mauicat09

Last month my 82 year old Nana was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. Over this past weekend she had a permanenet stent put in. As for removing the mass, the surgeon had told us that she is inoperable. Yesterday we finally spoke with the oncologist who said she's between stage 2 & 3. My Nana is and has always been a VERY strong fighter but I've read about pancreatic cancer and for someone with her stage, life expectancy is usually between 3-6 months. It really surprised me then when the oncologist decided to put her on both chemo and radiation AT THE SAME TIME. Five days a week of radiation treatment and one of those days each week, the chemo. My question is then, if she goes through all of that (if she even survives it), will that extend her life expectancy at all?

Unfortunately my Nana (and aunt who is taking care of her) is in denial as to the seriousness of what we're dealing with. She teased the oncologist that after she comes through this, they need to go out dancing. I love my Nana's ever positive outlook and strength and I don't want to lose her any sooner than I know I'm going to but more than anything else, I don't want to see her suffer if the end is coming soon anyway. She's already jaundiced and in pain. Her urine is dark and she mentioned to me her legs are turning purple at times. She had lost her appetite and was hardly eating but one of her doctors put her on some kind of medication that gives her an appetite once again. She is down from about 99 lbs to about 106 due to that medication.