Patty Hill - Pancreatic Cancer
Life was going along just fine for hairdresser Patty Hill—until she woke up one night with a mysterious pain and burning in her throat. “They found the tumor in my pancreas with a CAT scan, and gave me six months to live,” she says. Her doctor recommended that she go to M. D. Anderson, which seemed like a death sentence. “People had said that once you go to M. D. Anderson, that’s it. I thought I would just be a guinea pig for some new treatment, and didn’t want to go.”
Patty’s family had other plans. Her husband and two adult daughters convinced her not to give up, and to get whatever treatment M. D. Anderson had to offer. “They were my backbone,” she says. But the biggest motivation came from grandson Ryan, who was 9 months old when Patty was diagnosed in 1998. “My daughter (Ryan’s mom) was angry because I wasn’t crying about my diagnosis,” she says. “But the possiblity of not being able to see Ryan grow up got to me the most.”
Patty’s treatment, considered experimental at the time, included simultaneous chemotherapy and radiation to shrink the tumor before surgery. It worked, but it wasn’t easy. “I just wanted to lay in bed when I got home,” she says, but Ryan wouldn’t let her. “He would pat my cheek and say ‘come on’ and make me walk around the block with him.”
The cancer experience also helped Patty reconnect with her estranged sister. “There are some good things that come from cancer, and bonding with my sister again was one of them.” And where M. D. Anderson once meant fear, it now signifies joy. “I’ve been able to do so many things with my grandson that wouldn’t have happened without M. D. Anderson.”
Related Links:
- Pancreatic Tumor Study Group