He was diagnosed early 2008 with pancreatic cancer, grim diagnosis, but suddenly recovered, miraculously it seemed. Started the series, but didn’t seem to last long before this relapse.
My sister in law was diagnosed in Sept. of 2007 with pancreatic cancer and given 3-6 months to live.
She also managed to have a sudden, miraculous recovery and had a fantastic summer of 2008 with my brother in law (my wife's brother) and her two kids, ages 10 and 12. She was one or two reports away from being a candidate for the Whipple procedure. The cancer had been eliminated from her liver, and the doctors wanted the tumor on the head of her pancreas to shrink "a little bit more."
As she passed the one year mark post her diagnosis, she took a sudden and hard turn for the worse. Ulcers in her stomach from the chemo and pain medication had developed, and her blood counts indicated the pancreatic cancer had come back with a vengeance.
She and my brother in law have been in contact with Mayo Clinic in Arizona and Johns Hopkins to see if there was any help for her. As she's already been in one experimental program, there is no help left for her.
She was in too much pain to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family yesterday, and is now on constant pain medication and sleeps most of the time.
We don't know how long she has left, and are taking things day by day.
The hardest part for all of us, is knowing that barring a miracle, two young boys are going to lose their mother at a point in time when they really need her.
The facts about pancreatic cancer are simply this: once one is diagnosed, the fatality rate is 95% within one year. Less than 5% of all those diagnosed make it between one and 5 years. Less than 1% may live 5 or more years.
I really thought my sister in law was going to be that 1%, and hoped and prayed she'd make it long enough to see her sons well into their teenage years. Pancreatic cancer is a horrible disease, and watching the pain one goes through with it as they die just rips your heart out.
He probably should have rested instead of doing a series. I hear they are pretty rough on people. Sad to hear. He’s not one of those celebrities that annoy.