Full Torpedos Ahead

My father had a gastrointestinal stomach tumor (GIST) removed in June 2012. He was lucky, it was diagnosed quickly, easily removed, clean margins and a slow grower. He had a new lease on life. Then he just was not recovering. He could barely eat without the food passing quickly through him. He was losing weight every week. 6 months passed as he was tossed like a football from the surgeon back to the gastroenterologist, then to an oncologist. Between the three of them pointing fingers away from themselves, they missed the obvious textbook pancreatic disease symptoms. There was abdominal pain, a pain under the shoulder blade, foul smelling and clay colored movements and a slightly elevated blood sugar…yet none of these three specialists even mentioned or thought the word; pancreas. The surgeon said his surgery was successful it couldn’t be him. The gastroenterologist sent him to a dietician to learn to eat smaller meals. The oncologist finally said, you need to get another opinion. It was now the end of January and he had lost 70 pounds. 

We were very lucky and were able to see a gastroenterologist at UM in 3 days; Dr. “Snoopy” (Dr. Anoop Prabhu a Fellow at the time). He made my Father feel like he finally had someone on his team fighting for him. In just one week, after running a series of tests, at 7:30 p.m. on a Friday evening he called and delivered the devastating news; a mass in the pancreas. It was the longest weekend ever.

Dr. Snoopy worked a miracle and had us in the OR with Dr. Anderson for a scope on that Monday. It was an incredibly long 15 hour day but, she was able to squeeze my Father into her schedule to biopsy and ultrasound the tumor. She thought it might be operable…I cried, he breathed a sigh of relief and hope carried us while we waited for pathology. The following week however, the oncologist and tumor board disagreed, stage 3B vascular involvement. The room was quiet and then we heard, “Chemo, maybe radiation…a year and a half or two”. My Father found his voice and pushed out a question he really didn’t want the answer too.  With the softest tone an oncologist can muster “Without treatment, 6 months, a year…maybe’’.  I asked about the chance of shrinking the tumor to be approved for surgery and it was mentioned cautiously that some patients are super responders and the tumor might shrink enough to consider surgery. The some was really just 1%. In the room my Father made a fist and with a military like gesture looked directly at that oncologist and declared, “Full torpedos ahead then”. We went to chemo that very Friday, he didn’t even take the time to have a port put in.

He was so brave. Sticking his arm out and taking the treatment. He said “ I’m envisioning bullets running through my body shooting up that tumor”.  That Sunday, two days after his first treatment, he walked me down the aisle. He still had his hair and I still had my Father.

Lawrence, my Father,  fought through 6 months of treatment, twice and experienced 2 full remissions. We kept hoping he would just make it long enough to get the next approved treatment or latest clinical trial. Dr. Snoopy and the team at UM gave us almost two more years together.

It has now been 11 years that I have continued his fight. I fight to DEMAND doctors pay attention to possible pancreatic cancer symptoms. I  do this to raise awareness for every single one of us, our friends and our family to be our very own advocates and DEMAND pancreatic testing when symptoms present. I do this to fight for early detection. I do this to fight for a better understanding of what makes this disease tick. I do this to DEMAND better treatment options. I do this to continue his fight, which is now my fight and our fight. This fight will not stop until I find a better treatment. As I continue my training as a future leading pancreatic cancer researcher I say “Full Torpedos Ahead my friends, full torpedos ahead.”

PanCAN’s PurpleStride, a year-round national movement funds lifechanging programs and services for pancreatic cancer patients and their families.