Anna-Leah Garrison had no idea something as wrong, certainly not that she had pancreatic cancer, until her sister looked her in the eye and saw yellow.
In the earliest stages of pancreatic cancer, people often feel no pain. Jaundice, however, led to immediate tests that revealed a tumor on Garrison’s pancreas.
“I was fine,” she says. “I didn’t know I was sick.”
Pancreatic Cancer is rare, affecting 49,000 people in the United States last year.
“It’s definitely not a very common cancer, but it’s the fourth-leading cause of death from cancer in the United
States,” says Dr. Christina Wai, a Hartford Hospital surgical oncologist.
Wai says Garrison was a perfect candidate for surgery because her cancer was in the early stages.
Here is Garrison’s story: