CobraEarl Retiring Due to Health... (Pancreatic Cancer)

[cobraearl]

Original post dated OCTOBER 13, 2015. There is an update below on my condition posted June 28, 2016.

I will start in the Middle..

Tue sept 29 I went to the doctor thinking I had an "incarcerated belly button hernia". My son had a hernia in his belly button, My brother had one and it was operated on and repaired...

Digressing, I had driven my Class B camper from San Francisco to burning man, back to San Francisco and then HOME with no power steering. 1998 Ford 350 Super Duty Diesel Class B. LONG and HARD DRIVE... It broke on the way from San Francisco to Burning Man.. So is ASSUMED I had further ruptured my belly button from driving that BEAST 4000 miles with no power steering.....

My Doctor Looked at it and said it needed fixed in the next couple of days and sent me for a Cat Scan of the general area the same day. (I suspect he suspected something else)

Got the Cat Scan same day and the operator told me I needed to drop back by my doctors office the next AM.... I suspected a RAT....

To make it simple, he told me my hernia was actually a "Sister Mary Joseph Nodule" and my cat scan showed I have spots in my pancreas and liver.. Google: "Sister Mary Joseph Nodule".... EVEYONE SHOULD KNOW WHAT ThIS IS: For their health sake and the health of their loved ones.... NOT SOMETHING YOU WANT TO HAVE.. And I had never even heard of it...

My doctor had me go that afternoon (Wednesday) and have the Nodule Biopsied... CONFIRMATION...

My Oldest daughter is a Surgical Oncologist in Canada. She deals with Pancreatic Cancer and Liver Cancer all the time... I had my doctor call her from our meeting to explain the situation... I sure could not talk to her.... can hardly type this.. She has 3 partners and she packed up and flew to North Carolina that afternoon. We picked her up at the airport... Cried, hugged, hugged and cried.... and drove to the small hospital in Salisbury NC that had the initial catscan.. got a CD of it for my Daughter to look at. (Coincidentially, that hospital is the one I was born at back in 1947)

Next morning we got the biopsy results... But she was already searching for the best doctors at the best hospitals in our area... The doctor she picked said they had an opening Oct 13, today.. she got them to move it up to oct 6. My doctor is Angelia Allistar at Wake Forrest Medical Center at the NC Baptist Hospital... She has a trial going on that is having excellent results.. The trial is all the best drugs all the hospitals are using plus one more... Last Tuesday, I had another Cat Scan, an MRI and blood work.. Wednesday I had a PORT installed (sort of like a permanent IV)

I will have chemo every other Tuesday. FIRST one was today... LONG FUKING DAY........ I wear a pump that injects one of the drugs for 48 hours. get that pump off Thursday.....

Out of 13 people that have been in the trial, one is in "total" remission and two more appear to be heading that way...

We have a local news anchor, Margaret Johnson with WXII that had Pancreatic Cancer 10 years ago.. she is alive and well and doing the news...

PANCREATIC CANCER is not a death sentence.... Not something you OR I want, but its not a death sentence... Prayers Are Needed..

I DIGRESS AGAIN, My doctor Daughter was supposed to have a 25th highschool reunion last weekend.. She bought tickets for her family of 5 to come in last Wednesday and stay through yesterday... THE REUNION GOT CANCELED for lack of interest... She was considering us all driving down to Disney World since the reunion was canceled...
.............................. WE DECIDED TO GO ANY HOW!!!!!!!!!! .....................
So Wednesday. about 4 hours after my outpatient surgery to install my port, Gramma Juanita and I and The 5 Canadians Headed out from the Charlotte Air Port and drove to Jacksonville FLA.. (I Rode, they drove) Thursday, I felt good enough to drive the van on down to Universal Studios.. We ALL rested by the pool on Friday, Went To Disney World on Saturday.. Got up leisurely on Sunday and Drove up to Amelia Island Fl. BEAUTIFUL Island. Finished up the trip by dropping the 5 Canadians off at the airport yesterday (Monday) at 5:00pm.

Im glad we went to Disney and Universal. Sort of kept my mind off it and gave me some QUALITY TIME with my three AMAZING grand Children...

Got my first chemo today and I don't feel BAD.. not great but NOT BAD.... and that brings me up to right now.. I will reread this and edit it a bit... But two weeks from Initial Diagnosis to First CHEMO may be a record... And I credit my Doctor Daughter for Riding Herd, expediting or what ever term is appropriate...

I MAY BE ON THIS FORUM 10 Years from now.... BUT I WILL NOT BE IN THE COBRAPARTS Business much longer... I have a lot of loose ends I need to tie up, IE get my affairs in order JUST IN CASE it don't go good for the home team... If I tell some one I have two months to 3 years, my daughter fusses about both ends.... But Margaret Johnson has lived 10 years and some SUPER DRUGS Came out only 5 years ago... WHO KNOWS, I might make my life long goal of being shot by a jealous husband when Im 99. My wife and family have been super suportive thru the last two weeks....

I do want to say some things about my cobra friends:Since 2000 I have MET some of the nicest folks IN PERSON thru my FFR2362, MANY I'm lucky to call personal friends... I have met many super guys on the 3 sequential Ffcobra forums, plus the Factory Five official forum.. Ive been doing cobraearl (part time) for 12 or 13 years and I have NEVER had one person **** me out of a dime... YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST... and I still look at that cobra and say.... I Actually built that....

Sort of like I look at my THREE SUPER KIDS.... and say to myself, I sired those .. and Im pretty sure I did: And I had a big influence on them as one of their parents. And I look at those three amazing grand children and wonder what they will grow up to be... I could talk about them for pages....... PROUD GRANDPA is an Understatement!!! Proud Father is an understatement.. Proud Husband is an Understatement...

Jeff Collins of Whitby Motor Cars and I (CobraEarl) RENTED a race track about 8 years ago and held an open track event.. did not make any money, but we DID break Even..... WHO WOULD HAVE EVER THOUGHT I WOULD HAVE RENTED A RACETRACK FOR AN ENTIRE WEEKEND.... AND WE HAD A BALL...

My website is down so Im not SOLICITING ANY MORE ORDERS... If anyone needs to contact me, you can at [email protected]....