Glen

Pancreatic Cancer, 2-year survivor

After 15 years on the police force, Glen isn’t easily intimidated by a dangerous situation. But pancreatic cancer is a challenging adversary. When he was diagnosed in 2005 with  pancreatic cancer,  Glen was concerned about the future of his young family. Hoping for the best outcome possible in the face of such a devastating diagnosis, Glen turned to the specialists at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. 

In 2003, Glen was a healthy newlywed enjoying his active life as a Massachusetts police officer and avid outdoorsman. Then in November he was sidelined by a piercing attack of pancreatitis.  “The pain was so excruciating,” says Glen. “I’m not a wimp, but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

As unsettling as the illness was, ultrasounds and CT scans performed during his short hospitalization revealed no serious underlying cause for the attack. Soon Glen felt normal again. A follow-up MRI the following spring revealed no new developments. Glen and his wife were expecting their first child and were relieved that his health crisis had passed.

Unfortunately, Glen’s 2003 pancreatitis attack was only the opening salvo in an arduous fight. Another bout in April 2005 required a six-day hospital stay. An ultrasound that May detected a mass on his pancreas. To determine the nature of the mass, his doctor referred him to MGH for an endoscopic ultrasound.  

“I live in Western Massachusetts, so when the doctor recommended I go to Boston I knew it was serious business,” Glen recalls. He was right. About a week after the procedure Glen’s MGH gastroenterologist, William Brugge, MD called with devastating news.

I just gave her the ‘thumbs down’ signal. Dr. Brugge told me I had cancer, that it was particularly nasty, and that I needed to see an oncologist right away. It was only a few days before my daughter Emma’s first birthday.”

The next day Glen made an appointment with Carlos Fernandez, MD, at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. Dr. Fernandez recommended the whipple procedure, a surgery that includes removal of the gallbladder, common bile duct, part of the duodenum, and the head of the pancreas.  Glen was comforted by the fact that the Cancer Center performs more pancreatic surgeries than any hospital in the Northeast.

The surgery went well.  Biopsies taken during the procedure confirmed that all cancerous tissue had been removed. He did not need radiation or chemotherapy.

Still, the experience was difficult for Glen, who lost 40 lbs during the ordeal, and for his family and friends, who traveled several hours each day to visit him at the Cancer Center. As a natural protector, Glen felt strange being in the healing hands of others. Glen credits the Cancer Center staff for making his nine-day hospitalization much more bearable.  “Not only Dr. Fernandez, but the staff [and], the nurses… they did so much every day for me but they never made me feel like I was a bother. I didn’t feel like another face in the crowd. They treated me like I was their son or their brother lying there. I couldn’t have asked for better care.”

Under the watchful supervision of Dr. Fernandez, in just three short months Glen was back to work and normal activity. “As far as what I can do, my life now is the same as it was before I got sick. I do the same activities, hold the same job, eat the same foods. But I don’t look at life the same,” he explains.

These days many of Glen’s most precious moments are spent playing with Emma, now 2 ½ years old, who has no memory of her father’s illness. On the rare occasions when she glimpses his surgical scar, she frowns, “Daddy’s boo-boo!” But then they go back to their game or their tea party, and life returns back to normal.