Friends of Jimmi Steckel
Donazione protetta
Below is the story of Jimmi Steckel's life over the past couple of years, as told by his wife Debbie.
Jim has struggled with diabetes for almost all of his adult life. I would say in the past 20 years, he has been hospitalized for foot infections at least 6 times - all resulting in surgery and most recently by removing a toe. As a result of this, thankfully, he was very good about keeping in touch with the orthopedic doctors. In February of 2014, at a routine check up, the doctors found a terrible infection in his right foot, which ate away at his toes and nearby bones. They performed an emergency surgery and removed a good half of JIm's foot. While he was in the hospital recovering from the foot surgery, in his bloodwork, they found that his liver enzymes were high. The doctors did a few other tests and a week later, it was confirmed. Jim had pancreatic cancer. I didn't know anything about this disease until then. In fact, I wasnt even sure the purpose of the pancreas. We set up an appointment with a surgeon and on February 24th, Jim received the Whipple Procedure. The whipple has been around since the 1950's and is a very complicated surgical procedure, only 2nd to a heart transplant. In Jim's case, his entire pancreas was diseased, so they had to remove it all and then reconnect the rest of his digestive system. They checked surrounding lymph nodes but could not find any other cancer cells. Remarkably, Jim recovered very well. He was released from the hospital 3 weeks after surgery, only to return a few days later with, of all things, the hiccups. Something so innocent as a hiccup caused Jim to convulse and vomit from the pain. We rushed him to the emergency room and the he was back in the hospital for another 3 weeks. After he had healed, he began chemo treatments which lasted 6 months. He tolerated the medicine so well - he wasn't sick at all. Since then, Jim had been recovering beautifully - his foot and his surgical scars on both is foot and stomach. He was doing great.
Over the next two years, Jim faithfully kept up with all doctors appointments and tests as needed. The oncologist had been following this mass in his stomach which they thought was scar tissue since biopsies had been inconclusive.
On New Years day of this year, Jim revealed to me that he had been collecting fluid in his abdomen. I was ashamed that I didn't notice but he always had a shirt on with his stomach well hidden. I don't know when the fluid started collecting but by New Years Day, he looked like he was 6 months pregnant. The day after he told me about his fluid, he had a second biopsy appointment to get another sample of the tissue. Although they couldn't reach the tissue, they took several samples of the fluid, which we then were told was called, ascites. That was on a Monday. The following Saturday, while driving home from the store, Jim suffered a stroke. It was a horrifying moment, I called the ambulance which fortunately came quickly and we were able to get him to the hospital in time for the clot busting drug, tPA which quickly reversed the affects of the stroke. They kept him in the hospital for tests to determine why the stroke occurred. The tests were often miserable for Jim, but he endured it all. While he was in the hospital, they drained his ascites. 15 liters of fluid was drained from his abdomen. That is the equivalent of about 4 gallons of liquid. Just prior to Jim's release, the oncologist came to visit and let us know that the cancer is back. Although not one test indicated any cancer it was definitely back because there was no reason other than that for the ascites. This was an enormous blow to us both.
Jim went back to the hospital to have a port surgically implanted in his chest, as many patients do, to receive chemo treatments. The put it next to the scar from his original port that was removed. Jim began his chemo treatments on January 26, 2016. This time, the treatment is aggressive. The drugs he is receiving in this treatment, are the very best drugs for pancreatic cancer available today. That's the good news, the bad news is the illness after the treatment - intense nausea and diarreah. Unfortunately, Ascites will keep producing; therefore, Jim had a Tenkoff catheter put in his abdomen and we are able to drain 2 liters a day. It appears that he is producing nearly 2 liters a day so this is just keeping him comfortable. With the illness and the fluid, he has been bedridden for nearly 2 weeks now and is quickly losing muscle mass. He can barely get himself into a seated position on the bed.
As you can imagine, the emotional toll has been unbearable. If it were not for the generosity of friends and family, I don't know how we would have survived to this point. I honestly do not know how much our medical bills are up to - I know the whipple surgery was well over $100,000, of which my insurance paid all but $8,000. That was for one surgery. Still, with the cost of his diabetic medicine, the daily medicine he needs for digestion since he has no pancreas and all of the other medications he needs to treat the symptoms of his cancer, that $8000 has yet to be paid. I would think we would be well into $200K by this time with medical bills. This has been an arduous and miserable journey for Jim . I often feel helpless. Please take time to read about and support efforts for this terrible disease.
Currently, research dedicated to pancreatic cancer receives a mere two percent of the federal dollars
distributed by the NCI. By contrast, the other four of the top-five cancer killers in the US (lung, colon,
breast, and prostate cancer) received 2.8- to 6.3-fold more NCI funding in 2009 than pancreatic cancer.
The average dollar amount of basic research (R) grants in pancreatic cancer was 18 to 29 percent less
than R grants for lung, colon, breast, and prostate cancers. The R grant mechanisms are the mainstay of
scientific discovery in cancer research.
http://www.cancer.gov/research/progress/snapshots/pancreatic
https://www.pancan.org
As of today, February 16th, Jim has entered into hospice. Our thoughts and prayers are with he and Debbie. Debbie's main goal is to keep Jim comfortable right now.
