PCC 7: Over and Out
Jay Pearce: 1954-2024
Gary, here. Episode 6, Final Hours, recorded on August 20, was correct. Jay died at 4:20 am the next day, Wednesday, August 21, 2024. I was honored to be by his side, along with his wife Melisse, his son Dale and daughters Sara and Mannon, Sara’s partner Coty Phousongphouang, and honorary family member John Henke.
Little changed from my description in Episode 6. Jay’s pulse rate slowed a little overnight. Consulting with his doctor, we asked to have the oxygen feed removed. That dropped his blood-oxygen level from the 90s to the 80s, where it remained through the night. Dale, Sara and Coty remained overnight to keep vigil. The rest of us tried to get some sleep at home or our hotels.
Sara called and woke me around 2 am. Jay’s blood-oxygen was dropping quickly, even though his pulse was racing, trying to keep oxygen in his bloodstream. The nursing staff said it was it was time to call us in.
As we stood by his bedside, everyone touching him someplace (I had my hand on his forehead), his breathing slowed, the blood-oxygen level dropped below 50, and then his pulse dropped from near 100 to, finally, zero, as he took his last breath. There was nothing dramatic. No gasp, no shudder. He just stopped.
Likely brain activity had ceased well before this, but we weren’t monitoring it. The staff cautioned us about hanging onto the pulse and O2 levels too closely. We told them that many of us were techies, and we understand measurement. Those numbers did help us understand what was happening, and accurately predicted the end.
Jay Pearce, Celebration of Life, U of I WILL TV Studios, Urbana IL, September 19, 2024
It’s September 25 as I type this. More than a month has passed. Melisse organized a Celebration of Life at the WILL TV Studios in Urbana, and about 70 of Jay’s friends and collegues attended. Another will be held in October in Carbondale IL, where Jay’s career began, and a final tribute is in the works for the Rock Island area where Jay was CEO of WVIK before retiring.
I think this brings the Jay and Gary Pancreatic CancerCast to a close. However, the Jay and Gary Show may well continue. I’m not quite sure how, or under what name, but I have new connections to family and friends, and some of us aren’t through podcasting yet. Stay tuned.
And goodbye, my brother. I love you.
PCC 6: Final Hours
Jay Pearce went home from the hospital a few days after PCC 5 , after his white cell count rebounded and the surgeon could put in the G-Tube for direct feeding into his stomach.
But it only lasted a day. He was hit with intense abdominal pain, and ended up right back in Carle Foundation Hospital. And the news was bad. Really bad. A severe infection had developed in his gallblader and colon. It would be radical surgery to fix it, and he likely wouldn’t survive the operation.
Along with his wife Milesse, he decided he’d had enough. No more chemo, no more antibiotics - it was time for only pallative care, pain management, and, eventually, soon, death. After only three months from diagnosis in mid May.
I headed back to Champaign, flying this time to get there a little faster. But the drugs needed to control the pain meant Jay was unresponsive. Eyes closed, no nod or hand squeeze to acknowledge my voice. Just labored breathing and a very high pulse rate (in the 130s 💓)
Just a few of Jay’s friends and family, gathered in his room at Carle Foundation Hospital in Champaign, IL
Daughter Sara put out the call for friends to visit if they could, and a small crowd decended, local and from hundreds of miles away, and over the course of a long weekend, they got to know each other - Jay’s influence was far and wide across Illinois. It was sad, but it was sometimes joyous, with stories and laughter, all while Jay lay nearby, hopefully hearing it all. Everyone talked to Jay privately for a bit, too.
Then it was just family, keeping vigil, staying all night.
As I type this on Tuesday morning, August 20, Jay is hanging in there. His heart and lungs are strong, while the rest of his organs are shutting down. Besides pain management, all hospital staff can do for a terminal patient is withhold food and water (just enough water by IV to administer the pain meds). So technically the cancer won’t take him directly. It will be organ failure and, essentially, starvation. Without the option of euthanasia, that is all the doctors can do.
And it’s slow. It takes days, and there’s no predicting exactly how long. There may be come clues that it’s getting close - perhaps when the heart rate falls off, or when his breathing becomes ragged. I’m tempted to describe what I see just a few feet away, but I won’t. It’s too sad.
If you’re on Facebook, keep an eye on the Jay and Gary Pancreatic CancerCast Facebook Group. That’s where I’m posting updates.
PCC 5: With Friends Like These
Unable to eat or hold anything down, losing weight fast, Jay ended up back in the hospital last week. Brother Gary returned to Champaign to be with Jay and family. When he got there, Jay perked up for a moment and grabbed his hand, but he wasn't able to speak - it hurt his throat, which had a tube running down from his nose. They were trying to feed him by pumping food directly to his stomach, but that wasn't working, either.
