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When the dancer, the actor and the heart Patrick Swayze deceased from pancreatic cancer At 57, fans around the world had a broken heart - but no one was more devastated than his 34 -year -old wife, Lisa Niemi Swayze . "We have almost spent Our adult life together ," she said Today of her husband, whom she married when she was only 18 years old. "It was a very difficult transition. It's like losing an arm and a leg and having to learn to walk and work again while you have great pain."

Fourteen years after his death, Niemi Swayze speaks in the hope of raising awareness of the disease that took her life, in partnership with the Pancreatic cancer action network . "Cancer may have taken him, but that didn't beat him. And I continue his fight for him," she said Today . "Patrick fought a very difficult and long battle. If his battle helped someone else would be an absolute honor for him."

And although Niemi Swayze noted that it was very difficult to detect pancreatic cancer early ("something that must really change," she said), she now shares the first signs of cancer that she and Swayze noticed. Read the rest to find out which symptom has led Niemi Swayze to tell her husband that they had to go immediately to the doctor - more, how she took care of herself during her illness.

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Because pancreatic cancer can block the biliary canal of your liver, the disease often causes jaundice , which manifests in the form of yellow eyes and skin, explains the Mayo Clinic. And indeed, it was the symptom that the most alarmed Swayze's wife before her diagnosis.

"He came to me and he said," Do my eyes look yellow? "", Did she say Today . Crying that they did it, she urged her husband not to wait until next week to visit the doctor, which was the initial plan of Swayze. "Yellow eyes do not seem normal. We have to go tomorrow," she recalls.

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Jaundice was not the only early symptom that Swayze suffered. "He had digestive problems - a sentence that would not disappear," said Niemi Swayze. "But it was above all the yellow eyes that sent us to the doctor."

Mayo Clinic reports that because cancer tumors of the pancreas can press the abdominal nerves, Stomach pain is common at subsequent stages of the disease. Intestinal obstructions are another symptom of growing tumors, they add. "Pancreas cancer that grows or is pressure on the first part of the small intestine (duodenum) can block the digital flow of your stomach in your intestines," write their experts.

Niemi Swayze said that as soon as the doctor looked at Swayze, he sent the actor for a scanner, which said he was suffering from pancreatic cancer . After undergoing an endoscopy that confirmed the diagnosis, Swayze was not optimistic about the future. "As soon as the doctor left the play, he looked at me and said:" I am a dead man "," recalls the widow of the star. "Many doctors at that time just said," Sorry, get ready. "" AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB

Pancreas cancer is one of the deadliest cancers. In a 2023 report, the American Cancer Society said that The five -year survival rate For the disease, increased a percentage point compared to the previous year, reaching 12%. Indeed, Swayze died less than two years after receiving a diagnosis of illness.

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Niemi Swayze, who remarried in 2014, said Today That it is "a fairly difficult girl. I am a long line of Finn, and we are very difficult and we can hang on." However, she said that taking care of her spouse during her trip with cancer wreaked havoc. "As a caregiver, if I did it again - and it's very difficult because you care so much - you must also take care of yourself," she advised.

"Find a way to give you breaks and feed yourself," recommended Nieme Swayze, saying that she would sometimes go shopping for a few hours when someone came to relieve her. Spending time with others in the same boat has also helped. "It is wonderful if you are able to speak to someone, especially people who go through a situation similar to you. There can be a lot of anger and existential anxiety."

However, she said that the couple's love had made them spend the most difficult days. "For Patrick and myself, it was so clear that nothing else had, except the love we had between us."