Mike Fitzpatrick survived pancreatic cancer | whipple procedure | nanoknife | lanreotide | cancer cachexia
- 1 day ago
- 12 min read
DESCRIPTION
Mike Fitzpatrick was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1999. That he is still with us in and of itself is amazing; what is even more incredible is that he later learned he had been walking around with symptoms of the disease since 1986! When he initially reported the symptoms to doctors, they performed some tests and claimed at worst he had a twisted bowel. Mike went to a different doctor who ran an MRI and a CT scan and told Mike he had pancreatic cancer. After discussing the diagnosis with his wife, they decided to be proactive and opted for a Whipple Procedure, a complex, 13-hour procedure that got rid of hundreds of tiny tumors on his pancreas. However, in 2018, more tumors were back. They were removed with a nanoknife procedure, but Mike was told for the rest of his life he would have to take lanreotide, a monthly injection to keep the tumors at bay.
His health seemed to be just fine until 1986, when Mike experienced pain shooting through his abdomen and back. He found himself with severe diarrhea and sustained vomiting for twenty minutes at a time. Mike sought medical attention. Despite doctors running various tests, they said there was nothing wrong with him that indicated cancer, and that the worst possible scenario was twisted bowel.
In 1999, Mike went to another doctor who performed a CT scan and an MRI. Shortly thereafter, he and his wife were called to the doctor’s office where they were told Mike had pancreatic cancer. The doctor urged Mike to undergo a Whipple Procedure to get rid of hundreds of small tumors on his pancreas. When he asked the doctor of the consequences should Mike pass on the Whipple Procedure, Mike was told the consequences could be sudden death because the tumors could “explode.” Mike and his wife chose to go ahead with the Whipple Procedure.
It was a 13-hour surgery. Mike had his gall bladder, bile duct and part of his pancreas removed. Then the bile duct was re-attached to his small intestine so that he could eat and digest food. Mike said his recovery from the procedure took close to one year, but the tumors were gone.
All seemed well for Mike until 2018 when two tumors were detected. This time he underwent a nanoknife procedure. He was told the tumors were gone, but in 2024, they reappeared. His doctor told him that for the rest of his life, Mike would have to get a monthly injection of lanreotide, aimed at keeping the tumors from spreading.
Mike Fitzpatrick is glad to be alive, but suffers from neuropathy, which results in chronic fatigue and a loss of balance.
Additional Resources:
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: https://www.pancan.org
The Cancer Support Studio: https://www.cancersupportstudio.com
The One Cancer Place Institute: https://www.onecancerplace.org
Mike's Blog: 50 for Fitz, available on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram
TRANSCRIPT
Bruce Morton: Greetings. This is the @CancerInterviews podcast and I am your host, prostate cancer survivor Bruce Morton. Our guest on this episode is still with us after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1999, which is amazing all by itself; ut he later learned he had been walking around with the symptoms of the disease for years before he was diagnosed. He is Mike Fitzpatrick of Oakland Park, Florida. In addition to being a survivor, he puts in a lot of time and energy advocating for others diagnosed with cancer. Here he is, and Mike, welcome to Cancer Interviews.
Mike Fitzpatrick: Thank you so much, Bruce, glad to be here, glad to walk through memory lane with you.
BM: Mike, it is standard procedure for us to learn about our guests before we talk to them about cancer. If you would, briefly tell us about where you are from, what you have done for worm and what you like to do for fun.
MF: First of all, I grew up in central Massachusetts in a town called Auburn and lived on a farm with my four sisters and my father as well. So, we worked on the farm, had fun back in the sixties, man, what a time we had. For work, over the years, I worked in radio. I started out in Pennsylvania a long time ago when they had needles and records. I did sports reporting as well. I worked for a company called Service Finance Company when I first got down here to Florida.
BM: We usually ask guests when they initially noticed the symptoms that led to a cancer diagnosis, but in your case, the symptoms were around for quite some time before you were diagnosed. What were they?
MF: The symptoms were where I could not hold anything down. We have to go back all the way to 1986. I couldn’t hold anything down. I had extreme pain shooting through my abdomen, throughout my back, vomiting for twenty minutes at a time and diarrhea as well. That continued every time I ate a little something, falling down, holding my stomach. These were terrible episodes throughout the ordeal. Then there were misdiagnoses. A lot of doctors told me some certain things that were incorrect because they didn’t have any idea what was wrong with me. I was told one time to live with it. I was taking pills to get rid of the pain and the symptoms. They kept saying there was nothing wrong with me. I actually had surgery, exploratory surgery one time. They cut me down the middle. What happened was, I was coming out of the anesthesia, I could hear the doctors playing around with my bowel and one said to the other that I had a twisted bowel and they should sew me up, see what happens and let me eat something. Lo and behold, five or six hours later, after eating, same thing, vomiting for thirty minutes or so. They would rehydrate me and send me on my way. So, I kept living with it for all this time with these symptoms. It was terrible trying to work and raise a family.
