From Diagnosis to Death in a Few Days: A Widow’s War Story
Anne Pettiti with her husband Mario (second to the left) at their son’s wedding taken on January 1, 2010.
My husband was a relatively healthy man. He had diabetes related to Agent Orange, but kept it managed. In November of 2009, he started having some stomach pain, loss of appetite and sporadic nausea. He was a referred to a gastroenterologist and was found to have ulcers and H Pylori. He was prescribed a round of antibiotics. On his follow up appointment with the gastroenterologist, he had lost some weight and he told the doctor, he still did not have an appetite. The doctor told him it was because of the ulcer and he should force himself to eat. In the middle of January of 2010, he started having stomach pain that radiated to his back. We took him to the ER at a VA hospital. They did some testing. I told the Dr. at the VA that I thought my husband looked yellow. The doctor told me it was the lighting in the ER. At that time, I don’t think his liver levels must have been out of range, or they should have caught it in the ER. They told him he must have pulled a muscle. During that time he still worked a full time job. The end of January, his urine looked dark. We called the VA nurse on call, explained the symptoms, and she told him it must have been something he ate as the reasoning for the dark urine. I knew something was wrong, so I told my husband I was going to call the private gastroenterologist who diagnosed his ulcers. The gastroenterologist then sent my husband for blood work. At that time the blood work came back with many of the levels being off. The doctor told me he had a feeling it was Cholangiocarcinoma, but wouldn’t know without further testing. My husband had a CAT scan that showed one thing and an MRI that showed something else. The doctor said the only way to know for sure was to have a PET scan. By the time we waited for all the testing to take place it was the end of February. The doctor called us the end of February and told us to see an oncologist. The oncologist diagnosed him with Stage IV Cholangiocarcinoma. He had his first Chemo on March 1, 2010. He progressively declined. He passed away on March 13, 2010. So from the first onset of symptoms, which was diagnosed as ulcers, it was only four months till he passed away.
My husband was a Vietnam Veteran. One of the causes of Cholangiocarcinoma is Dioxin, which is found in Agent Orange. Another cause is exposure to liver flukes, which are prevalent in Vietnam and surrounding areas. It can be caused by eating improperly cooked fish or poor sanitation methods when preparing food and cross contamination. The liver flukes do damage to the bile ducts. If one has a light case they might not have symptoms. After exposure, sometime, it takes twenty to thirty years or more before this cancer develops. This is happening to many of our Vietnam Veterans. In most of the cases, the diagnosis happened the same way as it did for my husband. The Veteran is relatively healthy, symptoms happen suddenly and within months the person dies.