The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Keeping in mind that this blog is being written in large part for current and future folks facing pancreatic cancer, I am including the ugly part of stage IV PDA (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma)

It has been 7 weeks since I read my MRI outlining the tumor in my pancreas and "mets" in my liver and lymph node.  Friday the 13th (Nov) is burned in my memory and truly a bad date, lol  I decided to not continue chemotherapy and my oncologist immediately turned me over to Hospice.

So my biggest challenge besides the abdominal pain is unrelenting diarrhea.  Food just passes on through.  

The diarrhea does not stop at night time.  I've soiled my bed on a number of occasions.  That is just not pretty and is upsetting.  I have been prescribed pancreatic enzymes (Pancreaze) to help digest my food.  By its self it did not help any. Then I was prescribed Lomotil, a schedule 5 medication that slows the intestinal activity down.  Together these meds have slowed the diarrhea and frequency.  My appetite is definitely way off and finding food I am interested in eating is difficult.  I am forcing myself to eat something during day, although my appetite is higher in the evening.  I just can't eat anything at night with out night time diarrhea.

I have been lucky so far in that my bile ducts are not blocked so no jaundice as of yet.  There all kinds of complications I am facing.  As I deal with these I will include this in my blog.  Hospice is trying to switch me from oxycodone to methadone.  Using methadone for pain control is kind of a new thing and I am highly skeptical.  I am of the belief that if something is working, don't change it. Keep in mind that the life span for someone with stage 4 PC with out chemotherapy is 2-6 months, with 3 months being the average.  I have a couple of good reasons to make it to 6 months, but remember life is what happens while you are making other plans. So time will tell.

 

First Dose of Moderna Vaccine in on Dec. 31st

 

First Dose of Moderna Vaccine in on Dec. 31st

Although I have not worked in six weeks, I am still employed as a microbiologist technologist for HCA.  We do all the micro testing for a group of 18 HCA hospitals. It includes virology testing and performing the Covid-19 PCR test. Our group qualified for early administration of the vaccine.  If I were on Chemo I would not qualify, but I am not.  So I went for my first dose on new years eve.  Largo Medical Center hospital handled the process.  Previously I had worked for LMC for 4 years as a blood bank tech so I knew the hospital well. They did a great job and it was pulled off without any problems.

On day 2 after the vaccine I had chills and sweating, but no fever and shoulder was super tender.  Day 3 a little more of the same.  Today I am back to "normal" so no more confusion about whether symptoms are from the vaccine or part of the pancreatic cancer.  So I chock the chills up to the vaccine.  Unfortunately I have to wait 4 weeks for the second booster shot vs 3 weeks had I got the Pfizer vaccine.  Of course I will follow through when the time comes. Three weeks after second booster I should have immunity.  I am determined not to die of Covid, instead taking my chances with pancreatic cancer.  I hope no one thinks I stepped out of line and used a shot that perhaps could of been given to a "healthy" candidate.