PANCREATIC CANCER HELP FOR SLAWOMIR

Slawomir Smoczynski - My father and my life long best friend, a 44 year old outgoing, fun, loving and the most hardworking guy, diagnosed with Advanced Pancreatic Cancer with metastases to the liver.
At the beginning of the year 2018 Slawomir started noticing aches in his lower back ( Also fatigue, soreness, tiredness). As a hardworking self-employed stone mason, he simply thought the pain was because of him continuously lifting stuff at his work site. The back pains would come and go in waves. As a stubborn and fairly young guy, he simply let it go - at that time he could still normally function, work and sleep .

With time my father started experiencing discomfort in his stomach, and symptoms typically that go hand in hand with H-Pylori bacteria and inflammation of the lining of the stomach - that includes belching, heartburn, fullness, bloating and stomach aches. 

Dad didn't have a primary care doctor, as he was always mortified going to the doctor ever since he had a traumatic event of going through anaphylactic shock when doctors overdosed him on penicillin as a 5 year old boy.

At times of pain, he would still refuse staying at home and would still go work really hard to earn the money to provide for the family.   

Few months passed by and his back pain started getting worse and worse, to the point he couldn't sleep at night as the lower back pain gradually started radiating to other parts of his back and the shoulders. He also already barely ate at that point in time and lost 42 lbs over 2 month period. 

Once the pain started getting worse, my father finally came for help to me and I ended up going around with him to walk -in clinics as the primary care doctor offices only had appointments months ahead.

Most walk-in clinics wouldn't be able to do much for him as they didn't have the right resources to test him for H-pylori or do other specific and thorough tests. Until he had seen a primary care doctor nobody would be able to do anything for him, unfortunately not even the ER.

Thankfully, one of the Wawrick's Care-Well clinic's doctors, referred dad for an ultrasound since she couldn't do the tests for him or manage his pain. 

On June 15th we had an ultrasound appointment at one of the Warwick's medical facility.

The same day, within 3 hour span we already got a call with a referral from a gastroenterologist, and then an hour later from an oncologist to see only a few days later.


On Tuesday June 19th  we had an appointment at Roger Williams Cancer Center with one of their doctors, and they told us they have found several tumors on his liver on the right and the left side. 
After our family was told the news, it was no wonder that my dad couldn't keep down food as the tumor pressed on his stomach,
and blocked it from digesting whatever he ate. Also then the back pain also made perfect sense.
The doctor did several blood tests to rule out certain types of cancers and referred us for an MRI.
Unfortunately, my father couldn't withstand the pain of lying down for the MRI procedure, so they were unable to complete it.

This past week on Tuesday June 26th which was the day we had an appointment with the oncology doctor, we ended up going into the Roger Williams ER because my fathers pain became unbearable. 

The same day my dad got admitted into the Center 4 unit which is an oncology care unit where they could give him an alternative testing to the unsuccessful MRI procedure. 
They have eased his pain and proceeded with a CT SCAN for him to locate his tumors. 

The following day they did a CT SCAN GUIDED LIVER BIOPSY to determine what type of tumors he has. 
Also, the same day we saw his surgical oncology doctor, who broke the news to us about a Pancreatic Cancer with swollen lymph nodes around the organ that has also spread to his liver. Since the option of surgical removal of the tumor was already out of the question, his case was passed onto a hematologist oncologist that could examine his case and prepare him for the right chemotherapy.

As of right now, he had his SMART PORT procedure done in preparation for his aggressive chemo therapy...
He's not going to be able to go back to work with his dire illness, which compromises the family's financial situation.


With a bit of your help and aid, we could solely focus on his aggressive  treatment and ease our financial worries. 
Your financial help could also help us worry less in case we'll be in need of funds for Slawomir's further medical treatment, as we don't know if his insurance will be able to fully cover the medical expenses. 

Unfortunately, right now our family struggles with meeting the financial responsibilities which adds a lot of stress onto us, and since my father was self-employed he is not eligible for Temporary Disability Insurance or any type of social security.


As a family we would GREATLY APPRECIATE any help you may be able to provide in this difficult time for us.



Sincerely, 
The Smoczynski Family.