04/24/2026
Survivor Tips from pancreatic cancer survivor, Melissa Loura
I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the end of 2024 and started treatment in February 2025. I went through eight rounds of chemo, had surgery and then completed four more chemo sessions. I finished treatment in October 2025. It has been quite a journey.
Before this, the only time I’d ever been in the hospital was to give birth to my son. I’ve always had fears around needles and doctors, and I had to learn how to manage all of that very quickly.
I decided to put my trust in my medical team. I chose not to research online or take in stories about other people’s experiences. There were too many decisions to make in a short time; trusting the team was both necessary and life changing.
The thing that helped me most was learning to stay in the moment. I trained myself to look for whatever good I could find in front of me and not jump ahead to all the “what ifs.” That shift allowed me to meet each step with far less fear.
Meeting with a social worker helped me manage how overwhelmed I felt by everyone worrying about me — my husband, sisters, son, granddaughters and friends. There were things I didn’t want to burden them with, and talking to Tila about those things was incredibly helpful. I had never needed this kind of support before, so I didn’t realize how much it could help. She came into infusion during my first treatment and we clicked immediately.
Another boundary I set for myself: I never look at my scans without my doctor. I don’t understand all the medical language, and I don’t want to go down unnecessary rabbit holes.
My focus became doing my best each day — getting through treatment, then surgery, then recovery. I thought of it as “my job.” Being in the infusion clinic opened my eyes: I wasn’t the only one going through this, and many people had it worse.
I also learned to be grateful for the good days. I stopped checking out of life just because I was in treatment. We even went to Hawaii for a week. I felt sick for two days, but for five days I felt good enough to enjoy myself. It turned out to be a beautiful trip.
I still have moments when I grieve the life I had before cancer. We’re not taught how to do that. It’s sad what has happened to me. I’ll go through a day or two of feeling that sadness, then something, or someone—like my husband—lifts me out of it. I try to fill my days doing the things that matter to me like hiking, birding and volunteering in the garden at Patrick Ranch.
And through every step of this, I learned to be brave. There was a whole list of things that terrified me—procedures, treatments and unexpected “bombs” that kept dropping. Each one gave me another chance to practice courage. I learned far more about my own strength than I ever imagined.
