Nancy Pollack

As someone who splits her time between Illinois and Arizona, Nancy worked quickly to coordinate care in both places. In Scottsdale, she met with a team at HonorHealth, where she underwent an endoscopy with inconclusive results. Returning to her home base in the Chicago area, she saw Dr. Matthew Adess, M.D., at Endeavor Kellogg Cancer Center, who confirmed her cancer diagnosis and outlined potential treatment options.

Dr. Adess suggested Nancy consider chemotherapy using either FOLFIRINOX or Gemzar with Abraxane. Fearing FOLFIRINOX side effects, she opted to undergo treatment with Gemzar/Abraxane and committed to six months of chemotherapy.

While Nancy prepared for the worst, she was pleasantly surprised at how she responded.

“The fact that I wasn’t sick was remarkable,” she said.

She did, however, lose her hair within about two weeks of starting chemo. Because of the tumor’s location and arterial involvement, surgery was not a safe option.

While Nancy felt confident in her care team, friends urged her to seek a second opinion, which is always a smart move in the wake of a serious medical diagnosis. Dr. Adess recommended she speak with Dr. Ben George at Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and she soon traveled to Wisconsin to meet Dr. George and a well-known MCW pancreatic cancer surgeon, Dr. Doug Evans.

Nancy and the doctors discussed whether she could potentially be a candidate for surgery upon finishing chemo. They told her it might be possible, but warned her about the dangers, noting that she’d run the risk of developing diabetes and losing her spleen and bowel control.

“That ‘but’ said to me, ‘Don’t do it,’” Nancy said. “I was already 80; I’d already lived a beautiful life. I didn’t want to become diabetic – it wasn’t something my husband and I thought was appropriate at this time.”

Instead of surgery, Nancy resumed chemotherapy and added radiation, with MCW’s Dr. Beth Erickson overseeing her radiation treatment. During that time, she and Danny stayed at Kathy’s House, a 38-room guest house for patients and their families.

“We were so happy Dr. George mentioned Kathy’s House, and that we could stay there,” Nancy said. “It’s so nurturing and comforting – it’s almost like living at home.”

Nancy and Danny were so impressed by Kathy’s House that they’ve started supporting it financially, raising about $40,000 to help other families getting treatment at Froedtert/MCW access the same care and comfort they did.

Nancy’s post-radiation scans showed stable results, and she soon returned home to Illinois to continue recovery. To her surprise, recovery ended up being one of the hardest parts of her cancer experience.

“I didn’t prepare myself for how I’d feel when I got home,” Nancy said. “For someone who was used to doing everything, I did nothing.”

Rather than rush the process, Nancy gave herself time, starting physical therapy and other efforts to slowly build back strength. After about a month, she finally started feeling more like herself.

Following her four-week break from treatment, Nancy met with Dr. George for scans. She’d hoped to return to Arizona, where she has wintered for the past 10 years, to continue her recovery. After reviewing her scans, Dr. George delivered good news.

“I see Arizona in your future,” he’d said, and Nancy and Danny soon made their way southwest.

Back in Arizona, Nancy began seeing Dr. Erkut Borazanci, M.D., or “Dr. B.,” at HonorHealth. They discussed whether she might try to find a clinical trial, but with her condition stabilized, they decided to put that on the back-burner and consider revisiting the idea if the need arose.

These days, Nancy continues to monitor her health closely, having scans every three months and blood tests every three-to-four weeks. She takes Xeloda, an oral form of chemotherapy, and will continue to do so as long as her condition remains stable.

“It’s so uplifting to be with someone diagnosed so long ago,” Nancy said. “She’s so invested in wanting to help people, and that’s the way I feel.”

Nancy said that the amount of information hitting people newly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer can feel overwhelming, particularly when it comes to new drugs and treatment possibilities. She finds it helpful to tune into informational sessions and support groups hosted by organizations like the Seena Magowitz Foundation, noting that they cover a wide range of topics related to the condition. They also give participants a chance to share their experiences and gain support and guidance from experts and specialists in the field. In Nancy’s case, she participates in several such meeting each week and encourages others to join them as often as they’d like.

Nancy has also become more intentional with her time since her diagnosis, leaving plenty of room for life outside of treatment. Last summer, she and Danny brought their children and grandchildren to a dude ranch. While Nancy couldn’t ride the way she once did, seeing everyone else have a great time was just as enjoyable. She and Danny also traveled to Cancun recently after bidding on the trip at an auction, paving the way for a memorable experience they might otherwise have put off.