Brad's cancer is detected

We felt that starting this blog would be easier on us --hopefully you won't mind too much. When we discuss everything and all the details with folks over the phone, it seems to bother the girls to hear about it so much. And right now, we need to be more sensitive to them, as they are hurting in their own ways. This is how it all began:



A few days before Kerry's birthday, Brad felt he had a pulled leg muscle. On 10/5 , he had developed a bump with a hot red streak on his thigh. His doc went out of town, so he went to the "doc in the box" urgent care. They gave him STRONG antibiotics thinking he had something like a staph. He then started getting the bumps on his arm and other leg. After a week, they changed antibiotics, but then he started getting a fever every day (about 3-4pm he would hit 101-102 degrees). His doc finally got back and saw him 10/16 (my birthday) and told him he had migrating thrombophlebitis--which could be caused by 3 things, but mostly caused by cancer. A few days later, we were at the oncologist and he confirmed that the most likely cause was cancer--and pancreatic at that.

The following Wednesday, 10/24, we went in for a day of tests. After the CAT scan, Brad was called to the oncologist's office (by the way, the oncologist is Dr. Kent Shih) where we were told there was a mass on Brad's pancreas, spots on his liver and clots in his lungs. We still hadn't finished all the tests--we ended up in the ER for clot busting drugs after they found clots all over his arms and legs. They postponed the drugs until neurologists could confirm that the angioma in his brain wouldn't bleed. They felt if he didn't clot bust--he'd not survive very long because his blood was getting quite thick. The neuro guys got together and decided the "benefit to risk ratio" (that just cracks me up somehow) favored the drugs. They have made him feel better and most clots are gone. We had to come back two days later for a biopsy of the pancreas to know for sure what we were dealing with.
They ended up doing the biopsy from the liver and determined that Brad has stage 4 pancreatic adenocarcinoma cancer that has metastized to his liver (and probably other places in small amounts), we got the biopsy results on 10/31.
As you can see, this has hit us pretty fast.
Brad felt relieved with the diagnosis because they did tell him there were some things we could do to shrink the tumor a bit (to help relieve symptoms) or stall it for a while. There is no cure at the moment.

You know, perspective is an interesting thing. When you hear that you may get 6, maybe more months, and you're grateful--it's because you were expecting to maybe get weeks. There are also times when I remember that 8 years ago, Brad was going to be spending his life in a wheelchair--and then a miraculous spinal cord surgery was performed, giving him the use of his legs again. God can still do miracles, if not physically, at least with our hearts.

Brad was going to start a super duper chemo drug last week but couldn't because they found his white blood count was elevated. Dr. Shih didn't want to start it since Brad has some type of infection. So, Brad is taking 2 oral chemo drugs and we just met with another doc to discuss radiation. It seems as if we will start radiation this week--for palliative measures. Brad now has a fever practically 24/7, with spikes of 102ish (called a tumor fever) and severe night sweats (he sleeps with a towel on his pillow, beach towel under him and a towel on top of his t-shirt and soaks them all 3-4 times a night--just like they came out of the washing machine). Needless to say, I'm doing a lot of laundry!

He has been EXTREMELY exhausted (some days he doesn't make it up a flight of stairs to kiss the girls good night) and can't eat much. The good thing about chemo for pancreas cancer patients, is that it usually makes them feel better--so bring it on! Please pray that Brad can fight infections so we can get on with his treatments. We are doing our best to be careful about bugs out there, so we aren't shaking hands and trying to avoid germs--if only I had special vision goggles.

The last few days, he has felt much better. Thank you so much for praying for us. I am often overwhelmed at all the people who want to help us with anything or just love on us. We have been truly blessed with amazing friends and family. Please know that I would like to talk with everyone personally about everything, and not through a computer, but that's just not possible right now. So here are the details--I hope this will answer some questions, and I'm sure I just created more.......so.... I will try to get out updates as often as I can or if there is any news to tell.
Signing off, just for now,
Patti (for Brad, Kerry and Colleen)