I am wanting to write about Pancreatic cancer because my grandma passed away due to it earlier last month. I grew up with her as my next door neighbor and we were really close. In fact it has only been the last couple of years that I have been moved away from that area.
In October 2013 I got a phone call from my mom informing that my grandmother was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic cancer. This was a complete shock. She wasn't sick and she seemed healthy. The only thing that gave them a sign as to anything was going on was discomfort in her abdomen (that was a tumor in her liver).
After her diagnosis she was given two options, go through chemo and possibly live for another year or don't. It was a big "don't". Without the treatment she wasn't expected to make it to the end of the month.
Now your looking for the date of this post, which I started writing Sunday morning April 6th. She lived comfortably with hospice care until a couple of days before she passed. At that point she was on morphing and sleeping most of the time.
This is actually a common story with Pancreatic cancer and probably one of the better ones.
Basically the symptoms of pancreatic cancer are as follows:
Not all of these symptoms will manifest. Many times none will show until the advance stages. This is the point at which patients will go to the doctor with an illness that has been going on for weeks.
The first steps to a diagnosis is:
After the doctor receives the information from all of the following they will want some imaging; CT scan, MRI, Ultrasound, or PET scan.
Once the image is studied, pancreatic cancer as a diagnosis is likely but not absolute. The only way to be positive is to take a biopsy of the mass.
Pancreatic cancer has been stumping doctors for years and is the fourth most common cancer related death in the United States. Below I have provided an inspiring video of a High School student discovering a way for early diagnosis.
In October 2013 I got a phone call from my mom informing that my grandmother was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic cancer. This was a complete shock. She wasn't sick and she seemed healthy. The only thing that gave them a sign as to anything was going on was discomfort in her abdomen (that was a tumor in her liver).
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| http://training.seer.cancer.gov/module_anatomy/images/illu_pancrease.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Now your looking for the date of this post, which I started writing Sunday morning April 6th. She lived comfortably with hospice care until a couple of days before she passed. At that point she was on morphing and sleeping most of the time.
This is actually a common story with Pancreatic cancer and probably one of the better ones.
Basically the symptoms of pancreatic cancer are as follows:
- Pain in the abdominal area
- Discolored stool (poop) or urine
- Bloating
- Loss of appetite
- And many more!
Not all of these symptoms will manifest. Many times none will show until the advance stages. This is the point at which patients will go to the doctor with an illness that has been going on for weeks.
The first steps to a diagnosis is:
- Taking family medical history
- A physical (the doctor my feel a lump in the abdominal area or swollen lymph nodes)
- Lab tests
After the doctor receives the information from all of the following they will want some imaging; CT scan, MRI, Ultrasound, or PET scan.
Once the image is studied, pancreatic cancer as a diagnosis is likely but not absolute. The only way to be positive is to take a biopsy of the mass.
Pancreatic cancer has been stumping doctors for years and is the fourth most common cancer related death in the United States. Below I have provided an inspiring video of a High School student discovering a way for early diagnosis.
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