I just realized that it's been a while since I posted an update to this thread, so here goes. The last time I posted, my sister's insurance had been rejected by Cancer Treatment Centers of America and we were moving on to Plan B - back to Northwestern for standard line of treatment, which consisted of a fairly new but extremely aggressive 3 chemo "cocktail" called Folfirinox. It required a chest port to be implanted so that the "fanny pack" pump she would have to wear for 46 hours could easily be attached for the treatments. Well...right before she was to have the chest port implanted (last Thursday), she decided that she didn't want to go through with the Folfirinox treatment. This regimen is considered very tough and only offered to the healthiest of patients due to the very harsh side effects. She basically had decided that she didn't want to spend her last few months here in misery and agony from the effects of the chemo...so she declined. But before we left the hospital, our NP called us back in to talk about another option. That option would be the old, conventional chemo treatment - gemcitabine. It's not as effective as the Folfirinox regimen, but it is much better tolerated by most patients. This is the treatment that Patrick Swayze underwent initially after he was diagnosed back in 2008. After taking the weekend to think it over, my sister has decided to give the gemcitabine treatment a try. She is tentatively scheduled for her first treatment on July 7th, but they are trying to get that date moved up sooner. She has been feeling nauseous and not eating much lately and is working with a nutritionist at the hospital. Naturally, they want her to maintain her weight as much as possible, so they are encouraging her to eat small, frequent high-protein, high-fat snacks/meals. Hopefully, she will have a positive response to the gemcitabine chemo and be willing to stay on it long enough to see if it helps.

That's all I have for now. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers...it is very much appreciated.

Linda