BRUCE'S STORY  

 

Update: (8/18/09, 9:12am)

Bruce passed away last night (obituary).  In Paula's words, "Bruce, my husband, my hero, is now resting in peace. We love and miss him and will hold him forever in our hearts."  The benefit will continue as planned this Friday in his honor. 

Update: (8/19/09, 8:28am)

The visitation will be 5:00pm to 7:30pm at Macken Funeral Home on Thursday, 8/20/09.  Funeral is 10:00am on Friday, 8/21/09 at Church of the Resurrection.

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Bruce Patterson (49) was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer on February 13th, 2009.  While he has remained strong during the fight, he is quickly losing the battle.  Therefore, friends and family are having a benefit to raise funds for his wife and four daughters (ranging from age 14-20).

Bruce is husband to Paula, father to Taisha, Shayna, Lexie, Carlie, IBM Employee, Coach for girls basketball and volleyball and sadly we must now add terminally ill patient with pancreatic cancer.

Click Here for Benefit FlyerBruce went in for a physical at OMC on Jan. 19th in preparation for a hip replacement in March (arthritis). He had been having pain in his left leg so he mentioned this to his doctor. They did blood work and then had him get an ultrasound. They found he had a blood clot in his leg so they put him on blood thinners and started to monitor his INR level. Over the next 3 weeks he was diagnosed with blood clots in his lung and his right leg. OMC then sent him to the hematology dept at Mayo where they did a full body scan and discovered the tumors in his pancreas and liver. A biopsy of the liver was done on Feb. 10th and on Feb. 13th Bruce and his family were given the devastating news that it was stage IV pancreatic cancer. He started chemotherapy treatments right away on Monday, Feb. 16th. 

For the past 7 months Bruce has been going once a week on Monday’s for the chemo drip and also taking 10 pills daily of chemo at home. Thankfully he did not get sick from the chemo. He did have some swelling of the legs and at times had difficulty walking because of the pain in his legs. His regimen was 3 weeks on the chemo and then a week off. After the first 8 weeks he had another CT scan to see how effective this chemo had been and all went well until he began having problems with water retention and back pain on July 24th.  He was admitted to Methodist Hospital and a CT scan showed that the tumors were growing and the chemo he had been on was no longer effective. 

Being the fighter that he is, on Thursday, July 30th, Bruce began a different form of chemo. He will have his second round on Thursday, Aug. 13th. He has not had a CT scan to determine the effectiveness of this chemo but continues to have fluid build up in his stomach and is growing weaker and losing weight. He is a true fighter and continues to be upbeat and tries to participate in family events.  

Bruce had continued to work part-time up until the end of July and then reluctantly admitted that he could no longer keep up. Paula gave notice on Friday, Aug 7th that she would need to take leave from her job and be home with Bruce and the girls.  

Many of you have been following Bruce’s fight at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/brucepatterson.  You have offered your prayers, friendship and food and continue to ask what else you can do. Bruce’s family will be in need of financial assistance so therefore family and friends have organized the fund raiser at Somerby Golf course. We need you to participate and support Bruce, Paula and the girls in whatever way you can. Cancer is a horrible disease and has touched many of our lives and we as a family will continue Bruce’s fight against pancreatic cancer.   

Thank you.  

 


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