Orchard To Wear Purple For Pancreatic Awareness Day

On Thursday, Orchard will be decked out in purple.

At least, Jim and Kristi Schutt will be.

November is pancreatic cancer awareness month, and Thursday is the day to show solidarity with those fighting by wearing purple.

Schutt, Social Studies teacher in Orchard for over 30 years, has been battling cancer since April 2011.

Unlike other cancers, pancreatic cancer is often times undetectable until the patient has symptoms such as backache or nausea.

“I felt ill one day on a Sunday, stomachache, nausea, and I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a bad bout with the flu,’ but I just felt terrible,” said Schutt of the day his symptoms first flared. “Finally my wife said, ‘We’re going to go to the emergency room and figure out what’s wrong.’”

What started out as what he thought was the flu quickly turned into something worse.

“The person on-charge there said that he thought maybe it was the flu and gave me some medicine,” said Schutt. “But he says, ‘I think tomorrow you need to come up and see your regular doctor, and he might set up an ultrasound.’ and I said okay.”

When Schutt returned to the hospital for an ultrasound, he got the news. Not only did he have pancreatic cancer, but it had also spread to his liver. Schutt had 14 tumors in all.

“They were most concerned with the ones in my liver,” Schutt said. “I had a couple that were the size of walnuts.”

Doctors didn’t know what type of pancreatic cancer Schutt had, but they immediately referred him to an oncologist in Norfolk.

“He thought we should start chemotherapy and said we could start in a month or so.” But that was not fast enough for Schutt.

“I said, ‘How about two days? As soon as we can.’” So Schutt started chemotherapy immediately.

“I did a six month chemotherapy routine where I would go in and it would be a week on, week off, week on, week off. I would do five days of treatment, take a week off,” said Schutt. “It was a half a day each day. And actually I would teach in the morning here and then go do the treatment in Norfolk.”

Schutt said he was given a thick pamphlet with all the possible side effects from chemotherapy, but fortunately didn’t suffer any, except for becoming nauseous when he ate watermelon.

“I was extremely blessed in that regard,” said Schutt. “Because I would sit next to people in chemotherapy and I’d talk to a guy and he’d ask me, ‘Man this stuff’s rough isn’t it, how are you doing?’ And I felt almost embarrassed saying, ‘Man I’m handling this pretty good.’”

Schutt was fortunate, being able to complete chemotherapy and not miss a day of school. And, his tumors responded well to treatment.

“They saw a huge reduction immediately of the tumors,” said Schutt. “The kind of pancreatic cancer I have is called neuroendocrine tumors which only afflicts about 5% of the population who have pancreatic cancer. And thank goodness I have that kind because I have the least lethal type.”

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of death from cancer in the United States, after lung, colon and breast cancer. For most, a diagnosis can feel like a death sentence.

However, Schutt’s battle, although anything but easy, has been full of blessings.  

Following the chemotherapy treatments, Schutt continued a strict regimen of CAT scans every three months. Now, he’s in the middle of a chemo shot therapy he’s been doing since May, in addition to CAT scans every six months.

“Now what I’m doing is, I go once a month for a treatment, a hormonal chemotherapy shot, and it lasts 28 days and it’s very time sensitive medicine,” explained Schutt. “So I have to go every 28 days to get that from my oncologist.”

Schutt is no longer going to Norfolk, now he drives over five hours to see his oncologist who retired to Red Oak, Iowa.

“I had transferred to another oncologist and just didn’t feel real comfortable with him and my wife tracked (my previous doctor) down,” Schutt said. “He practices just on Fridays in Red Oak, Iowa, so I drive once a month about five and a half hours to Red Oak, Iowa just to see him.”

Schutt has been living with cancer for over five years now, and he hopes to live for many, many more.

“I haven’t changed anything, and it hasn’t stopped me from living or doing what I want to do,” said Schutt, smiling. “I just monitor it close and go back to the doctor whom I have complete confidence in, and people around here have been great about asking and helping.”

Pancreatic cancer isn’t new to Orchard, and, according to one of the doctor’s Schutt saw during his chemotherapy, Northeast Nebraska is the area in Nebraska most affected by pancreatic cancer.

It also changes the lives of family members. Kristi Schutt has been by her husband’s side every step of the way, fighting alongside him.

“One person we can't thank enough is Dr Pete Lueninghoener of the Elkhorn Valley Family Medicine Center in O'Neill,” said Kristi Schutt. “He has been with us every step of the way guiding us to find the correct doctors. He is the one who diagnosed Jim.”

Jim Schutt will proudly wear his purple shirt and tie on Thursday, and Kristi Schutt will dress in purple as well. Joining the Schutts and the dozens of other Orchard residents who will wear purple on Thursday is just another way of showing those who have been affected by pancreatic cancer just how supportive Orchard can really be.

​