Fri feb 5 2016 dad updates part 2

The biopsy results came back. It's Adenocarcinoma. He has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It's located in an unusual part of the pancreas, but this is a common type of pancreatic cancer.

The plan. First, Dad needs to manage on his own (with Mom's help) at home for a week, and that means getting stronger, health-wise.

Dad will probably go home on either Sat, Feb 6 or Sun, Feb 7. The latest will be Mon, Feb 8.

Dr. Shinn will meet with Mom and Dad on Monday afternoon, Feb 8 at Dr. Shinn's clinic, which is located at Wheeling Park Hospital, a couple buildings over from where we are at. This meeting will be more like an orientation or getting-to-know what will happen and where.

Dr. Shinn will implement an aggressive treatment plan that is used nationwide. No experimental drugs. Wheeling Park Hospital can not administer experimental drugs. Dr. Shinn's treatment is common for this cancer.

The minimum goals are to prevent anything new from forming and to prohibit the current tumor from growing larger. The best goal would be for the tumor to shrink, which can happen.

Treatment will be chemo. It will be a combo of three chemo drugs with a vitamin infusion. It's a basic recipe.

Dr. Shinn wants to start treatment on Mon, Feb 15. Dad will be at the clinic for six hours. Then he will go home with a fanny pack-like contraption, which will be a pump that administers more chemo over the next two days.

It's 48 hours of receiving chemo drugs every two weeks. And this will continue for four to six week at which time, Dr. Shinn will scan Dad to see how things are going, and a report card on his progress will be created.

But this treatment will never end for Dad. Everyday, he will take two blood thinner shots in the stomach. Every two weeks, a six-hour visit at the clinic for chemo and he will have two days of chemo, mainly via the fanny pack, every two weeks. And then he will get checked approximately every four to six weeks.