For Rainer, his journey towards recovery all started with a trip to his local pharmacy.
“I was having trouble breathing, so I went to our local pharmacist to see if he could recommend an over-the-counter medicine to make me feel better. Rolf, our pharmacist, is a great guy,” said Rainer. “When I told him my symptoms, he said it sounded more serious than I anticipated, and that I should go to the Emergency to rule out a heart problem.”
Rainer took Rolf’s advice and went to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre Emergency where a CT scan revealed a serious illness; Rainer had a cancerous tumour growing on his pancreas.
Everyone would prefer to receive treatment close-to-home, but the Davids were told that unfortunately there weren’t any surgeons in Thunder Bay who were comfortable with performing a biopsy on Rainer’s pancreas.