It wasn't all bad news. Scans showed the chemo was working - the tumor on his pancreas and liver had shrunk. But now he was too weak for more chemo. The doctors wanted to install a somewhat more 'permanent' port (a 'G Tube") into his stomach, but his white-cell count was way too low for surgery, because of the risk of infection.
The white-cell drop was an after-effect of the strong chemo. White cell boosters and a temporary feeding setup through his chemo port began helping. So did some music. Then three old, very close friends arrived, and Jay even laughed a bit.
Jay introduces this episode. It's about all the energy he could muster for podcasting, and you'll probably be a little shocked at his condition. But he wanted to say hello. Then Gary rounded up the friends for a little trip down memory lane, something Jay (and you) can enjoy watching. Gary learned a lot about his brother, as their adult lives were pretty separate.
The Friends Like These are Jay and Jock Hedblade (Jock is the one on Zoom on the phone screen), and Wade Ferrel. Wade's wife Mary was hanging out off camera, and she was also one of Jay's friends from way back.
That's the story so far. The doc's expect his white cell count will shoot up, the G Port can go in next week, he''ll start getting some real food, and he can get strong enough for chemo to start again. And Gary's hoping that his podcast partner will be able to get back on the mic 🎙
PCC 4: First Good Day in a Long Time 😀
It’s been a rough couple of weeks since our last podcast, but today Jay’s daughter Sara sent a text saying he’s feeling better and wants to record a show 😀. And she and Gary’s wife Cyndi join us for this episode!
And we’ll note that audio expert Gary had to hastily assemble a shot with all four of us, and he forgot to route Cyndi’s audio correctly, so she ends up with a voice of God echo. Good thing he’s retired🤨
In this episode, we talk about a video that Gary recorded with his and Jay’s father, Hal (Doc) Pearce, in May, 1997. Hal had just been diagnosed with Thyroid cancer, normally something treatable and not life-threatening. But this cancer turned out to be aggressive, and it took his life in November. That tape sat on Gary’s shelf since he shot it, and he finally got the old Hi-8 tape digitized and uploaded it to YouTube. You can see it here.
PCC 3: A Little on the Barfy Side 🤢
Jay had his third chemo infusion on Monday (July 15), and we recorded this episode on Tuesday. The synopsis: less pain, still too much nausea, eating a little better, took a short trip, but feeling really weak.
PCC 2: Five, Maybe Four, and a Little Yard Work
Jay had his second chemo infusion on Monday (July 1), and on Tuesday he (slowly) brought his laptop outside to record this episode with brother Gary. The title, Five, Maybe Four, and a Little Yard Work refers to the pain level Jay reported, which is getting more under control, and a surprising amount of energy. He hasn’t quite got the nausea problem solved, but it may have been excasterbated by an Italian Beef sandwich he craved… then ‘lost’… after Monday’s infusion. At least he’s interested in food some of the time, and just the thought of it isn’t making him sick. Things are getting better.
The brothers also review Jay and Melisse’s reaction to hearing his diagnosis, and Jay’s attitude about short-term vs long-term thinking.
NOTE: The AUDIO upload has been fixed!
PCC 1: Some Retirement😯
Welcome to Episode 1 of the Jay and Gary Pancreatic CancerCast: “Some Retirement😯”
Let’s get up to speed. Jay and Gary Pearce are brothers, retired media pro’s who began a fun podcast in early 2024 (because they could). Then Jay was diagnosed with Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer (also found in his liver and some lymph nodes). They put the ‘fun’ show on hold, and decided to document Jay’s journey though serious cancer therapy in this new show. (See the About section of the website for a few more details.)
The afternoon of Jay’s first chemo infusion (Monday, June 17), Gary arrived in Champaign to visit for a few days, and hopefully record our first CancerCast episode. Jay had a rough night before the infusion appointment, but he felt good enough to go, and wasn’t feeling too bad that afternoon.
That night was bad, too, but by Tuesday afternoon, Jay was up for recording. Gary set up the mics and cameras, and we shot our Stand Back and Stand By episode for the Jay and Gary Show, putting that podcast on hold. Then we recorded the beginning of this premiere episode of the CancerCast. But the effort was taking a toll on Jay, so we wrapped early.
On Wednesday, we picked back up, with Gary recording on his phone to keep it simple. Then he drove Jay to the clinic, where they were scheduled to remove a portable pump that had been slowly continuing to infuse chemo since Monday. And since Jay hadn’t been able to eat or drink much, they gave him a liter of saline to rehydrate him. We were able to record a little more at the clinic, and that wraps this episode.
Gary headed out, stopped to visit Jay’s son Dale, his wife Caty and their brand new daughter Charlotte about three hours south, then heded home where he spent the past week editing the episode, preparing graphics, creating a YouTube channel and getting the audio pod on Apple Podcasts. And updating this website. There’s a lot to launching a new pod😏
During that time, Jay was slowly improving, and as of this writing, he reports that he had ‘three fairly decent days in a row’. We’re looking forward to the next episode, recording soon.