Jim has struggled with diabetes for almost all of his adult life. I would say in the past 20 years, he has been hospitalized for foot infections at least 6 times - all resulting in surgery and most recently by removing a toe. As a result of this, thankfully, he was very good about keeping in touch with the orthopedic doctors. In February of 2014, at a routine check up, the doctors found a terrible infection in his right foot, which ate away at his toes and nearby bones. They performed an emergency surgery and removed a good half of JIm's foot. While he was in the hospital recovering from the foot surgery, in his bloodwork, they found that his liver enzymes were high. The doctors did a few other tests and a week later, it was confirmed. Jim had pancreatic cancer. I didn't know anything about this disease until then. In fact, I wasnt even sure the purpose of the pancreas. We set up an appointment with a surgeon and on February 24th, Jim received the Whipple Procedure. The whipple has been around since the 1950's and is a very complicated surgical procedure, only 2nd to a heart transplant. In Jim's case, his entire pancreas was diseased, so they had to remove it all and then reconnect the rest of his digestive system. They checked surrounding lymph nodes but could not find any other cancer cells. Remarkably, Jim recovered very well. He was released from the hospital 3 weeks after surgery, only to return a few days later with, of all things, the hiccups. Something so innocent as a hiccup caused Jim to convulse and vomit from the pain. We rushed him to the emergency room and the he was back in the hospital for another 3 weeks. After he had healed, he began chemo treatments which lasted 6 months. He tolerated the medicine so well - he wasn't sick at all. Since then, Jim had been recovering beautifully - his foot and his surgical scars on both is foot and stomach. He was doing great.
Over the next two years, Jim faithfully kept up with all doctors appointments and tests as needed. The oncologist had been following this mass in his stomach which they thought was scar tissue since biopsies had been inconclusive.
On New Years day of this year, Jim revealed to me that he had been collecting fluid in his abdomen. I was ashamed that I didn't notice but he always had a shirt on with his stomach well hidden. I don't know when the fluid started collecting but by New Years Day, he looked like he was 6 months pregnant. The day after he told me about his fluid, he had a second biopsy appointment to get another sample of the tissue. Although they couldn't reach the tissue, they took several samples of the fluid, which we then were told was called, ascites. That was on a Monday. The following Saturday, while driving home from the store, Jim suffered a stroke. It was a horrifying moment, I called the ambulance which fortunately came quickly and we were able to get him to the hospital in time for the clot busting drug, tPA which quickly reversed the affects of the stroke. They kept him in the hospital for tests to determine why the stroke occurred. The tests were often miserable for Jim, but he endured it all. While he was in the hospital, they drained his ascites. 15 liters of fluid was drained from his abdomen. That is the equivalent of about 4 gallons of liquid. Just prior to Jim's release, the oncologist came to visit and let us know that the cancer is back. Although not one test indicated any cancer it was definitely back because there was no reason other than that for the ascites. This was an enormous blow to us both.
Jim went back to the hospital to have a port surgically implanted in his chest, as many patients do, to receive chemo treatments. The put it next to the scar from his original port that was removed. Jim began his chemo treatments on January 26, 2016. This time, the treatment is aggressive. The drugs he is receiving in this treatment, are the very best drugs for pancreatic cancer available today. That's the good news, the bad news is the illness after the treatment - intense nausea and diarreah. Unfortunately, Ascites will keep producing; therefore, Jim had a Tenkoff catheter put in his abdomen and we are able to drain 2 liters a day. It appears that he is producing nearly 2 liters a day so this is just keeping him comfortable. With the illness and the fluid, he has been bedridden for nearly 2 weeks now and is quickly losing muscle mass. He can barely get himself into a seated position on the bed.
As you can imagine, the emotional toll has been unbearable. If it were not for the generosity of friends and family, I don't know how we would have survived to this point. I honestly do not know how much our medical bills are up to - I know the whipple surgery was well over $100,000, of which my insurance paid all but $8,000. That was for one surgery. Still, with the cost of his diabetic medicine, the daily medicine he needs for digestion since he has no pancreas and all of the other medications he needs to treat the symptoms of his cancer, that $8000 has yet to be paid. I would think we would be well into $200K by this time with medical bills. This has been an arduous and miserable journey for Jim . I often feel helpless. Please take time to read about and support efforts for this terrible disease.
Currently, research dedicated to pancreatic cancer receives a mere two percent of the federal dollars
distributed by the NCI. By contrast, the other four of the top-five cancer killers in the US (lung, colon,
breast, and prostate cancer) received 2.8- to 6.3-fold more NCI funding in 2009 than pancreatic cancer.
The average dollar amount of basic research (R) grants in pancreatic cancer was 18 to 29 percent less
than R grants for lung, colon, breast, and prostate cancers. The R grant mechanisms are the mainstay of
scientific discovery in cancer research.
http://www.cancer.gov/research/progress/snapshots/pancreatic
https://www.pancan.org
As of today, February 16th, Jim has entered into hospice. Our thoughts and prayers are with he and Debbie. Debbie's main goal is to keep Jim comfortable right now.
Organizzatore e beneficiario
Lori Carroll
Organizzatore
Pittsburgh, PA
Debra Steckel
Beneficiario