Just two months ago Kari was completely fine. He worked twelve-hour shifts and never missed his grandson’s soccer games. He started experiencing nausea frequently and woke up completely yellow. He was advised to go to a hospital an hour away. They put a stint in to unblock the bile duct. The doctor told him he had a “mass” above his pancreas, and they needed to biopsy it, which they did. No hospital or doctor ever bothered to contact him. I had to repeatedly call until I was finally told they were referring him to a cancer Dr an hour and a half away. It took six weeks from when they biopsied the mass until his first appointment with the cancer doctor. She seemed hopeful that the mass was resectable, but wanted to go ahead and put a port in to start chemo. She also referred him to a surgeon at UT in Knoxville. He had the port put in a week or so later and that same day he had a video conference with the surgeon. He told us that in six weeks time it went from stage 3 to stage 4 and had spread from his pancreas to his liver and some parts of the stomach and surgical removal was no longer an option. His only option to prolong his life was chemo. It’s all been a complete shock and so far the chemo has only made him feel worse. He’s worried about how he’s going to pay his bills and short term disability only pays 2/3 of his income and he doesn’t have many more weeks of that left. I wish no one had to worry about how they are going to survive when they’re already fighting for their life. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please know your donation is truly appreciated!!
