Please help Rey battle his Pancreatic Cancer

Hi everyone my name is Rye/Rey Serneo.

I'm setting up this page for my 54 year old father who’s currently suffering from Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer and Liver Cirrhosis.

His story began a little more than a year ago...

Last September and October:-
 He started having symptoms of constant diarrhoea, where he would #2, 4-5 times a day. We thought a normal Imodium would cure it but he was still having a lot of bowel movements and #2. So we sought a GPs advice (Doctor) and he suggested it was all due to a high level of stress.

 To reduce his discomfort, he was prescribed with Valium.  However, these episodes of diarrhoea were still occurring after 2 days, so we went back to see the GP again and he diagnosed my dad with IBS this time. He was prescribed some medication and was advised to change his diet. However he could feel his condition getting worse and worse after 2-3 weeks despite the change of a healthier diet.

We were advised by the doctors to see a Gastrointestinal doctor. He carried out a lot of treatments on my dad but that still didn’t help reduce his diarrhoea episodes. The following week he scheduled my father for a colonoscopy where he found a 2-inch tear in his sigmoid colon. So straightaway the doctors ruled that it was his colon causing all these #2 episodes and bowel movements, and diagnosed him with Liver Cirrhosis.

Last December:-
My father’s bowel started acting up and his #2 episodes came back again. During this time my father had been in and out with doctors appointments again and more assessments to his bowel were carried out.

March 2018:-
Dad started losing more and more weight as he was struggling with the intake of his food, so he decided to seek another doctor’s advice as his previous one seemed unsure of his condition. This current doctor said that although they didn’t see any scans of the tumour in his bowel and colon, the presence of those cells was indicative of the tumour growing somewhere and that it was most likely the cause of his inability to eat.

April to September 2018:-
My dad was prescribed with new medication but was still losing weight despite his healthy diet. We also noticed his belly was getting bigger than usual and he looked bloated, which we had originally thought was due to him eating too much. However his face started to look haggard and restless.

So we went back to his doctor again to have more assessments carried out on him and eventually they found some spots on his small intestine and within his abdominal wall. He was once again admitted to the hospital and the doctor wanted to carry out a colon resection on him. However, we were unsure about this procedure due to their several misdiagnoses and hoped to seeking another opinion.

October 2018:-
We decided to have the assessment and blood samples done on my father at another hospital, including an MRI contrast on him. They diagnosed him with Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer which has already metastasised to his liver and we were all devastated and upset by this sad news.

Our hearts sank and we were far from prepared for this sad news, especially when the doctor suggested that there is no cure for his illness. One minute ago, our hope for dad's recovery was strong. Suddenly our vulnerability was exposed and our emotions hung heavy around us for the whole day, which made us keep thinking about the amazing times with our father. We kept praying to god in hopes of a bright recovery of our father. It made our heart sink again realising there was the only love and support we could offer him now.

Few days later we met with the oncology consultant who offered my father chemotherapy (folfirinox). The oncologist said the chemotherapy was palliative treatment just to give my father more time with us. Surgery wasn’t an option as the cancer had metastasised to my father’s liver. However, the health and the state of my father is not an ideal to go chemotherapy as my father is  very fragile and would just make him very weak.

The hospital advised us that our father should go to a pigtail procedure because of his Ascitis accumulation of fluid which builds up water in his abdomen and it needed draining. The doctor also explained to us the risk of this procedure and also the expenses of this treatment.

Watching my father go through this has been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do! He is so brave and always has been and to see him so weak, not eating and in pain was so heart wrenching.

We hope that he is able to celebrate Christmas with us comfortably, and perhaps, as we prepare him to undergo another round of tests and treatments – ourselves and his loved ones can spend one more happy day with him.

Whilst we are trying to remain positive, all of our savings has gone towards medical treatments and we've had to start putting things on credit cards. We are currently in the negative and have no idea what other medical expenses may lie ahead.

Our Goal with this Go Fund Me campaign is to
raise money to help my father live his life in the best way possible with us and help create precious memories. So with that in mind any donations would go towards doing things with father (when he can) as well as what could be our last Christmas with him, medical bills with the Christmas and new year and provide financial support for our family during this difficult time so we can concentrate on spending as much time as we can together without worrying about our medical bills that are piling up.

We hope each and everyone shares our story to as many people and thank you for taking the time to read our story.

Thankful always,