MY
MEDICAL
odyssey
began
in
the
summer
of
2006
,
when
I
first
felt
slight
,
____________________
pain
in
my
upper
abdomen
.
Later
,
____________________
set
in
,
and
my
doctors
suspected
I
had
hepatitis
.
That
turned
out
to
be
wishful
thinking
.
CT
scans
revealed
I
had
____________________
cancer
,
?
.
I
approached
my
treatment
like
I
approach
so
many
things
,
as
a
____________________
.
And
so
I
asked
lots
of
data
-
seeking
questions
,
and
found
myself
hypothesizing
along
with
my
____________________
.
I
made
audio
tapes
of
my
____________________
with
them
,
so
I
could
listen
more
closely
to
their
explanations
at
home
.
I'd
find
obscure
journal
articles
and
bring
them
with
me
to
____________________
.
?
I
told
doctors
that
I'd
be
willing
to
endure
anything
in
their
surgical
____________________
,
and
I'd
swallow
anything
in
their
medicine
cabinet
,
because
I
had
an
____________________
:
I
wanted
to
be
alive
as
long
as
possible
for
Jai
and
the
kids
.
At
my
first
appointment
with
Pittsburgh
____________________
Herb
Zeh
,
I
said
:
?
Let's
be
clear
.
My
goal
is
to
be
alive
and
on
your
____________________
in
ten
years
.
?
I
turned
out
to
be
among
the
minority
of
____________________
who
could
benefit
from
what
is
called
the
?
Whipple
operation
,
?
named
for
a
doctor
who
in
the
1930s
____________________
up
this
complicated
procedure
.
Through
the
1970s
,
the
____________________
itself
was
killing
up
to
25
percent
of
patients
who
underwent
it
.
By
the
year
2000
,
the
risk
of
dying
from
it
was
under
5
percent
if
done
by
experienced
____________________
.
Still
,
I
knew
?
?
.
