Wim passed away July 19, 2014

Our story began in the middle of November 2008. Wim's first symptom was like many, heartburn, when he never had heartburn before. As most people do, he took some antacids, and that helped his symptoms for a while, next came incredible itching. After many tests and doctor appointments, he landed in the ER on December 18 with jaundice. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on December 21. He had the Whipple surgery 1/13/2009. He was lucky, he was diagnosed early at Stage 1B and the margins were clear!!!! He did chemo as a precaution (which almost killed him) and he was told he was pretty much cured!!!!!!!!! For 2 years he was told he was pretty much cured! Year 4, many of you know Wim hasn't been feeling well for the past year. They found that scar tissue had wrapped itself around his colon and was causing stomach problems. After the surgery he still wasn't feeling well, his stomach still not working, he had lost 50 pounds, none of the doctors could figure out what was going on, nothing showed up on any scan (he's had so many, he should glow in the dark). Wim became a 5year pancreatic cancer survivor on January 13th, 2014 still feeling lousy! Monday February 3rd we were told he has tumor. They tried to get a biopsy but it's too small and in a difficult location, due to his scar tissue. They suspect the PC has come back. Our options are do nothing and have an expected survival time of 5-6 months, or try a new chemo and possibly stretch it out to 11-12 months. We will not accept this! We decided to try to go to Johns Hopkins and we were accepted into the Johns Hopkins Pancreas Multidisciplinary Cancer Clinic. Besides the travel expenses and staying in Baltimore for 5 days, our insurance will not cover the medical expenses, because we are out of network. We are asking for your help, whatever you can to help in our journey to put Wim back in the survivor column! Thank you in advance for your contributions, thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Julie and Wim