FAQ

So what do you have?

I have a rather rare type of cancer. It's official name is Pacreatic Neuroendocrine Carcinoma which is metastasized to the liver. Basically, they believe it started in the Pancreas and then moved to my liver. The fact that it moved to another organ makes it a Stage IV cancer. My life expectancy is from 1 to 4 years. I'm thinking I will make it quite a bit longer then that.


Where are you being treated?

I am a part of the Facey Medical system here in California. I am being treated by an oncologist who's office is here in Valencia and Mission Hills. We got a second opinion at UCLA which has turned out to be great. Because this type of cancer is a rarity, the oncologist at Facey hadn't had much experience with it. The UCLA doctor, on the other hand, had experience with this and was able to start piecing together a treatment plan. We are also working with a Pancreas/Liver surgeon named Dr. Ronald Busuttil. From what I have read on his bio at the UCLA website, he seems like he will be good to work with.


Have you ever heard of Lance Armstrong?

Yes.


How are you and Jenna doing?

We are doing good. It can be tough keeping on top of all this at times. Many people have told us of the importance in keeping the ball rolling. We have found that to be true. There are times when its tough to keep everything straight between Facey and UCLA. We do however have a lot of help with all this. We have a case manager at Blue Shield (insurance) who has been a great help. We also have a case manager at Facey that has been indispensable. We are keeping a positive attitude and keep trucking along. Jonathan has also been a great distraction. He is just our favorite thing in the world.


What is the treatment plan?

So far we have been doing a lot of tests and not much in the area of treatment. The "plan" is this though. Because this is a slow growing tumor, chemotherapy will likely not work. Chemotherapy only attacks fast growing cells. Instead they will use targeted drugs. One drug I will be using soon is called Sandostatin. Another drug we are going to be using is called Sutent. It is a drug that is normally used for Kidney cancer but they believe it will work for mine also. The goal of these drugs is not to cure me of cancer but to shrink the tumors to give me more time. The other part of the "plan" involves surgery. I am actually looking at the possibility of having two surgeries. If they can find some cancer in my pancreas then they will do surgery to remove that. There is some discussion of using a surgery called a Whipple Procedure. The bigger of the two surgeries is the Liver Transplant. A Liver Transplant is what the doctors consider my only chance at a cure.


Are you in pain?

No. I'm up and about and feeling good. I am currently taking a drug called MS Contin which is morphine. I have 45mg in the morning and another 45mg at night. When the tumors shrink, I will probably be able to stop taking the pain meds.