From Marilyn K. Yee:

Pran wanted people to know about what he is happening to him. He has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It was diagnosed early January. For the past 2 years, he had been complaining of problems that he thought was caused by gout and the medication. This past Thanksgiving, he had severe stomach pains and finally went to see his doctor and around Christmas he had MRI, cat scans, and biopsies but he did not get results until early January. He was not really given any treatments till February. He was staying at home. On Friday, Feb. 15th, he had a biopsy for his liver (yes, the cancer spread to the liver) at the hospital. He went home, but was in some pain Saturday, and early Sunday morning, his son Titonath (a physical therapist in Seattle) called 911 because he was bleeding and coughing up blood. He was taken to emergency and was admitted to the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital that evening. The bleeding "diverticula" was not related to the cancer. He has been in the hospital since Feb. 17th and was discharged today. In February, the doctors started him on radiation and chemo therapy--he was to be given 3 weeks of radiation, 5 days a week.

He would have a good day followed by a couple of bad days when he was nauseous, vomiting, and feeling pain. Through up and down, he always has a fighting spirit and strength and has a positive outlook.

He was in good form today (March 7th)--walking, eating, talking. He took his chemo pills in the morning and had his radiation treatment around 1:30pm today and was discharged from Robert Wood University Hospital and transported/transferred to Roosevelt Care Center this afternoon. The address:

Roosevelt Care Center
118 Parsonage Rd.
Edison, NJ 08837
732--321-6880

His room is on the 3rd fl--Rm. #375. He is also in the newer bldg--the center is near the Menlo Park Mall off Route 1. Visiting hours are 8am to 8pm everyday.

He appreciates all the cards, letters, emails, and prayers and positive thoughts--especially all the visitors that have been able to come. He is looking forward to having more visitors now. The doctors are not sure how long he will be at the rehab center but are planning to have him able to go home as soon as he can. For the next week or two he will be at the Robert Wood Johnson Hospital at 1pm for his radiation treatment. He will probably be leaving Roosevelt around noon and may be gone for about 3 hours during the weekdays. He does not get any treatments during the weekends.

His family has been visiting on weekends--the oldest son Titony from VA and daughter Hemkary from Maryland and his ex-wife Meoun who has been here since January helping Pran. She visits every day and has been a wonderful tower of strength and has been there when he needed her wonderful home cooking and wisdom. Pran's close friend Bette Parslow has been a great help--she has been taking care of "Gabby", Pran's little white puppy.

On Tuesday, March 4th, Pran was given an endoscopy and later that evening another cat scan. The doctors reported that the results showed that the tumor had grown larger and that the liver was greatly affected. THe doctors felt that the chemo pills (which were low dosage) were not helpful and that a stronger heavier chemo dosage would be more harmful to him. They felt that it would be better that he would be transferred to the rehab center for the rest of the radiation and chemo treatments and then see if he would be able to be moved home. The doctors felt that Pran would be better in his home rather than a hospital atmosphere and that it would be good for him to spend time with his family and friends.

He would like to thank everyone for all their kindnesses, cards, letters, prayers, thoughts, gift baskets, emails and visits. You can email him at: DithPran@aol.com --he may not reply to all your emails. When he is feeling good, he does get on his computer. You can send cards and letters to his home:

Dith Pran
124 Beverly Hill Terrace Apt. #G
Woodbridge, NJ 07095

If anyone has any questions, you can contact Marilynn Yee at yee@nytimes.com. You can read more about Dith at http://www.cambodian.com/dithpran/.