So hard to find the finish line...

It's time to wrap up our series with Mapping the Journey: Pancreatic Cancer 101... Yet, so hard to find the finish line...

There is much still on my heart to share.  Did we really just scratch the surface?   Each journey so unique, yet bound together by the hurt and hope of this cancer road...

Most Journeys end with a specific destination in mind.  Our GPS navigators need an address to point to.  An end of the road, a stopping point...

We laugh with dear friends over their recent trip to Niagara Falls.  Despite all their careful planning, a reservation snafu about did them in.  They had excitedly researched their scenic road trip and planned short, overnight stays  at several charming Bed and Breakfasts within a couple hours of the Falls and Lake Ontario.

All went well until the morning  they plugged their next Bed and Breakfast destination into their GPS and discovered that they had made reservations at an Inn 16 hours away... Turns out that Prince Edward Island and Prince Edward County are indeed two very different destinations!

A quick phone call put their reservations to rights, and with the ease of seasoned travelers they said "Oops" and the journey continued on... (and provided countless hours of hilarity for their family and friends... they are on our DO NOT LET THEM PLAN OUR NEXT CAMPING TRIP list... we may end up on a deserted Island somewhere kind of humor.)

It's somewhat the same as we map the cancer road, minus much of the humor to be sure.  Along the way on mom's pancreatic cancer journey, we had more than our fair share of "oops" moments... when things didn't go as expected, or even happen at all... when treatments failed or caused more than "slight discomfort."  Harder here to just shrug it off and continue on.

This destination, this life... this journey is so vitally important.  It is where life and death hang in the balance.  Where every detour leaves us blinded and panicked... 

How do we handle these dips and curves in the road?  The ups and downs, the roller-coaster journey that cancer drags us through?

We are learning, moment by moment that this is where Grace finds us and carries us...

It is as much a part of the Journey as the doctors and treatment plans and decisions over clinical trials and alternative medicine.

Would you walk with me just a little further?  Down roads where cancer isn't the main attraction?  Where Life Lived Well trumps every dig from cancer's cruel grip?

There is a Way... There is a Peace that covers our path...even a path that is marked by pancreatic cancer.

Join me tomorrow as we explore the work of Hope, and Family, and Friends, and Love on this Cancer Journey...

There's always Grace enough for each day, Always,
                                                                              Jane

A Very Rude and Un-Welcome House Guest...

During the fall of 2010, while mom was busy planning our annual Girls Getaway Trip, cancer was busy setting up quarters in her pancreas.  Like a rude house guest, uninvited and so very unwelcome... pancreatic cancer reared its ugly head on the eve of our highly-anticipated Girls Trip.

It was a pre-cursor to all things rude and ugly about this particular cancer.  And it was just the beginning...

For years Mom always planned a fun trip around the holidays for her "girls."  Daughter, Daughters-in-law, and Granddaughters.   A trip.  For the weekend.  Just us girls.  Nothing spectacular, but always, always special...

There were only 2 rules:

1) The Girls had to be at least 18 and/or graduated from high school to come (and yes, the younger granddaughters always begged to go!)

2) The destination had to be something fun that none of us would do on our own. 

It wasn't long before the Girls Getaway Weekend was a tradition.  Memory-making trips that to this day make my heart smile.

 

 

 

 

We have laughed and giggled and stayed up late.  We have shopped til we dropped and then shopped some more.  We have eaten gourmet in fine dining attire and junk-food snacked in the car.  We have seen glorious shows (the Rockettes!) and stumbled upon a sweet Handbell performance.  We oohed and ahhed at Santa Land in Tyler and fell in love with the antebellum homes on our very first Christmas Home Tour in Gainesville.  We have stayed in charming Bed and Breakfast Inns and slept in a renovated brothel.  Walked the soles of our shoes off at the famed Canton Flea Market and marveled at the snowfall in our Great Wolf Lodge adventure.  Always, always special... Legacy Living at its best!

 

 

 

 And through it all, Mom was our constant...

 

That fall of 2010 we were all excited about our Girls Getaway to Dallas and the Chi Omega Christmas Marketplace.

Mom had been experiencing some minor digestive issues thru the summer months, but nothing of note.  Her primary care physician prescribed some heavy duty antacids and we thought nothing more of it, instead planning shopping lists and sightseeing tours for our girls weekend.  

By the end of September Mom knew something wasn't right.  The vague, but unrelenting pain in her upper abdomen, the constant indigestion... as a nurse, she heeded the red flags, and made an appointment with a gastroenterologist.  Unfortunately he couldn't see her for over a month... 

