Stand with Randy in His Cancer Battle

Hey there, my name is Amanda Rich and I want to personally thank you for taking a moment to read my parent's (Randy & Susan Brown) story. My family has been incredibly blindsided by two little words, pancreatic cancer.

Over the last 6 months or so Dad began having some new medical issues that doctors couldn't figure out. Stomach pain, weight loss, new back pain and fatigue were becoming part of his everyday life and no matter how much they begged for answers, they never came. They had numerous labs, x-rays, MRI's and still doctors came up with no answers. It wasn't until August that a GI doctor finally ran a tick panel and diagnosed him with "alpa-gal" syndrome, which is a food allergy that occurs after a tick bite. He was told to drastically alter his diet (no mammalian meat) and that should alleviate his symptoms and we should see improvement. While he was so sad to say goodbye to hamburgers, he was thrilled to have answers and get feeling better.

We soon found that even with him drastically changing how he ate and avoiding all the trigger foods, he was continuing to lose weight and feel terrible, with increasing fatigue. They continued to ask doctors for referrals and for help, even driving up to Kansas City to the ER in hopes that someone there would listen and pursue answers. They were again turned away and told to follow up with maybe another GI specialist. Over the weeks following, his total weight lost crept up to 50 pounds without trying and he had gotten to the point that he didn't have any appetite and barely enough energy to even complete just activities of daily living. On December 2nd, an ER visit for shortness of turned into a diagnosis of multiple blood clots in his lungs. He was put onto blood thinners and sent home within 24 hours. Again, no real answers just bandaids on symptoms. Exactly one week later, on my parent's 46th wedding anniversary, the shortness of breath was different and Dad knew he needed to go back to the ER. It was then in the ER that a doctor did yet another CT scan and this time came in and dropped the bomb that he saw a mass on Dad's pancreas and he wanted him to have emergent scans and lab work because he suspected pancreatic cancer.

Since that day, December 9th, time has both stood still and been a whirlwind of information. I immediately reached out to my mother-in-law at KU to see if she could help us get him into KU. She just so happens to work in Oncology and was amazingly instrumental in getting him seen quickly. On Christmas Eve, Dad had an endoscopic ultrasound and biopsy which confirmed the diagnosis. Over the last couple days we met with the surgeon and oncologist at KU. It was determined that due to the tumor's location and artery involvement our best course of action is to start chemo and God willing in a few months he will be able to have surgery to remove the mass. Our plan is to get the port placed for chemo as soon as possible and to get started on chemo hopefully by next week. Please pray for the coordination and timeliness of getting those appointments and treatments scheduled as we know that time is of the essence.

First and foremost, my parents and us kids are so deeply grateful for your prayers. One of the greatest gifts my parents have given to us is their relationship with God and their relationship together as our parents. We are reminded time and again that they are a team and their strength comes from the Lord. People have reached out asking if we had a page to help and that's where this comes in. My parents would never ask, but I am asking on their behalf to help bear this burden with them. My mom is still working full-time and will soon run out of PTO time at her job. While she will be able to go on intermittent FMLA, that won't cover the loss of salary that will come with needing to miss work for dad's care, treatments, appointments and travel to and from KU. We are all so thankful for your support in any way given.

Cashapp: $RandySusanBrown