2nd Opinion at Huntsman's

We made it to Huntsman Cancer Institute yesterday and met with the pancreatic cancer specialist. She was very nice and informative and explained a lot of things to us. She went over a few options for pancreatic cancer treatment, the most effective being Gemzar chemotherapy which is what Rick has already tried with no success. Any of the other things they could try would make Rick terribly sick and not offer much benefit at all. Basically, pancreatic cancer laughs in the face of every known treatment.

There is one clinical trial that Rick may be eligible for which is basically 2 oral medications taken once a day and the good thing about it is that it shouldn’t make him any more nauseous than he is already and he would only have to visit the doctor once a month. The down side is that he would have to have another PET scan before he could start the study and he would have to visit the doctor once a month.

Before we can even decide about whether or not to participate in the trial we have to wait for some blood results. However, as of 2 weeks ago his numbers were borderline for the clinical trial criteria so I would be surprised if they haven’t gone up too high for the trial since then.

Of course Rick and I both want to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING, to fight this. However, visiting the doctors and having the procedures done is really taking a huge toll on Rick. He is getting more exhausted and incoherent daily. He’s sleeping more and more each day, around 15 or 16 hours a day. He seems to be much more comfortable at home and is very confused about why I keep dragging him out of the house for all these doctors and hospitals. That is why, after a lot of thought and advice from people I deeply trust, I’ve decided that we need to start home health care. It was a very, very hard decision to make but one that I absolutely think is the right decision. I don’t feel like we’re giving up, but rather surrendering so that we may have peace.

I know that a lot of you aren’t sure whether to call or not, come visit or not, but I would like to let our friends and family know that our doors are open and if you would like to come say hi to Rick please feel free to stop by for a quick visit. He may be asleep, but then again he may be awake just long enough to say Hi :)

FYI - Rick’s phone is turned off and temporarily lost, so if you’ve been calling him and he’s ignoring you, please don’t take it personally. Call me instead and I’ll answer if I can.

Love to All