Officer continues cancer battle

On a good day, John Ortiz can go for a walk, drive around town and work on projects around the house - such as the faucet he fixed this week.

On a bad day, he can't.

"It's kind of an up-and-down situation sometimes," said the 56-year-old patrol sergeant with the Kalispell Police Department.

Since Ortiz was diagnosed in February with pancreatic cancer, he has made two trips to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Doctors there had hoped that two months of chemotherapy and radiation would put the cancer into remission, or at least shrink the tumor - which had grown onto a pancreatic blood vessel - to a size small enough to operate on.

But the tumor proved resistant to the treatment, and Ortiz is undergoing a second round of chemotherapy in Kalispell.

Pancreatic cancer, known for spreading rapidly, is difficult to detect in its early stages, making it a leading cause of cancer death.

For the next two months, Ortiz will receive chemotherapy once a week with every fourth week off. Each session lasts for two hours. This time, the chemo drugs are stronger, focusing specifically on Ortiz's pancreas. The treatment is wreaking havoc on his immune system.

"We still try to take our walks, but if it's real mosquito-y he doesn't like to go out in case he gets bit and then gets sick," said his wife, Joy.

In late July, the Ortizes plan on making a trip to Texas for an Ortiz family reunion. John's mother is also sick, and he hasn't seen his brother in years, Joy explained.

But whether the Ortizes fly or drive depends on how John feels.

"I feel pretty good about it," he said. "As long as I feel good it will be enjoyable."

Ortiz is often tired, and has experienced the return of some pain, despite the fact that specialists at the Mayo Clinic killed the nerve running to Ortiz's pancreas. And chemotherapy comes with its own aches and hardships.

"He's just been really tired the last couple days," Joy said. "His equilibrium's just really off, but he still likes to take his walks."

Doctors recently found tiny spots on John's lungs and identified a "thickening" in his liver. The Ortizes don't know whether the abnormalities are cancerous.

After his final dose of chemotherapy, doctors will take a CT scan and decide what to do next - hopefully operate and remove the tumor or maybe order more drugs. So the Ortizes will continue to wait, hoping for a positive prognosis.

Ortiz's illness was caught only days before he was scheduled to depart for the Middle East with security contractor DynCorp International to train Iraqi police officers.

Then, as Ortiz's Feb. 16, 2008, departure date approached, authorities lost the fingerprint card required by the U.S. State Department and moved his departure back to March 1.

So Ortiz was still in Kalispell when a pain in his back became unbearable, forcing him to visit the Kalispell Regional Medical Center emergency room Feb. 21. A week later, a biopsy came back positive for pancreatic cancer.

Ortiz entered the police academy in 1990, eventually graduating sixth in a class of 28. After graduation, Ortiz was hired by the Broadwater County Sheriff's Office. In 1992, he started work with the Kalispell Police Department.

The Kalispell Police Department has set up a fund at the Park Side Federal Credit Union on Heritage Way in Kalispell to accept donations to help the Ortizes with the cost of travel and lodging while John undergoes treatment.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com