Support Richard Philmlee's Pancreatic Cancer Battle

Hi. My name is Richard E. Philmlee. I am an 85-year-old retiree and have been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which has a 3-5% long term survival rate.

I originally went to my doctor in October of 2023 with symptoms that something was wrong. I am diabetic but had been managing my blood sugar well, keeping it in the normal below 120 range. All of a sudden, my blood sugar scores jumped to 300 and stayed there. The doctor did a CT scan. When he interpreted the results, he told me that I had a small spot on my pancreas, but it was nothing to worry about. I believed him, so I didn't follow up until 10 months later when obvious cancer symptoms appeared. I lost my appetite, was always nauseous, couldn't eat solids (threw up after one bite), and started losing weight rapidly.

In addition, my oncologist (I went to a different one this time) told me the cancer had already metastasized (it has spread to other parts of the body, in this case, my lungs and stomach), which rules out surgery to remove the pancreas. In 3 months, I went from 240 down to 170. I am forcing myself to eat something every meal and have managed to slow down the weight loss. I have been taking chemo every other week for ten weeks. On November 15, I completed my 6th treatment. Then the oncologist did a nuclear CT scan and compared it to one he took just before I started chemo. The news overall was good. He told me that I am stable, which means that the cancer did not grow or spread during the three month period. He did say that a couple of lymph nodes in my lungs had gotten larger, so would need to be watched. I feel stronger, my appetite is getting better and I am sleeping better

The chemo treatments are expensive, $1650 twice a month plus blood work labs every week. We have gone completely through our savings and are struggling to pay our bills. I will be on Chemo for the rest of my life, which is now estimated at 1 - 2 years.

This is why my wife and I have made the decision to start up a GoFundMe account. All the proceeds will go towards keeping bills current.