San Francisco Bay Area doctor recommendation

Stanford

Dr. Brendan Visser at Stanford. God of the pancreas. Director of the Stanford GI cancer center.
Great surgeon, great staff. Great hospital, and a whole unit in the hospital for GI problems. Dietitian support is excellent, and one of the most important elements of any pancreatic problems.
If your husband can eat, he should start eating as much as possible to gain as much weight as he can.
My heart is with you as you begin this journey.

I am sorry, I see that you said “Significant other”, not husband.
Other docs at Stanford are Dr. Alice Lee - Gastroenterologist and your likely entry point into that system, and Dr. Walter Park, who will likely do the endoscopy/biopsy if they chose to go that route.
If you want to talk, I am happy yo share my story and experience.
Take care of yourself in all of this.

Our experience is with Dr Evan Walker at UCSF. He and his team were our second opinion from our Kaiser primary. They were great!
My two cents: If he has pancreatic cancer, know the variant, find potential clinical trials at either Stanford or UCSF for that variant. It might be easier to get in if needed if you are already a patient of theirs.
The best two options, Stanford and UCSF, in Nor Cal!
Someone said keep eating! Whatever it takes to keep his strength and weight up.
Fight like hell!

I live outside of the Bay Area, but travel to S.F. for my pancreatic treatment. CPMC, California Pacific Medical Center was recommended to me by local GI doctor for pancreas biopsy. I have stayed with them ( as opposed to going to UCSF or Stanford) for the past 11 months. My case gets discussed at their tumor board meetings.They have a great organ center at their Van Ness campus and several surgeons who deal with the pancreas. After unsuccessful chemo, I did SBRT radiation in the hope that I would be eligible for the Nano-knife procedure, which they do there. Radiation was so successful that I am now a candidate for Whipple. I will have the surgery on Dec. 2nd. I have been very impressed with their professionalism and I am glad I am being treated here. The surgeon I have been seeing is Dr. Kimberly Delal. I have also seen Dr. Seid, radiation oncologist, Dr Yong Yang Cui for Robotic US biopsy and EUS. I have been very impressed with all of the doctors at CPMC. I am 78 years old and am also dealing with an unrelated lung cancer and I have not been written off for age or complications.
All of these doctors are women.

@elizmckee
My husband is my significant other!

Honestly, I can’t thank all of you enough for taking time out of your own lives to “hold my hand”. To be honest, I am shell shocked by this news. He is the picture of health and his doctors always tell him he’s not the gold standard in terms of health and fitness but the Platinum!

I was able to get him into Stanford. First order of business was stenting his bile duct open. That was successfully done yesterday. He has just had his first solid food and has no nausea so he may be released today.

Biopsies and genetic profiling will not be available for six days or so. Then we meet with the oncologists. Two oncologists have already come in to talk to us. Even without the pathology they are certain it is Stage 4 pancreatic cancer with metastasis to the liver.

Please please keep sharing advice and experiences. I don’t want to make missteps. What, if anything, would you have done differently?

What do we need to do to prepare, other than get weight back on him?

Angels walk among us……thank you.

I am so sorry to hear that they are sure it is pancreatic cancer. To keep the weight on, ask for a referral to the pancreatic specialty dietitian. Ask the doc if he should be started on the pancreatic enzymes now so he can digest what he eats, and can gain weight. If he is on Medicare now is the perfect time to be sure the enzymes are covered by his part D prescription plan, open enrollment ends Dec 5 (I think). They are not cheap and not covered by every plan. There are 6-7 of them so just google pancreatic replacement enzymes and plug all of them into the medicare part D assessment tool for his current plan on the medicare website, and keep shopping if 2 or fewer are covered. Some people try several before they find what works best.
He will have world class care at Stanford, so expect the best, but prepare for the worst. Get finances in order and prepare your home so it is easy for him to navigate and be comfortable in while he recovers from treatments.
Keeping my fingers crossed for both of you.

Stanford Medical Center- George Fisher MD
UCSF- Andrew Ko MD

Both are specialists in cancers of the pancreas