“Everything is now an adventure,” Julie Radloff said about her life. “I look at life as an adventure.”
Julie’s life turned around in March of 2013 when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer occurs within the tissues of the pancreas, a vital organ that is located behind the stomach. The pancreas plays an essential role in digestion by producing enzymes that the body needs to digest fats, carbohydrates and proteins. The pancreas also produces two important hormones that are responsible for controlling glucose.
The pancreas is about six inches in length and two inches wide. It has two different glands known as exocrine glands and endocrine glands.
Pancreatic cancer is asymptomatic, and when the symptoms do appear, they resemble the symptoms of many common illnesses.
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States.
“I am living with cancer, I am not cured,” Radloff said.
Radloff is serving as this year’s honorary chairwoman for the Waterloo/Lake Mills Relay For Life set for June 20 and 21 at Commons Park in Lake Mills.
The Waterloo woman said she was asked to be the American Cancer Society’s relay honorary chairwoman by Cheryl Setz and Pam Davison who head up a team from F & M Bank in Waterloo. “I was surprised when they asked me to do it,” Radloff said. “For me, I am not a survivor yet.”
But she is surviving, as she has outlived what her doctors had projected
When she was first diagnosed in 2013, she was given six months to live. It has now been 15 months since they found a large tumor in her pancreas.
“I did not have a lot of symptoms,” said Radloff, who is a nurse. The night she went to the hospital she had a pain in her side. She thought it might have been her appendix. She was a nurse at Meriter Hospital for 30 years and “that was the last night I worked.”
Doctors found a mass through a CAT scan. “Being a nurse, I knew right away it was not good.” She had a biopsy that indicated cancer.
Doctors speculate she had the cancer for about 18 months before it was diagnosed. It is known as the silent killer, she said.
There is a history of breast and colon cancer in her family but not pancreatic cancer, Radloff said.
Radloff is not a surgical candidate because blood vessels from her stomach are wrapped around the tumor. In April of 2013, she began four months of high doses of chemotherapy. Fortunately, she had no side effects. In August she had a break and then had radiation and chemotherapy in September and October. “I had to wear a bag of chemo for five days as it was streamed into my system,” she said.
“I understood what was happening and why they were doing it,” Radloff said. “Being a nurse helped,” she added.
Her treatment was provided at UW Carbon and Cancer Center and Clinic. “My doctor, I love him for saving my life.”
Radloff said she never felt the need to ask ‘why me?’ “I was in shock,” she said. “Once I processed it I thought this is not the worst thing to have.” She is thankful she did not have a major stroke or die suddenly. Her focus now is to take care of herself.
“I look at it as a challenge,” Radloff said.
“This has given me the opportunity to track down people I haven’t seen in awhile,” she added.
She has three children, her son in Waterloo, a daughter in Windsor and another child who is living with her grandmother. She said her children were both shocked and saddened at the news. “It is a part of life,” Radloff said. “My attitude is I have too much to do and I will be around.” The reality of it has not settled in, she added. She still looks good and is still strong. She lost her hair last fall, and it grew back gray and curly. She said she received compliments on her new hairdo.
“I have a lot of good friends, a support person and a lot of prayer,” she said. “At least I don’t have a child going through this. I don’t want anyone else I know going through this.”
She enjoys reading and going to lunch with her friends. She also did a lot of walking until the chemotherapy slowed her down. She also lost her appetite. “I lost 25 years in the past year,” the 53-year-old said.
“I have slowed down and learned to appreciate time,” Radloff said. “I look at the stars and the moon differently.”
She is currently in oral chemotherapy. “I will be on some kind of chemo throughout the duration,” she said.
“This year I don’t think about it every day,” Radloff said. She said she is content to stay home and go through pictures.
Radloff said for her survivor speech she plans to sum up what she has been through the past year. This will be the first time she attended a Relay For Life celebration.
“I am thankful every morning I can get up.”