After watching two minutes of Patrick Swayze on the late news I had to start writing this and let’s see where this leads us.

I don’t drink alcohol, I have tried it in my younger years but didn’t like the taste so you can rule out the myth that alcohol causes pancreatic attacks though if I was to drink alcohol, inhale it, or have it in my cosmetics it would now. I say this as I have pancreatic disease or acute pancreatitis as they now call it I believe. I woke up 1 ½ years ago to what I thought was the worst case of a stomach bug to man kind to quickly being rushed by ambulance to the emergency room where I screamed in pain until the tests come in and that’s when the doctors moved fast and my life was to change at that moment.

I was to understand the doctors explained to me several times that I was to be aware that I was having a pancreatic acute attack that I could die and that there is no cure for it, no treatment. I ended up being brought back to life in the intensive care unit. You don’t realize how important your pancreas is until it happens to you. Without your pancreas your organs shut down and you die which is what started to happen to my organs but luckily only a quarter of my pancreas died. I was told by the doctors that this pain is worse then cancer. I have seen my family die of cancer but I have personally never had cancer but I knew this pain was to unbearable for me to take. At the time I couldn’t see much just shadows. I couldn’t walk for a while after I got out of hospital; I gained most of my sight back but would need glasses. I have bad lungs as they collapsed and still have pancreatic attacks that can last minutes, hours, or days. That is the short part of my story I only am able to write at all about this to you now as I have been for over a year now on an experimental new treatment that works, it isn’t a cure but it has changed my life so much that I could live a long life and yes I know I still live with a fatal disease but this treatment has given me so much hope and I can do so many things now, it’s the closest thing to a cure to me.

So you see I know how painful a pancreatic attack can be so to see a man who has what I call the “double whammy”, pancreatic cancer, get up in the morning and work on his new television series “The Beast” everyday amazes me. He must be a strong, brave soul to do this. The pain can hit him suddenly, I know, it does me, so for him to be still working at a young age of 56 on no pain killers when he is working is pure heart. From what I understand he lives his life knowing he will die from this cancer but does not make that his focus in life he makes it his living and the here and now his focus.

He is in fact to start a new chemotherapy and believes he will live another 5 years with this treatment. Most cancer patients do at first have this believe that their mind will beat it but they eventually give into their bodies. He will be lucky and I use that loosely to live out the year as to live one minute with pancreatic cancer I wouldn’t wish that on anyone well only some real and I mean real bad person. As dying from pancreatic cancer I know the pain would take him to dark places.

I have been a fan of Patrick Swayze’s work since I was a teenager. I must have seen his movie “Dirty Dancing” more then 100 times and played the musical tape more then that as a teenager. The dancing alone was sexy and don’t get me started on the sex scene, my favourite scene is the ending dance scene. Every time I would watch the movie I would replay the ending about 20 times before putting it away. I have seen many of his movies and owned most of them in the days of videos. He is blessed to have his wife Lisa Niemi of 33 years by his side through such a difficult time in his life and I wish Patrick Swayze and his family my heart felt well wishes in what they are both going through and I wish Patrick peace with a life full of no pain when the time comes to leave this earth. I wish I could meet him, not because he is famous and still sexy as ever but because of his strength.