Connect
← Return to Pancreatic Cancer Group: Introduce yourself and connect with others
Discussion
Pancreatic Cancer Group: Introduce yourself and connect with others
Pancreatic Cancer | Last Active: 13 hours ago | Replies (1417)Comment receiving replies
Good Morning ! My name is Sue. My husband who is 70 yrs old was diagnosed in July 2024 after going through a
whipple. He had so much inflammation throughout his body that they could not see a tumor even though they did all the relevant tests. He had lost 40 lbs and had no appetite. Our Primary Doctor sent us to an Oncologist who told us she did not think it was Cancer. A Surgeon was recommended to us and he suggested that we do the Whipple to see what was actually going on. He found a tumor that involved both the body and tail of the pancreas so he removed the body and tail and also removed the Spleen. Cancer was also found in 16 of the 20 lymph nodes that they removed.
They sent him home after 5 days without a drain. Unfortunately, he had a pancreatic leak and developed an abscess so they inserted a drain. Since then, his lung has collapsed, he developed pneumonia and also had
2 Staph infections. We are 5 Months into this and he still has the Drain in him.
He is definetely stage III and the Oncologist cannot do anything until he gets the Drain out.
I am against doing Chemo at this point and the Oncologist agrees that it would probably kill him. He has lost
an additional 40 lbs and is very weak.
I am very interested to see if anyone has experience with immunotherapy.
Replies to "Good Morning ! My name is Sue. My husband who is 70 yrs old was diagnosed..."
Connect
Hello @suelannon
My first question after reading your post would be is your husband going to a pancreatic center of excellence? If you list your city and state, other members will be able to recommend medical centers and sometimes even drs you might want to get a 2nd opinion from. If husband is too weak to attend in person, a video call might be a possibility.
I had distal with spleen removed in 2022 and had a drain which I’m going to go out on a limb and say that a drain from abdominal area seems pretty standard procedure after surgery. I had a pancreatic duct leak after surgery which led to a GI bleed since those are acidic (digestive) juices. I was bleeding quite a bit into my drainage bag so I got a stent put in after not eating for 3-4 weeks (I did have a TPN nutrient bag). Not giving your body any foods to digest helps to stop the leak until a stent can be put in. After 6 weeks I had an ultrasound ERCP done to assess leaking and I was all good, so the stent was removed. If the leaking hadn’t stopped then a metal stent would have replaced that initial plastic stent. I also got pneumonia after my surgery since I wasn’t able to walk around much after my surgery; not fun. I also got pancreatitis and then Covid (all this with 1.5 months after my surgery). I did lose 50 pounds from time I got started getting my symptoms since I had extreme nausea and some of that weight was lost after surgery and while on the no food diet before stent insertion. I gained almost all weight back now! Did any drs run a CA19-9 blood test otherwise known as a “tumor marker?