I was having discomfort and swelling in my leg. Turns out that I had a substantial blog clot in my leg (groin to ankle) and while trying to figure out what caused the clot they did a CT scan of my abdomen and saw the tumor in my duodenum. The tumor was golf ball sized but very slow growing and was pushing against some veins. This caused the constriction that led to the blood clot. They conducted an endoscopy and biopsied the tumor. They were able to removed it but unfortunately my digestive symptoms have continued and we are now going to do another very high resolution CT scan and endoscopy to look for other smaller tumors.

I had been having some stomach issues before but not this severe. The Whipple procedure removed about ½ my pancreas and my gall bladder so now my digestive enzymes are limited. This is likely contributing to the diarrhea and poor digestion.

I am still able to live a good portion of my life but I have to always be aware of where there is a restroom. I will also fast for a day or so before an event if we are doing something where I don’t know the availability of a bathroom so I can empty out my system and there is less urgency to go.