“Dr. Reddy reassured me that everything was going the way we wanted. He just exuded confidence, and as a patient you really pick up on that.”‐Ken Beerger
I’ve always had a good appetite, so when I started feeling full after just a few bites of food I knew something was off. Not long after that, I developed severe back pain that wrapped around my ribs.
I finally made an appointment with my doctor, and I don’t think I’d spent more than 45 seconds explaining my symptoms before she said, “Let’s get a CT scan of your abdomen.” The results showed I had a mass on my pancreas that was the size of a computer mouse.
Aggressive Pancreatic Cancer
I went to Fox Chase Cancer Center on the recommendation of a friend. First, I had an endoscopic ultrasound, then a biopsy that confirmed I had an aggressive type of pancreatic cancer. It had already jumped to some lymph nodes and started to encase some of the veins and arteries of the spleen.
Fortunately, the tumor was located on the bottom part of my pancreas, which gave me a better chance of survival. And because it was stage II, it wasn’t too late to start treatment. I had a fighting chance.
The plan was to hit the cancer hard with an intense round of chemo, followed by radiation, then surgery. My surgical oncologist, Dr. Sanjay S. Reddy, said the goal was to kill all the cancer cells, then take out the tumor. But he warned me that if there were any cancer cells that escaped beyond the pancreas, that he wouldn’t do the surgery, because the cancer would just come back.
“Let’s Go”
My oncologist, Dr. Igor Astsaturov, warned me that chemo was going to be a challenge. They were going to use the heavy hitters and come at me with everything they had. “Doc, do what you gotta do. Let’s go,” I said.
I went for chemo every two weeks, and I was in that chair for around four to six hours per session. They gave me irinotecan, oxaliplatin, fluorouracil, leucovorim, and capecitabine, which are some of the strongest chemotherapy drugs out there.
I handled the first two sessions pretty darn good – there was some gastric distress but nothing unusual. But by the third session it caught up with me, and I was feeling bad.
By the fifth session, my fingers were so numb that I couldn’t button my shirt after the treatment, and I was so weak that my son had to hold me up when we walked out of there. They lowered my meds a bit after that and gave me a short break to recover before we finished the course.
The last four weeks were difficult too, but finally, after eight sessions, I was done.
Cleared for Surgery
Compared to the chemo, my treatments with radiation oncologist Dr. Jessica Karen Wong was easy. I went in for treatment five days a week for a month, and I was only on the table for about 10 minutes each session. I had almost no side effects, although sometimes it felt like I had a little sunburn on my abdomen.
Best of all, after I was done, tests showed that we had succeeded in shrinking the cancer, so I was cleared for surgery.
I was nervous about the surgery. I’m a retired paramedic, so I’ve been in lots of hospitals before, but never as a patient. Dr. Reddy reassured me that everything was going the way we wanted. He just exuded confidence, and as a patient you really pick up on that.
During surgery, Dr. Reddy removed about half of my pancreas, along with the spleen and surrounding blood vessels, and some local lymph nodes that had been affected. He just cleaned everything up. I was up and walking after 48 hours, and seven days after surgery, I went home.
I had a straight line of staples in me, so I was pretty uncomfortable. But I wore a binder and that helped, along with pain medicine that I took for the first 10 days. Recovery went by the book, but I continued to have soreness for about a year after surgery, especially any time I used my abdominal muscles, like sitting up or lying down.
Back to Enjoying Life
I was just at Fox Chase for my quarterly follow-up and – knock on wood – after three years I’m still cancer free.
To be frank, I have some challenges. I get tired more easily, have some brain fog, and my feet still feel a little mushy from the neuropathy, which causes some balance problems.
But it sure beats the alternative. I’m here, I get to enjoy my grandchildren, spend time with my girlfriend, ride my motorcycle, and practice my photography. I’m enjoying life! I’ll take all the side effects to be alive.
I’m incredibly grateful to Drs. Reddy, Astsaturov, Wong, and everyone at Fox Chase for the care I received. From the parking garage attendants to the chemo nurses, to the radiation techs, to the volunteers, everyone was unbelievably kind and considerate. You can just feel the care at Fox Chase.
Learn more about treatment for pancreatic cancer at Fox Chase Cancer Center.