What a week!!

[Skydogg]

During the Covid pandemic, I'd not had my normal diabetes blood check, so I asked my wife if she could book me one while she was having her blood check. this was Monday June 13th. They had a spare spot that morning. On the 15th, my daughters 14th birthday, my GP phoned to make an appointment for 11:00 the same day to discuss the results. My wife & I went to the GP's appointment where he told us that my liver levels were raised, & he wanted me to go to hospital for tests. I had slight jaundice, which we hadn't noticed. it was during Covid, & weren't seeing many people. I was admitted by 12:30pm the same same day.

I was due to have a ct scan as soon as possible, which turned out to be late on the Thursday. On Friday I was taken to a room off the ward by 2 doctors & 2 nurses. They then told me they were 95% it was cancer, pancreatic cancer. A bit of a kick in the teeth, & totally unexpected. I tried to speak to my wife, but she was on a course with work, so I had to wait till she was on her lunch. While waiting for her lunch hour, I received a text message to say the deposit had been paid on the bungalow we were moving into. Many tears were shed when I finally managed to speak to my wife. 

I then moved wards so that I was off the surgical assessment ward & into what I take was a general surgery ward. The surgeons that deal with the pancreas met on a Tuesday to review the case list, so I had over 3 days of waiting till the surgeons met. 

My wife was with me when I met up with the surgeon on the Tuesday. We were told that it was pancreatic cancer, & that due to my ongoing medical problems, it was inoperable & terminal. I was given weeks to months.

Since then I have had two stents fitted to deal with the jaundice, one metal, which is staying in, one plastic, which needs removing. I went to a follow up with the surgeon last Monday, the same one that delivered my diagnosis. He said that chemo may be a possibility, but that I would need to discuss this with the oncologist, but that it would be palliative chemo. 

So that is where I'm at. 

My wife was in her probationary period of a new job. Her new boss has been brilliant, going above & beyond, as they say. We are going ahead with moving house. The new house was really for me, as I struggle to walk after breaking my back in road traffic in December 1999, & I wondered what my wife would decide. 

[Gaffer]

Hi Skydogg

Really sorry to read your story, it resonated so much as my husband like yourself got the shock diagnosis of stage 4 terminal and inoperable pc in Aug 19. He was given an average of 6 months but offered palliative chemo. He had no signs whatsoever and was at work on the Monday as normal, thought his wee a bit dark on the Thursday and diagnosed on the Friday although he hadn’t at this point had a biopsy to confirm this, when he had it confirmed in his case pancreatic cancer with liver mets, though he did start going yellow and had a bilary stent fitted. Very sadly he died in April this year aged 56 but he was determined to fight and in total had 21 rounds of chemo. I would think that you will have a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis and then a discussion will take place at an MDT followed in time by an oncology appointment. I totally understand your shock, confusion and disbelief- I still see us in that room being given the news. One thing I would say is don’t get hung up on timescales, my hubby was 19 months, and although we all wished for 19 years and more, everyone is different. Again it’s a personal decision about the chemo. One thing as a wife I found beneficial was to read everything I possibly could, write down questions to ask and definitely phone the nurses at PCUK. They have a wealth of knowledge and were certainly a life line to us. I wish you all the very best x