Dear Rick-
My heart goes out to you. My mother just died
at age 59 from stage four pancreatic cancer.
She tried a series of different chemotherapy
treatments and fought her cancer for just over
18 months. I must say though that every one
responds different to chemotherapy & sadly, my
mother was proabably an exception in terms of
survival from the disease.
I will say this though- if there are options
your mother may be thinking about- explore them-
& follow your gut. For my mother- she actually
had some positive response -(in stabilizing her
cancer) from chemo- but she also paid the price-
she had good days & bad days. My other was also
younger & very active- still hiking & cross
country skiing at the time. I hesitate to give
you any false hope because as you know the
statistics are grim. We went to many facilities
for second opinions- to make sure we were doing
the right thing. But honestly I'm not sure
anyone knows what treatment is best. Many of
the non-chemo or biologic treatments are in the
experimental stages & it is often difficult to
find a local facility where they are running
these trials. In some trials or using
experimental drugs- patients are excluded from
participation because they have received chemo
in the past.
Whatever you do- make sure you tell your mother
how you feel about her & live each day as if it
is the last. I always thought
I would have more time to say goodbye (there
never really is enough time). Just one week
before my mother's death- she had a cat scan
with amazingly positive results... but then died
from an unexpected complication.
cancergov.com or pancan are two good resources
for research info.
Our family has done a lot of research - if you
have avy specific questions we would love to
help.
Best of luck. Kerry