Pancreatic Cancer Group: Introduce yourself and connect with others

@suelannon Sue, you mentioned your husband’s surgery. I assume he had a Whipple. It sounds as though it only caused him further problems. My husband, age 73, has recently begun chemotherapy. He is most likely not a candidate for surgery because his tumors are encasing several arteries. I wonder if you feel chemotherapy alone would have been preferable or offered a better quality of life in your husband’s case. Sometimes I think even chemo alone diminishes the enjoyment of our time together. I would appreciate your insight. Thanks so much for sharing your journey.

@jimcaskowski Hi and welcome to Mayo Connect. What chemo is your husband taking? What side effects is he experiencing?

@cjcurtis Hi and welcome to Mayo Connect. Your questions are very understandable. What is your husband's diagnosis? What chemotherapy is he taking?

@ginamaria Hi and welcome to Mayo Connect. It is great news that your pet scan on friday showed NED. Congratulations. You have to be excited? Your question about a detox center is an interesting one. I am curious if anyone else has any experience detoxing. What chemo are you taking? How long does it usually stay in your system?

@shema Hi and welcome to Mayo Connect. How is your husband feeling?

@tomrennie My husband was diagnosed in March 2026 (after months of tests and scopes,etc. that were inconclusive) with pancreatic adenocarcinoma with spread to adjacent lymph nodes. He also has an obstructing mass in his duodenum which required placement of a stent. He began chemo in the hospital a month ago, and has just completed his third infusion. We are hoping the tumors can be shrunk enough to allow surgery, but at this point it’s doubtful. We are anxious for results of the first scan to check progress. But that’s still a ways off.

@tomrennie I forgot to answer that his chemo “cocktail “ is Gemcitabine and Abraxane. Anyone else had success with this combination, or any comments on what we can expect? My husband has experienced extreme fatigue and nausea thus far, and after infusion no. 3, we are seeing hair loss.

@cjcurtis My had had a Distal Pancreatectomy. They removed the Body & tail of the Pancreas as well as his Spleen. They also removed 20 lymph nodes around the pancreas. Cancer was in 14 of the lymph nodes that they removed. My husband ended up too weak for Chemo so he never had treatment at all. He was stage 4 at Diagnosis because they also found Cancer in his lungs. I honestly believe that not getting any treatment is why we had a good year where he felt
halfway normal. My husband was 70 when he was diagnosed.

My husband went through 6 months of testing to see what was wrong with him. He had lost his appetite and lost quite a bit of weight. We kept being told he had pancreatitis but he never had pain. He had so much inflammation in and around the pancreas that they could not see any tumors. We finally went to see a well know Surgery and he felt that doing surgery was the
best way to see what was going on with the Pancreas. He went in and found the tumor which was in the body and the tail.

After Surgery, we certainly debated if we should have just said no to the surgery. We both just wanted to know what was going on at the time and I did not do enough research. We were both so thrilled that the Surgeon was taking us seriously. The oncologist that we were dealing with just kept telling us it was not cancer. They had been doing the CA19-9 and the Levels just kept rising. When it hit 8700 , our Primary Doctor told us to go see the Surgeon.

@tomrennie
He's had 5 rounds of abraxane & Gemzar & has been experiencing joint pain, fatigue and the worst part are his terrible mouth sores. He's in a lot of pain & has lost almost 20 pounds, These past few days, he sleeps all day & won't eat saying it's too difficult.
He's scheduled for Whipple 5/21 & I'm concerned because I don't think he's emotionally or physically ready for this.
We will see his surgeon tomorrow to reevaluate and ask more questions.
If anyone can suggest questions we should bring up, I'd appreciate the input.

@cjcurtis
My husband just finished 5 rounds of the same chemo.
It's been rough. No nausea but extreme fatigue, general overall pain and terrible mouth sores. Hey was hospitalized twice with neutropenia.
PET scan schedule in 9 days to see how successful it's been.

Is your husband for 3 infusions/month for 3 months?