When it comes to her life, Julie Baker from Kirkland, Wash. likes to keep a sense of humor, and a “shit happens” attitude, she says.

“I was experiencing some stomach problems,” Julie says. “My doctor tried the Tagamet route, and talked about gall bladder surgery. My stomach hurt.”

Julie saw a surgeon. The surgeon said her gall bladder was fine, "but he said I was very yellow," Julie says. So she had another ultrasound and that’s when she learned she actually had pancreas cancer.  She was 57 in 2007 when she learned this news.

Julie’s doctor at the UW Medicine Factoria Clinic referred her to Dr. Sam Whiting, medical oncologist at SCCA who specializes in caring for people with pancreas cancer.

“I went to see Dr. Whiting with my brother and a friend from Denver. It was all very confusing,” Julie says of that first visit. “My tumor was wrapped around an artery and therefore inoperable.  When I asked what the survival percentages were on this, I learned there is no cure. I went home and said, ‘well shit!’”

Treatment

Before beginning treatment, Julie had a Hickman line put in. A Hickman line is an intravenous catheter most often used to deliver chemotherapy or other medications. It remains in place for extended periods and is used when long-term intravenous access is needed.

Then she began chemotherapy treatment.

“I was nauseous when I first began the treatment,” Julie says, “and have plenty of embarrassing stories about throwing up in major malls and having to buy new clothes.”

In just a couple of months though, Julie says her care team was able to get the side effects under control and nausea was no longer an issue for her.

“I decided not to sit around waiting to die,” Julie says. “I was told I had six to 12 months to live. I was going to travel.”

And travel she did, taking her mother on a cruise from California to Hawaii for 10 days. Then she and a friend went to Japan and Hong Kong. “That was a magical trip,” Julie says of her Asian adventure. They traveled first class and were picked up in Hong Kong at the airport in a Rolls Royce and stayed at the famous Peninsula Hotel.

Her next trip was to Egypt. Her absolute favorite excursion was the cruise on the Nile River in a small, 100-person ship.

“They kept telling me I was going to die, so off I’d go!” Julie says. “Every eight weeks we’d be off somewhere else.”

Italy was her next port of call. When she got home, she bought a plasma television and hosted an Oscar party where everyone dressed up to watch the awards ceremony.

With time on her hands, and money still in her savings account, Julie took a friend to Turkey where they sailed on a four-masted sailing yacht down the coast of Turkey to Greece.

“When I got home after this trip, I was out of money,” Julie recalls. “In the time I’d been traveling around the world, (and receiving treatment in between) I’d come to know other people at SCCA who were diagnosed with pancreas cancer, and who were all dying.”

Julie isn’t home-free, however. She’s had to have stents surgically inserted into her liver to keep the duct open five times. “My tumor is gone, but cancer cells are still there. I still have my pancreas and I’m just booming along,” she says.

“I have gone back to work part time to help a friend. I feel perfectly fine,” she says.

What happens next?

“Seattle Cancer Care Alliance has been wonderful," Julie says. "They took all the worry out of everything. Jo the nurse is infusion for the past four years is wonderful and manages the chemo great! She's like a machine: she gets in and out. Deb and Charlie on Sam’s team are wonderful, too.”

I'm feeling good about life, she says. “I quit smoking in January and today I enjoy working in my yard and around the house a lot. I also enjoy being an aunt to my sister’s children. I don't know what will happen next, but I know Dr. Whiting will take good care of me.”