, the young technician began the examination.     I asked her when my doctor would get the results and she told me in about a week.    After a few moments I saw a serious look come across her face.    Then I noticed that she was going over the same territory like she was redoing the examination.    She left the room and came back a few moments later and ran the sensor over my abdomen again.    I learned that she had left the room to ask the assistance of an older more experienced technician.     In a few moments the other technician entered the room and redid the examination again.     It was at that point I knew there was something up.

As I got ready to leave the clinic I said to the technician, "So my doctor will have the results in about a week?" "Oh no", she replied. "He’ll get them much sooner than that."     Something definitely was up.

The next day, my friend and Assistant Pastor, Steve Norton, and myself had a great planning meeting and we were excited over what we thought God was up to at the church.     We decided to grab some lunch and then head back to the church for more brain storming. On the drive back, my cell phone rang through the cars blue tooth connection.      It was my doctor (I had asked him to call as soon as he had the results).    His voice was serious.    They had indeed found cancer in my Liver and a 6cm mass between my kidney and spleen. He would order a CT Scan as soon as possible.

I have always tried not to worry about things until there was something to worry about and to keep calm and handle whatever situation or circumstance that life threw at me.     I remained calm on the outside, "stay controlled" I told myself, "wait til you have all the information," but I was heavily shaken on the inside.    How could this be?    They had been monitoring my Liver every six months.    Every three months I had an extensive medical examine and blood tests?   How could this be happening to me?

A CT Scan of my abdomen was scheduled for Thursday February 27.    The next day, Friday, was a nice sunny day.    Everything was now happening very quickly.     Wendy, Tim and I decided we’d go for a drive outside the city just to get our head around things.    We were sitting in a "Fish n’ Chip" shop in Port Perry when my cell phone rang.    It was my doctor.    Getting to a quiet place I answered the call.   It was more devastating than anything I could have imagined.      The diagnosis was stage IV pancreatic cancer which had spread to the liver.  The Unexpected Journey was now in full swing.

I tried to return to the table and act calm as we finished our lunch.    But both Tim and Wendy wanted to know what the doctor had said.    Calm on the outside but rocked to the core on the inside, for their sake, I told them not to worry about it, "let’s enjoy our lunch" and we could talk about it on the way back to the city.    They would hear nothing of it, they wanted to know.     I told them the news, and lunch was over.

The Quiet Ride Back To The City

The first part of the trip back to the city was quiet.     No one said a word as we tried to absorb this news.    I didn’t know a lot about pancreatic cancer but I knew it was perhaps the most deadly of the cancers. (I would later learn that there is less than 1% chance of a one year survival rate).     All three of us were choking back tears and then they began to trickle quietly down our cheeks.    Nothing was said for the longest time and then I think it was Tim who said, "They can treat this right?"      The quiet ride back home was taking us on the ‘Unexpected Journey.’

　

Medical Update:

 

My family doctor contacted my liver doctor (Toronto General Hospital) whom he thought would have better access to the best pancreatic cancer doctors in the country. As it turns out, the Princess Margaret Hospital, right across the street from the Toronto General Hospital, is one of the premier research and treatment centres in the world for pancreatic cancer.

Tuesday March 11 - Appointment with Surgical Oncologist who informed us surgery was not an option as the cancer was too far advanced.

Thursday March 13 - Appointment with Medical Oncologist who informed us of the odds and treatment options. There were none. Some chemotherapy may extend life a few months with better quality of life. It works for 50% of patients.

Wednesday March 19 - Liver Biopsy - Toronto General Hospital

Lab results will confirm the diagnosis. Results in one week.

Thursday March 20 - CT Scan of the Thorax (Chest) - routine results

------- Future Appointments –

Thursday March 27 - 9am Appointment with Medical Oncologist to discuss effects of and expectations of chemotherapy.

Friday March 28 - First Chemotherapy Session --    likely 3 weeks on and 1 week off.