BM: By the way, we hope you will find time to like and subscribe to our channel. And if you click on the bell icon, you will be notified whenever we post an interview. We also want to remind you we are not distributors of medical advice. If you seek medical advice, please contact a licensed healthcare professional.
Mike, all of this sounds very daunting both physically and mentally, but eventually a chain of events occurred that led to your diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Describe that chain of events.
MF: The chain of events is that I came across a doctor at UMass Medical in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was a young doctor and decided to do every imaginable test that was out there at the time. We went through the testing procedures, the MRIs, CT scans, everything imaginable. He called my wife and I into the office, told us to get in as soon as we could because he had some news for us. So, we rushed down to the office, he comes in, closes the door, sits down and he proceeds to tell me, “Michael, you have pancreatic cancer.” He said there was good news and bad news. He said the good news was that he had never done this type of procedure. There is a procedure, he said, in they could “take this out and take that out, but we can’t put everything back in” with this procedure. He said the bad news was that he had never done this type of surgery before. So, I asked him what if I don’t get this new-fangled procedure done? He said there could be sudden death. The tumors of the pancreas are in clusters. They could explode and there would be sudden death, and you would be done. My wife and I, after carefully thinking it over, we said let’s get this done, let’s get this over with. The doctor says to us once again, he had never done this procedure but would put together a dream team of surgeons from around the country. His search yielded three top-notch surgeons, and on May 26, 1999, there I was being wheeled in for what today is called a Whipple Procedure.
BM: From time to time, we have heard from guests who have undergone the Whipple Procedure. For listeners and viewers who may be candidates for the Whipple Procedure, describe it for us.
MF: It is extremely different because a pancreas is located behind one’s stomach. It is very hard to find, a spongy organ, so if you have to have a Whipple, which in my case took thirteen hours, they put you into a deep sleep. I went into a galaxy far, far away. The surgeon makes a cut, in this case, he made a triangle cut on one of my abdomen to the other. He made the cut, then he looked around to make sure that the tumors didn’t spread to the liver. If they spread to the liver, then they wouldn’t be able to proceed with the Whipple Procedure. There are two phases. First of all, the remove the gall bladder and the bile duct. They put them off to the side. Then they take the small intestine called the duodenum, which wraps around the pancreas. Next, the surgeon is able to isolate the pancreas to cut away the tumors. In my case the tumors were at the head of the pancreas, the tail and in the middle of the pancreas. They had to remove several hundred of these small tumors, one by one. In my case, they had to take half of my stomach out as well. Then, after a break, they go in and they start doing a re-pipe, in which the surgeon has to reconnect everything so the patient can eat and digest food again. So, they sew the remaining parts of the digestive tract with a loop, including the small intestine plus the pancreas. This allowed pancreatic enzymes to digest food. Then the bile duct, they’ll connect that to the intestine and reconnect everything so that you can digest fat. Once the stomach is reconnected, you’re good to go and you can digest food. Usually, it takes maybe a week or two of hospitalization so they can keep an eye on you. The next day I was up walking and it was very painful. I was walking around the hall, but I had these staples as I was stitched back together again. That was a difficult journey for me. What happened during the thirteen hours, the first surgeon became ill, then so did the second surgeon, then the third one finished up, and I was on my way to recovery. It took about eight months to a full year until I was feeling better. You know, people would tell me I was back to normal, but I was not back to normal at all because mentally you try and do the things that you would do pre-surgery, but again that stigma in the back of your mind, is, “How long am I going to live?” That’s why I like to remain positive and that’s why I am an advocate for pancreatic cancer and all cancers for that matter, too, with some groups.
BM: Mike, there are many types of cancer. The total goes into triple digits, but of all of them, few metastasize quicker than pancreatic cancer. Once the Whipple Procedure was completed, did your care team give you any odds of survival?
MF: Well, they didn’t give me odds because back then, there really wasn’t much information about the pancreas or pancreatic cancer, per se. There wasn’t even a support group, either, in the country. I think the nearest was in Saskatchewan, in Canada. The odds were at about 50-50, basically is what they said, and I was on my own because I didn’t have a support group. I started drinking a little bit because I didn’t know what the outcome was going to be, either. Meanwhile, an ex-member of my family, a daughter-in-law, said, “Let him drink. He’s going to die, anyway.” So, that kind of woke me up a little bit, that type of negativity. I slapped myself in the face and said, I am going to beat this thing, I am going to do whatever I can. I am going to eat healthy, I am going to work out. I am going to quit drinking, and yeah, that’s what I did. In those days, there weren’t any followup visits at all.
BM: So, you didn’t have a support group to go to, a family member responded to your diagnosis and treatment in a negative sort of way, where did you turn for support?
MF: I turned to our Lord, up in heaven. He guided me, going to church, being involved with the church and prayers are what got me through, my faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ.
BM: Next, Mike, think of your health prior to 1986 when you initially experienced the symptoms of pancreatic cancer. If your health was 100 percent, compare that to today, and how is your health today. What can you do and cannot do?
