The Beginning of the Beginning

January 17, 2016

I am finally living my life again! I am not supposed to be alive according to statistics but I refused to be a statistic and chose to experience my own journey with pancreatic cancer in my own way. I want to share my story in a little bit of a different way. I want to share it in small installations along with what I am doing with my life moving forward. I have a list of things I want to learn and do and I would love for you to join me on my path to a fulfilling and adventurous life after cancer.

About 6 years ago I knew something was wrong with my body in the abdomen area. I went to doctors who tested me for heart issues, ulcers, and acid reflux disease. I tested positive for H Pylori and was treated for that but none of the other possibilities along with the medications that were supposed to help these conditions gave me any relief from the growing discomfort. I decided that I must be a little crazy and that the stress I was enduring in my life at the time was probably the cause of my physical challenges. Life went on...

A year and a half ago the discomfort turned to unbearable pain and I decided I needed to go to the doctor again. I was not sleeping because of the constant pain and had a difficult time working as the pain was a huge distraction. I prayed I would be able to get answers! The doctor told me the same thing I had heard years earlier. I had a CT scan that warned of a slight abnormality in the pancreas but was given more medication for acid reflux and went another round of antibiotics for H Pylori. Needless to say, I was extremely frustrated because I knew that the medications were not going to work! A couple days later I called the doctors office and demanded that I get an MRI scheduled immediately! I wanted answers!

A couple of days later I went to St. George and had the MRI...they found a mass in my pancreas. I talked to my doctor soon after and from him was referred to a surgeon who would perform a Whipple procedure to remove the mass and hopefully it wasn't cancer.

September 9, 2104, I went into surgery that would open me up, remove part of my stomach so that they could get to the mass and bypass some of the ducts from my stomach and liver and remove the mass on my pancreas. I am sure that is not all the procedure entails but it's all I can recall. A few hours later the doctor came to the waiting room where my family was waiting and gave them the grim news...I had inoperable stage 3 pancreatic cancer. Statistically, one of the worst cancers to have because when you find it there is not much to be done to cure it. The cancer was also in one of the worst places on the pancreas because it is at the head of the pancreas close to many major organs, veins and arteries and the tumor had wrapped itself around three main arteries and veins that attach to my liver. I imagined the veins and arteries as small and wondered why the doctors couldn't just remove them, along with the cancer, and reroute the troublesome area but these veins and artery are almost as big as garden hoses! I didn't know that anything like that existed!

That is how this journey began. When I woke up and asked my husband what the doctor had said he didn't want to tell me until morning when I was more rested. I persisted and wanted to know right then. He told me what the doctor had told him...I looked at him and said, "Well let's do what we have to do! I don't have time for cancer!" I still feel that way!

In the picture above on the left I was at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with most of my family. They brought our family reunion to me! The other photo is a trip to a beautiful spot called "Peek A Boo" near Kanab. We took a four wheeler and a side by side and drove in to do a little hiking! It was finger numbing cold and my grandson Trasen was frozen but he wanted to "ride" even though his little face didn't show much enthusiasm!

I have decided that since I am still here on this earth I am going to experience as much of it as I can for as long as I'm here! The first thing on the list of things I am going to learn to do is water color better. I have never followed directions but I find that there are people who know what they are really doing and I want to learn from them. I will be blogging about my new experiences as I share my story.

Tomorrow... I will get tips for painting with watercolors. I like watercolors because I can create something beautiful or creative, hopefully both, in a short amount of time.

Thanks for joining me on my new and exciting journey!
Living beyond Cancer
Lisa