Recently, pancreatic cancer has been in the news.  Patrick Swayze’s death has brought to light this deadly killer.  He is not alone.  Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Ruth Bader-Ginsburg have also been diagnosed with this disease.

 

What makes this type of cancer so dangerous is that there are usually no early warning signs.  By the time people begin to show symptoms, the cancer has already metastasized.  Below is a list of the most common symptoms of pancreatic cancer.

 

·         Pain in upper abdomen and back

·         Jaundice

·         Nausea

·         Loss of appetite

·         Weight loss

·         Fatigue

·         Depression

 

I watched my best friend’s father deal with this disease for 4 ½ years.  He survived with the disease longer than most people.  The average 5 year survival rate is 5%.

 

I believe what helped him survive as long as he did was a combination of early detection and his positive attitude.  Jack was one of the lucky ones who was diagnosed early and was able to have surgery to remove most of the tumor.  It was really tough watching him go through his battle, but seeing the way he bravely fought the disease was an encouragement to those around him.

 

Jack has been gone for 2 ½ years.  One of the things I learned as a result of his struggle was to gather as much information as you can handle and face the situation head on with the best attitude possible.  That is something we can all use, regardless of the battle we are facing.

 

How do you cope with a difficult situation?

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 11:56 am and is filed under Older Worker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.