MF: There are things I cannot do. Number one, I have neuropathy. I went through cancer cachexia, a loss of weight. But I was able to do some pancreatic cancer walks, walked 100 miles, but today I am very limited in what I can do because if you have neuropathy, you have a tendency to fall down a lot. That ties in with pancreatic cancer. I also have Type Two diabetes and I have a high glucose reading as well. Furthermore, I am on various medicines. As a matter of fact, the tumors reappeared and I got very sick in 2018. I went to the doctor again. He scheduled a nanoknife procedure. I was wheeled in to get the nanoknife procedure on Halloween night. The doctor who did the nanoknife procedure, afterward gave two thumbs up because they successfully removed the tumors, but the original symptoms, six years later, popped up again. I went back to the doctor and asked what he planned to do. The doctor asked if I was feeling okay. The same doctor who said the nanoknife procedure removed all the 2018 tumors, said the procedure failed to remove all the tumors. I couldn’t believe it, but he said there were two tumors that were stuck in what was left of my pancreas. He said I would have to get this special injection called lanreotide, once a month, for the rest of my life, to keep them at bay. I wasn’t very happy with this doctor.
BM: On a more positive note, in contrast to when you were originally diagnosed, there are support groups for those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. How can they be of help?
MF: There is a group called the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network that I found out about after moving to Florida. I met Molly Serrano at the first walk that I went to. She was the first person I had met that had this Whipple Procedure. We had a nice chat afterwards, supporting each other. Sadly, just a few years later, she passed away. She was a triathlete, so pancreatic cancer doesn’t discriminate. She was a world class athlete, and she was aided by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. There is also the One Cancer Place Institute, which offers among things, patient-to-patient support.
BM: Now, let me ask you about the advocacy work that you do.
MF: Well, I have a blog called “50 Seconds of Fitz,” which is 50 seconds of information that you can take with you. It is informative, we give updates on clinical trials, information of different types of protein that can protect your body. So, it’s fast-paced. Sometimes it goes over 50 seconds, but that’s because we have to get the word out. We get our information from the National Institute of Health, John Hopkins, even the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. All of these organizations are on top of things.
BM: And if one wants to access the “50 Seconds of Fitz,” where do they go?
MF: They can go to Facebook, LinkedIn, they can go on all your streaming services.
BM: Mike, I think we are going to wrap up now. We want to thank you for a terrific story. You have been through so much, went through a daunting procedure, and we know through what you told that you are not 100 percent, but in your own way you are still going strong and spreading a powerful story, not only in our interview, but what you do continue to do, as well. Mike Fitzpatrick, thanks so much for being with us on Cancer Interviews.
MF: Thank you for having me. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
BM: Wonderful. And we want to remind you as we always do when we conclude that if you are on a cancer journey, you are not alone. There are individuals like Mike, there are organizations like the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network or the Cancer Support Studio that can team up to make the cancer journey a little bit easier. So, until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.
Additional Resources:
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: https://www.pancan.org
Cancer Support Studio: https://www.cancersupportstudio.com
One Cancer Place Institute: https://www.onecancerplace.org
Mike's Blog: 50 Seconds of Fitz, available of Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram
SHOW NOTES
TITLE: Mike Fitzgerald, Pancreatic Cancer Survivor – Oakland Park, Florida, USA
Mike Fitzgerald was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1999. That he is still with us in and of itself is amazing; what is even more incredible is that he later learned he had been walking around with symptoms of the disease since 1986! When he initially reported the symptoms to doctors, they performed some tests and claimed at worst he had a twisted bowel. Mike went to a different doctor who ran an MRI and a CT scan and told Mike he had pancreatic cancer. After discussing the diagnosis with his wife, they decided to be proactive and opted for a Whipple Procedure, a complex, 13-hour procedure that got rid of hundreds of tiny tumors on his pancreas. However, in 2018, more tumors were back. They were removed with a nanoknife procedure, but Mike was told for the rest of his life he would have to take lanreotide, a monthly injection to keep the tumors at bay.
Additional Resources:
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: https://www.pancan.org
The Cancer Support Studio: https://www.cancersupportstudio.com
The One Cancer Place Institute: https://www.onecancerplace.org
Mike’s Blog: 50 for Fitz, available on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram
Time Stamps:
03:15 Mike said he had symptoms of pancreatic cancer long before he was diagnosed.
06:22 Describes what led to his diagnosis.
08:47 Explains his decision to go ahead with surgery.
09:58 Gives a detailed explanation of what a Whipple Procedure entails.
14:25 Mike says post-treatment recovery took a long time.
15:28 Is asked after surgery, he was given odds of survival.
18:12 Assesses his health today.
19:35 Says after his Whipple Procedure in 1999, tumors reappeared in 2018.
KEYWORDS (tags):
pancreatic cancer
whipple procedure
twisted bowel
neuropathy
nanoknife
lanreoride
cancer cachexia
duodenum
Comments