I’m Not Dead Yet (I.N.D.Y.)

So how did this whole pancreatic cancer thing begin? Well, I think we can trace it back to end of June / beginning of July of 2007. My family and I traveled to Indianapolis to attend my sister-in-laws wedding. (Actually, I was the wedding photographer — it’s great when my business can pay for much of the costs associated with a family trip!) Just before the wedding, my wife got sick (24-hour stomach virus kinda thing). At the wedding, my daughter got sick and on the way home, Benjamin got sick (talk about a fun drive home)! When I started feeling yucky once we were home, though, I just presumed it was my turn. Unfortunately, I never really got sick, but I spent the next 5-6 weeks feeling nauseous and generally yucky. I finally broke down and went to see a doctor.

Now at the time, I did not have a primary care physician, so I went to a ‘Doc in the box’ (a walk in medical clinic). The ran some tests and gave me some medicine and sent me on my way. When they got the blood work back, I was called back into the office because my liver enzymes were kinda screwy. They changed my prescription and ran more tests. THEN I STARTED ITCHING.

The most peculiar thing about the itching, however, was that I had no rash; it itched like poison ivy, but I didn’t have any bumps. Turns out that systemic itching is often referred to as prurititus. The itching was very heat reactive, so I spent lots of time in cold showers; we air conditioned the house WAY more than should be allowed; and I went through lots of Aveeno. I was taking several over the counter antihistamines to try and control the itching, but nothing worked. The 2nd round of blood work came back, and the doc in the box, sent me to have an ultrasound on my gallbladder (one of the tests — alkaline phosphatase — was particularly elevated).

I went in and had an ultrasound on my gall bladder on August 3rd; I photographed a wedding August 4th; and I went to the emergency room on August 5th (I had been getting violently ill and, according to my wife, I was not entirely lucid). While at the ER, the doctor ordered a CT scan with contrast, but I couldn’t keep that foul liquid down, so they did it without contrast instead (contrast would enhance the view of the area being studied — and had I been able to keep it down, they might have found the tumor sooner). The scan showed that the gall bladder was not working properly and the surgeon and I decided it was best to remove it.

I had gall bladder surgery on Monday, August 6th. When she finished the procedure, the surgeon then tested for the flow of bile from the liver to the intestines and she found that I had none. Turns out that my itching was associated with bile not getting to where it needed to be. Instead, bile salts were getting into my blood stream and causing me to itch. A gastroenterologist was called in (Dr. Kulkarni) and he performed an ERCP to put a temporary stent into the bile duct (allowing the flow to resume). Dr. Kulkarni also took some ‘cell brushings’ during the procedure and when they came back, there were some atypical epithelial cells in the sample. Dr. Kulkarni kept me in the hospital another couple of days to make sure my liver enzymes returned to normal. I was discharged and had a two week follow-up appointment with Dr. Kulkarni scheduled.

To be continued…

Tags: Family, Main, Merle, Treatment // 1 Comment »