I've not seen my brother since last year, though contact is rare, we get on well and I love him deeply, being 4 years older, I remember him as a baby. His last but one last email was for my spring birthday, then this weekend I got an email to say he has a pancreatic cancer this weekend. We have spoken on the phone, he is being treated by a world expert in pancreatic cancer, an Irish Lady who has worked in New York for a long time. The cancer is not safe to operate on until the tumour has been shrunk, he is accepting experimental drugs as well as other more commonly used medicines. When he started to feel unwell in the summer he was initially treated for diabetes. I am concerned he may find the chemo wipes him out more than he anticipates. He now weighs far less than me, I am overweight and struggling to manage diabetes by diet, but since early twenties he was always a lot begger, so the digestion and other problems have made a big difference. He runs his own business he has had for 20 years and his youngest son started working with him at New Year, so all this has been unexpected. He spoke of feeling high energy recently and spoke to me on the phone between business meetings. He has a lovely American wife, but she lost her only sibling to illness as a child so this will be hard for as well as his 3 adult children from his first marriage and my sister in the UK. I think they are in contact more often.
Hi Clougha Pike and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
I'm sorry to read that your brother has recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and I know how much a cancer diagnosis can affect the whole family.
The online community is divided into different support groups so I'm going to recommend that you join the pancreatic cancer group, which is a great place to ask questions and share experiences with others who have this cancer, and also the family and friends group where you can discuss your worries and emotions and get support.
To join, just click on the links I've created and, once you've joined, you can start a new post in the same way as you did here and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'.
It would be great if you could put something about your brother's diagnosis and treatment to date into your profile as it really helps others when replying to you and also when looking for someone on a similar pathway. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
