There are no hard questions.


Only difficult answers.

Because ChatGPT failed miserably this month.

Would you rather there was an "e?"

The "e" key suddenly malfunctioned.

Probably should lock it up right here.

I would be happy with "Mayd," but I grew up in a region where letters go missing for no apparent reason. But e > ' imo. I am dismayed.

Danged "e" key gets blamed again. Poor guy can't catch a brak.

only one week to Jun

Jun'

junta

eeeees are ov'rrated. long liv' th' apostroph'!

LOL

An apostroph' is fine for those who choose to play it safe because they have no *

Hi Steve, my name is Sammy and I'm from Denmark

This is my gift to you

Thanks Sammy from Denmark. There is more "e" there than I will ever need.

Sammy,

why are you bothering the normal people?

Since this thread will die and become reincarnated (rejunevated?) in a few days this seems a decent place to drop a progress report on my wife's trials and tribulations with pancreatic cancer. I expect it to be somewhat cathartic for me and perhaps a little informative to anyone interested in the subject. My work (ie, numbers) on this word problem will be shown at the bottom if you are inclined to scroll through but not all the way past. The earlier report can be found near the end of the March LC thread.

She has now completed five chemo treatments. Two treatments were with only one chemo drug rather than the original two drugs because she had issues with one of the drugs even at a reduced dosage. In addition to making her feel terrible, one of the other effects it had was expressive aphasia for a couple of days following treatment which was really weird to watch. I told her that communicating with her was like trying to communicate with a three-year-old.

She was so weak and eating so little that she finally accepted home health care to get IV fluids and an IV nausea med. Chemo was every other week, so after about a week she would start feeling better just in time to have to endure the next chemo. Most of the time walking from the den to the bedroom was completely exhausting. So it may seem counter-intuitive, but she has actually been looking forward to the surgery to get a break from that routine of cyclic misery and to put the surgery in the rearview mirror.

They had planned to do surgery after six chemo treatments but after seeing a CT scan they decided to go ahead with it now. We saw her surgeon yesterday and he said the scan looked good (which surprised us after we had already read the radiologist's interpretation) in that there was no indication that the cancer had spread. She needs to be at least a month after chemo for the surgery, so a Whipple procedure is scheduled in about three weeks. When we first heard the term, we thought it would just be a snip, snip, snip. We were wrong! The surgeon's expectations are that after the 3-4 hour surgery, she will spend one day in ICU, and then a week in the hospital--if everything goes well. Then about two weeks of severe weakness at home. About six weeks after surgery she will start about six more bi-weekly chemo treatments. Her oncologist said that they will again use two drugs, both different from the previous ones, that she should be able to tolerate.

She has lost 35 pounds during chemo (and surgeon says she will lose 10-15 pounds from the surgery) so she needs to spend the next few weeks trying to gain weight and build her strength and stamina back. Her taste and appetite already seem to be getting better after pausing the chemo. The surgeon seems optimistic that she is a good candidate as far as things he needs to do and what he can control. He cautioned that some events can pop up that are unexpected--most concerning are cardiac and pulmonary.

My wife has never been the best math person in the world, and that may be a blessing here. Relevant numbers, for the math inclined:

Surgeon looks 17 y/o and probably has to show his DL to buy beer. But he says he has done 300 Whipples, so that sounds terrific to us! He gave us these numbers after Whipple procedures:

Survival rate from surgery: 97%
Survival rate at 3 years: 50%
Survival rate at 5 years: 35%

He also said that there is no way to predict the outcome for an individual and he has been surprised by the outcomes in both directions from various patients. After he gave us the survival rates my wife asked if it was possible that she could live 20 years, he said, "Sure! Once someone gets past five years, they seem to just keep chugging along." She seems somewhat confident that she will be one of the chuggers. I wouldn't bet against her.

Thank you for the update. It sounds promising.

Best wishes to you and Mrs. Ames! Chugga chugga chugga, go go go!

Must be excruciatingly difficult to go through. Sounds like you’re in great hands though.

You take that "normal" back! Right now!

you thought it was me. I thought it was me. mistaken identity

god bless all the old soldiers today, and the future ones that may have to face God Shammgod AI

Glad to hear that your wife is keeping a positive long-term outlook, Tom. Have to think that can only help. Sure hope to hear good things after the procedure in June.

Thank you! I think I'm just going to try to stay out of her path of progress

Yeah, we think we are. She really likes her oncologist whom I've only met once. She seems to know her stuff. We really, really like her surgeon. Guy seems crazy smart. He coincidentally was the surgeon who robotically removed half a colon from a friend of mine a year or two ago. Even after that, she endorsed him highly. No robots involved in my wife's surgery; we asked him and he said he preferred to have a better view and to be able to react more quickly if there were a problem.

She sure is! With my pessimistic nature and what she has been through already, I would have given up long before now. I'm trying my best not to derail her attitude at all. She has only gotten really down a couple of times--both were shortly after the chemo sessions that included the drug she can't handle. Her impatience with the process is really what I've had to try to tamp down.

Good luck Mrs. Tom. I'm so sorry you guys are having to go through this. Thanks for the update, I've been wondering how things were going.

Thanks! We are in the eye of the storm for the next three weeks. No home health visits, no chemo, and still waiting for surgery. Hopefully eating well and like pigs. And I'll be sitting on my lazy ass encouraging her to walk--if not do more than that. Her oncologist told us a few weeks ago that this is not the time for her to worry about eating healthy. She said, "Go wild. Eat as many sweets as you want and as much fat as you can." It was a few days before my wife told me that she was only talking to her

Try to avoid driving behind the oncologist if possible.

LOL

So, Mrs. Ames' surgeon is an editor?