Fast forward to the week of our Girls Getaway.  The appointment with the gastroenterologist was on Monday.  We left for our trip on Thursday.  Still blissfully unaware of how our world was about to change...

The specialist took one look at mom and started ordering all kinds of tests.  Blood work, ct scans, ultrasounds.  We were startled out of our complacency... a frission of unease rippling under our concerned smiles.

We learned later that the doctor could tell mom was becoming jaundiced, something not apparent to our untrained eyes.  I think mom knew but had been hoping against hope she was wrong.  We flew thru the tests and waited for results.

Wednesday afternoon I received a call from mom.  The doctor needed her at the hospital in the morning for another test.  Non-negotiable.  But.... our trip.... the words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.

She encouraged us all to go.  Actually, she insisted.  Refused to let us even talk about cancelling...

For the first time in all our Girls Getaways, we left without mom.

By the time we returned, mom's journey with pancreatic cancer had begun.

Every journey has a beginning.  And this was ours.  Scary doesn't even begin to do it justice.

Join us this month as we unravel the scary, and find the gift of Grace...

for there has always been Grace enough for this Journey,

Always.

 

Mapping the Journey: Pancreatic Cancer 101

When the Pancreatic Cancer diagnosis comes, it can feel like your whole world is crashing down around you.  A nightmare you just can't escape.

We know.  The ensuing years have not even begun to erase the memories of those first few days and weeks living under the dark cloud of cancer.

I remember the irrational panic, it was just a deep, smothering desperation, an immobilizing fear... a fear that we would lose this life-and-death battle.  A battle we were so ill-prepared to fight...

Those early days of facing the formidable foe of pancreatic cancer have become an integral part of our family's story.  But they are just a part of the story.  The days that followed the diagnosis and the grace that carried us through the journey are what really count.

Which brings me to the 31 Day Challenge.  Every year, in the month of October The Nester sounds a challenge to the blogging world... A challenge to write for 31 Days on a topic of our own choosing ...

For me, there was no question.  Pancreatic Cancer is a beast that is tearing families lives apart with a relentless cruelty... I know there are some out there even today just getting the news.  Their journey has only begun.  And despite the paralyzing fear, decisions are being asked of them, decisions they may not know how to make...

We were there.  We understand the beyond-difficult task stretching out before them.  And so, for the next 30 days, I would be humbled to share our journey, the story that I wished with all my heart we could have read when mom was first diagnosed.

It is a map of our journey.  An encouragement to all who follow along on this cancer road.

Might you find some small piece of hope to carry with you on the journey.  It would be my pleasure to travel together.  Join me?  In Grace, Always,
                                                                                                        Jane



Day 1 - Mapping the Journey
Day 2 - A Very Rude and Un-Welcome House Guest...
Day 3 - Just Breathe
Day 4 - Putting on Our Game Face...
Day 5 - Pit Stop Sunday...Gratitude
Day 6 - Viva la Italia or How to Find a Cancer Doctor...
Day 7 - The Real Pancreatic Cancer Statistics...with Hope
Day 8 - Meeting our Goliath
Day 9 - Traditional vs. Alternative 
Day 10 - Gemzar... the Gold Standard of Pancreatic Cancer Treatment
Day 11 - Same Team! Same Team!
Day 12 - Pit Stop Sunday...The Power of Togetherness 
Day 13 - This Trojan Horse Packs a Wollop!
Day 14 - More is Better! 
Day 15 - Bible Drill Jeopardy or What are the Lesser Chemos? 
Day 16 - Radiation Therapy - Is It Right for Everyone?
Day 17 - Fainting Students, Bellowing Bulls and theWhipple...
Day 18 - Finding a Chink in the Armor...
Day 19 - Pit Stop Sunday...HOPE
Day 20 - Back Roads and the Journey Less Traveled...
Day 21 - The Budwig Diet Protocol
Day 22 - The Gerson Therapy 
Day 23 - The Ketogenic Diet... And a Very Important Update
Day 24 - Immunotherapies, Vaccines... And Clinical Trials 
Day 25 - Vitamins and Pancreatic Cancer 
Day 26 - Pit Stop Sunday...Life Lessons 
Day 27 - Tea Anyone? 
Day 28 - Graviola and PawPaw
Day 29 - Barley Life
Day 30 - Mapping the Best Plan for Pancreatic Cancer Treatment
Day 31 - So hard to find the finish line...
Bonus Day - Redeeming the Broken Road...



This series, Mapping the Journey, is for general health information only. Information in this series is not to be used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment of any health condition or problem. Users of it should not rely on information provided here for their own health problems. Any questions regarding your own health should be addressed to your own physician or other healthcare provider.