Rick's cancer Update

So much has happened so fast that our heads are spinning. There are countless emotions about us as you can imagine.

The Cancer part of my life started as me having some back pain and seeking help for it.

In 1993 I was involved in a traffic accident that herniated and bulged two discs in my center back between my shoulder blades. They said that surgery was not a matter of if, just when. The procedure at the time involved going through the chest so I opted to put off the surgery and treat the pain through chiropractic and physical therapy means.

Lately my back pain had been growing more severe and along with it was a slight stomach ache accompanied with slight nausea. This didn't concern me either because I had some of what I thought was food poisoning and I thought it was a lingering affect of that.

In the first week of October 2008, I went to the doctor because the back pain was so severe I was willing to do surgery or whatever it took for relief. I made an appointment and the standard care was muscle relaxers and physical therapy to alleviate the pain. Ant-acids where given for the stomach. After a week I went back to the Doctor and let them know I was feeling no relief.

On Monday October 13th, I went for an endoscopy to see if the stomach pain may be related to the throat or esophagus. The scope showed normal with only minor acid-reflux.

During my visit the following day, My Doctor sent me to a neighboring office that had an ultra sound on site. They did a quick scope thinking that the gallbladder my be acting up because of a rise in the enzymes put out by the liver. The scope showed the gallbladder was fine but they say something suspicious with the liver.

My Doctor immediately scheduled me a CT scan for the next day (Tuesday) and we went to the old Cottonwood Hospital TOSH for this. I was called in the Doctors office that afternoon where the Doctor told me it looked like I had Cancer in the pancreas, liver and lungs. The CT report read, "An ill-defined 2.7 cm X 4.4 cm lesion within the body of the pancreas. Innumerable hypodense masses of varying sizes scattered throughout the liver which are concerning for metastatic disease. Two small lung nodules, as described above. These are also concerning for metastatic disease."

An appointment was made for the following day at the new IMC hospital for a biopsy of the suspected area within the liver.

On Friday October, 17th 2008, I was informed that the biopsy was indeed cancerous and an appointment for treatment mas made for the following Monday.

On Monday I went to the Utah cancer Specialists where they looked over my CT scans and devised a program for treatment. This consisted of Chemotherapy involving an IV chemo called Gemcitabine. In addition with that I opted to take part in a study which included a pill four times a day for four days. I guess pancreatic cancer has a reputation for resisting chemo and this Gemcitabine was developed specifically for pancreatic cancer. The pill is called RP101 and I think it's to assist the chemo with fighting the cancer cells. Not exactly sure, but I do know that they both make me miserable sick. During this visit they also scheduled me for a PET scan and another CT scan for higher in the lung area.

Bev and I tried to go to Vegas the weekend of the 31st, to attend the NHRA races which I've had tickets for four months to attend. Due to the chemo, I was too sick to even leave the hotel room and never even made it to races.

On our next visit to the caner Doc, he gave me the results of the PET scan saying that the cancer is spread throughout my body and he's questioning how well I'm responding to the chemotherapy. They plan on another CT to determine the response of the chemo to see if it's doing what it is supposed to be doing.

In the event that the chemo is not battling back the cancer, they will stop the chemo and try a procedure called a "Cyber knife". During this they would use localized radiation and target the pancreas in an attempt to reduce the size of the lesion and reduce some of the pain caused by it.