Mayo Clinic visit

Hello all my Army buddies,

I wish to thank all of you, for all the posts, and well wishes. This site keeps my mind off my health, and lets me laugh and smile with every post, whether it's being serious or funny, I love them all. I believe humor and keeping an upbeat attitude, is the best medicine for health problems, when your life is consumed with Dr. appts and procedures.

Right now I have for the first time since July, a chance to breathe in between medical appointments. I will start my first round of Chemotherapy on Oct. 27, each session is 5 ½ hrs long, then I take a chemo pack home for more chemo to be administered for 2 more days and then return the pack back to their office. I will do this every 2 weeks, and because of covid, Dave is not able to join me in the chemo room. Last year I spent every 3 weeks in a chemo infusion room with my Father, and having someone sitting by your side is a bonus. So I will do a lot of reading, and Netflix.

All of you are probably wondering how our trip to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota went.

I had my thousandth blood work drawn, ( which they used my brand new chemo port that sticks out like a golf ball on my chest, hopefully no more bruised arms YAA! ) my 6th -CT Scan, and my first PET scan- for which I needed prayers for the Lord to take away my anxiety, and a sedative, which really helped, cause I can get claustrophobic, but with the Lord's help, I did great with no problems. Through all of this I hadn’t had to do a PET scan or MRI before, so that was my first. Just for all of you to know, my father through his two year battle with Brain cancer, he had 17 MRI’s. That man was truly my role model and hero.

After all scans were done, we met with the Surgeon Dr. Mark Truty, that specializes in removing this type of Pancreatic cancer that has spread to the Arteries. My cancer is encased around the Superior mesenteric artery, which can’t just be removed by just any surgeon. It involves reconstructing a major artery, and removing my very large cyst which has cancer on it too. Dr. Truty felt I was young and healthy enough to possibly???????? do surgery. It would all depend on how my body responds to my chemo treatments to shrink the cancer enough to be removed. It is a very risky surgery So every 4 cycles of Chemo, which comes to about every 2 months, Dr. Truty wants to have us back, to repeat all the same tests, and see him. We will be heading back to Mayo around the middle of December. I ask all of you to pray, that I can tolerate the chemotherapy they give me, and it shrinks the cancer.

I can’t express enough how grateful Dave and I are, for all the prayers and support with the cards, food, care packages, flowers, phone calls, texts, emails, and contributing to this awesome site. It really is keeping my spirits up hearing from all of you. I try to respond, but am also trying to rest and ( yes Dave is watching my eating, cause I really don’t have an appetite, but try telling a Italian your not hungry and nothing sounds good, doesn’t work folks)

I have the BEST HUSBAND EVER, Ladies you might think you do, (and Kim yes you do), but when your life is altered in a way, you never imagined. You really just stop, and not take anything for granted.

So I will end this, by telling you to never forget telling all your friends and family how much they mean to you, and that you are so lucky to have them in your life. - Amy