"I Survived Pancreatic Cancer"

[MuseRider]

7. My mother called me at my college

and told me my dad was yellow. It was 1973 and I was 19. He was dead 14 days later. They have made so much progress.

A few months ago I lost a very dear friend who called me when I was in a rehearsal. I called him back as soon as I was in my car and he told me he had bile duct cancer. It turned out to have actually been pancreatic. He did the heroes work it takes to get it dealt with rather than letting the docs ignore it for their preferred schedules and made it 2 years then died when a drain was removed after an infection. He absolutely was doing his best to be cared for, on a first name basis with all the best docs at Mayo as well as KUMed that has a great group there. He was helping me with a friend of mine who had just been diagnosed, they became best pals as he let her know how to advocate for herself in these settings when he died.

I had always thought this was a rather rare cancer. As a nurse I rarely saw it. It is such an awful thing and so hard to deal with. I wish the woman luck, what a wonderful cure she has and I hope it never rears its ugly head again.