In March of 2025 I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, one of the most deadly cancers. In spite of the grim diagnosis I am currently doing well on chemotherapy and learning to adjust to this new aspect of my life. I am having such a hard time keeping up with correspondence, so I’ve added some posts here about my diagnosis and will continue to post updates here as I am able, including health updates and some thoughts on life in general.
Latest Updates
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A Brief Rollercoaster Ride
I have been on a reduced chemo regimen for the last several months, with the oxaliplatin dropped from my regular infusions. I had begun to experience some nerve issues that were starting to interfere with my life. My blood work has remained mostly normal with some liver enzymes elevated, but dropping the oxaliplatin has brought…
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8 Month Update
I got some scans in September to see how I am doing after 6 months of chemotherapy. All in all the results were very good, and while I’m still going to be on chemotherapy for the foreseeable future, I’m cautiously optimistic. My scan in June, at 3 months, had shown considerable shrinkage in the tumors…
Living With Pancreatic Cancer
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Starving the Cancer
When you are diagnosed with cancer, one of the first things you realize is that people have a lot of advice. Some of it is good, some of it is not so good, and a lot of it is focused on diet. One person told me that I got cancer because I eat dairy products.
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Brave Not Strong
So much of the narrative around cancer is about the battle. We are encouraged to fight the cancer, starve the cancer, battle the disease. People generally refer to the cancer like some outside invader, an enemy to be thwarted and victory thereafter declared. But it is not some foreign invader, it arose out of my
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Hope
Teddy Ryder was born in 1916, when type 1 diabetes was 100% fatal. I often think about him when I think about having stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which has only slightly better odds today. When Teddy was diagnosed with diabetes, patients were treated with a starvation diet which did not cure them, but which sometimes
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Exercising through Chemo
When I was first diagnosed I mourned my ability to exercise, something I love very much and which has been part of my daily life for a long time. I was thrilled when my oncology team encouraged me to continue and said that it would help a lot with my treatment and side effects but
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Surviving Pancreatic Cancer on the Project Purple Podcast
I joined Dino, the CEO of Project Purple, to talk about my diagnosis and experience with pancreatic cancer. Check it out and be sure to check out the great work that Project Purple does for pancreatic cancer patients!
My Cancer Diagnosis
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Something is Wrong
Early in 2025 I started having some digestive symptoms that concerned me a little. As an active person I normally eat a lot of food, but I started having a difficult time eating more than a cup or so of food at a time. I started feeling extremely full after only a few bites, like
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Diagnosis Day
I started my unexpected new life with cancer by taking a walk with my sister Sara. We walk every day and took our default short loop. It was too early to call our parents. The sun wasn’t fully up yet, and I wanted to process it for a moment before making the most difficult call
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Bloodwork
The results from my bloodwork gradually trickled in to my patient portal: it was one normal result after another. My entire metabolic panel came back normal, all of my blood counts were right in range. I was the picture of health, except for the CT, which said that I was not. I had been working
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Finding the Source
My second day of knowing I had cancer was a whirlwind. I had my first oncology appointment where I met the NP that works with my oncologist who explained the scans, biopsies and tests they would order. We would get a sample of the largest mass on my left lung and send that in for
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Out of Breath
While the tests were ongoing my mind was in constant turmoil, wondering what kind of cancer it was, how quickly it might kill me and what the next few weeks or months had in store. I have been in the habit of daily exercise — at least 30 minutes of activity — for longer than
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Starting Chemo
Before I could start chemo there were a lot of logistics to take care of. The regimen I would be on was called NALIRIFOX. It is a newly approved regimen similar to FOLFIRINOX, consisting of three chemotherapeutic drugs and a synthetic B vitamin. Before getting chemo I had to have a port installed under the
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Trying again
We went back on Wednesday to the infusion center after pretreatment with antihistamines and steroids, hoping to try again. I was scared that I would have another reaction but mostly scared that such a reaction would stop me from being able to receive treatment. As difficult as it was, I had to set aside the