mid october, my dad started suffering from jaundice. he was later diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. early november he went into surgery. he had the whipple procedure, which removed a third of his stomach, the head of his pancreas, gallbladder, bile duct, lymph nodes, and surrounding intestine. the operation left an 11 inch scar across his stomach area.

since then he has had two rounds of chemotherapy (more information in history section). my dad suffered relatively mild side effects with the first round of chemo. unfortunately this was not the case with his last treatment.

in the four weeks after last his treatment ended, my dad lost at least 40 pounds. he was checked in to the hospital mid august to find the cause for his intense nausea. they discovered several severe ulcers and gastritis. his stomach had also stopped working normally.

he seemed to recover very quickly, and was released from the hospital in time to make our trip down to san diego. however, it quickly became clear he was not getting better. the trip was cut short, and my dad was readmitted to the hospital as soon as he arrived back home. at that time, he weighed only 140 pounds. he is 5'11" tall.

he has been at the hospital since. now that he is getting fluids and nutrients intravenously, he is looking much better. eventually, the doctors found fungus growing in his esophagus. now he is on anti-fungal medicine, pain medicine, anti-nausea medicine, and antibiotics (in addition to getting liquids and nutrients).