Welcome to Living Healthy Chicago.
I'm Jane Monzures.
We wanna start today's show by talking about
the importance of paying attention to your own body
and being aware if something doesn't seem right.
It can even help catch a health issue early
and with his children in mind, this next man says
that was especially important following his diagnosis
of pancreatic cancer.
(soft music)
For Derek Faust, family has always come first.
- Family is a huge priority to me.
I wanna be part of my kids' lives.
I want to be part of those moments.
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- [Jane] With his kids in mind,
Derek was always careful to live a healthy life.
- I ate well, never smoked, and I never got sick.
- [Jane] So a few years ago,
when he started having some stomach pains,
he wasn't very concerned.
- They were waves of pain that would,
I'd feel right here in my abdomen
and what would happen is they would radiate to my back.
To me, this was just normal stress.
- [Jane] But when the pains continued,
Derek ended up in the emergency room
at the encouragement of his wife and mother.
- The doctor came back and told me there was an abnormality
on the tail of my pancreas.
- [Jane] That abnormality turned out
to be pancreatic cancer.
- At 41 years old, it was the last thing
I ever thought that would rock my world.
When somebody tells you you have pancreatic cancer,
your world gets red, your head is spinning.
You really do not know where to turn.
I cannot begin to tell you what it's like to be told
that you may not be able to see your kids grow up.
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- Pancreatic cancer is an abnormal growth of cancer cells
within an organ in the abdomen called the pancreas.
The pancreas serves a couple of different purposes,
but one of the things that it does
is that it helps the body regulate sugar
so that's what makes pancreatic cancer so difficult.
The symptoms are really non-specific.
You could have some abdominal pain,
you could have some change in your bowel issues,
you could have weight loss.
The earlier you find it, the better the prognosis is.
Surgery is the one way that
someone could be cured of their cancer.
- The malignancy was only one inch by one inch.
It was locally advanced in that
it was encasing my celiac artery.
I was inoperable at that point.
By twist of fate, I was referred to a doctor
that I grew up with and went to high school with
by the name of Mat Adess.
- I've known Derek my whole life.
Derek was such an unbelievable guy.
- When my wife and I sat and met with Matt
for the first time, Matt looked us both in the eye
and said we're gonna get to the surgery.
The first thing that went through my mind is oh my god,
I have three young kids and at that point,
your mindset shifts to I'm all in.
I will do whatever it takes to get there
and to get through it.
- Fortunately with advances in chemotherapy,
we're now able to take some patients
who at diagnosis can't have surgery,
but shrink their cancer down with the chemotherapy
and ultimately get them to the point
where they could have the surgery
and that's exactly what we did for Derek.
- [Jane] Derek's cancer was successfully removed
with surgery and then he underwent radiation.
- As hard as things were for him,
he faced it and he just did so unbelievably well.
As his doctor, obviously,
I wanna see patients have success.
You know, I want everyone to have the success
that Derek had so and on a personal level,
when it's someone that I've known my whole life,
it obviously, it's such a great feeling
when someone does so well.
- Right now I've been told there is no present cancer
in my body and we watch it dramatically.
The interesting thing is you try and compartmentalize it
and continue to live.
I hit some milestones this year.
I put my six-year-old on her kindergarten bus.
I celebrated my son's 10th birthday.
These were all goals that I set up when I was diagnosed.
I live my life right now.
I take the time and I live my life.
- The earlier we can find it,
the better off someone is going to do
so we really have to tease out these people
who are at higher risk and figure out
the best way to find the cancer as early as possible.
You wanna be your own advocate.
If you know that something is not right,
if you feel that that something is changing in your body,
go to your doctor.
- If we can get to treatment
and you can detect it early enough,
there's an opportunity to beat it.
I'm living proof that everyday's a blessing.
There's not a day goes by that before I leave the house,
I don't kiss my children.
There's not a day that goes by
I don't enjoy my time with them.
There's not a day that goes by
that I don't appreciate every moment.
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