Peter Fry - his story

I'm now a 68 year old retired CA spent most of my career in the Prov Govt in various Financial Management positions. Next to my family, wife Barb, two grown sons and one grandson, my main passion is sailing. Other interests include travel, following hockey, football and looking after our home in Clayton Park and beachhouse  in Queens County. Barb is still working, has her own business which I help out with from time to time. In the past I've done a lot of volunteeer work mainly around the kids activities, minor sports and scouting. I've also been a volunteer with sailing activities, tall ships events and Pier 21 etc.

In the late winter of 2009 my GP called me to go over my annual medical test results.  There was a problem with my liver enzymes which called for a retest. Still bad results. He sent me for an ultra sound and referred me to an internal specialist. After more tests they were sure it was my gall bladder and referred me to a surgeon, Dr Molinari.  I met with Dr.M in June and he recommended a scope called ERCP to have a look around and see whats going on.  The scope was scheduled for late July. In early July I noticed I was getting very itchy all over and everything was turning yellow. Barb called our GP and he said to get into emergency asap. I told them my story and within a few days I had Dr M's ERCP. They brought the itching and yellow under control and a few weeks later I got a call to go in for an MRI. 

A week later we met with Dr.M and he gave us the bad news, I had a tumour in my pancreatic duct. He advised that we were very lucky to find it early and that it was one of the few pancreatic cancers that was operable.  On Sept 3rd 09 I had the operation known as a whipple. After 11 days In Hosp I was allowed to go home only to come down with an infection a week or so later and back in I went for another week. They got the infection under control and eventually in Nov recommended chemo. I didnt handle the chemo well and ended up in emerg every week  and eventually was back in the hosp for a week in Jan and a week in March with cellulites and pneumonia.  They stopped the chemo in March. My leggs were so badly swollen I could hardly walk.  I needed months of manual lymph drainage treatments to get back on my feet. I still go once a month for mld maintenance treatment.

One other side effect of all this is my heart went into afibrulation. It beats normally for awhile and then flutters for a few beats then back to normal.  Last spring, this Afib developed into CHF (congestive heart failure) and I spent 5 days in Hospital. I have been stabilized since on cardiac meds and follow up tests are planned for Jan/12. I have also developed an incisional hernia where the whipple was done and Dr M says it may have to be repaired  in the spring. Otherwise I'm doing fine, have to act my age, can't do anything too extreme and not lift too much.

Every 4 - 6 months Dr M orders a CT scan, blood work and sometimes an Xray to monitor the situation and so far so good. Keep your fingers crossed.