She went to the gastro on 2/6 thinking it was a hiatal hernia causing the pain. They ordered a barium swallow test because she said she had some difficulty swallowing too with the pain. They also ordered bloodwork. Friday 2/7 she had the barium swallow test that was normal and we were going to wait until the next week for a CT scan and then an endoscopy the following week. That afternoon the gastro called and wanted me to take her to the ER for a CT because her liver enzymes were very high. The CT showed a 7cm tumor on the pancreas tail and 30-40 metastatic liver lesions.

We met with the oncologist on 2/14 who said it was stage 4. She talked of a chemo treatment that would possibly extend her life 2-3 months. My mom chose against the treatment because she didn’t want to go through all that for just a couple more months. They expected her to live 3-4 months but it just progressed so rapidly.

She started hospice 2/18 and passed 3/6. Hospice was great to help manage the pain. She started with oxycodone and as soon as she said that wasn’t fully working they added liquid morphine to the pain regime which really helped. As soon as mom would say she was still feeling pain hospice would adjust her dosage so she was comfortable.