Unbelievable

Wow, who would ever think Craig Doutre would have cancer? The guy is made of steel, not cancer cells! He has a healthy head of hair, a slightly pudgy gladiator body and a positive attitude. Not too typical for a cancer victim.

This story began around January of this year. Craig was feeling some upset in his stomach - like a bad Mexican meal - and it kept him on the run! But he just went along and kept thinking it was some intestinal upset or maybe an ulcer. He received medicine for those types of ailments from his brother-in-law, Dr. Craig Harmon (this is where it might be confusing) -{ Craig Harmon - Dr., Craig Doutre - patient}. He really wasn't feeling that bad but did start to feel some pressure in the upper abdomen which just wouldn't go away. One night, goofing around, he drew a circle in permanent marker on his abdomen with radiating lines to help the doctor do his job.

Dr. Craig referred Craig to a GI doc - Dr. Kuwahara for an upper GI that showed some bad signs that prompted the doctor to order a CT scan because Craig's liver was enlarged. The CT scan was performed on Mon. April 27. Dr. Craig received the results from radiology and told us this was not good news. The pancreas is affected and it has metastasized to the liver. At that point the only words I understood were - metastasized meant cancer. I asked - you mean cancer? Yes, it was the dreaded "c" word and it had started in the pancreas and moved to the liver. It was ugly.

Craig and I left the clinic and went home to get Scout, our golden retriever, and head up Millcreek Canyon to hike the pipeline trail. We just needed to clear our heads and try to take in this new information. This was way worse than anything we expected.