Need advice: Stage 2 pancreatic cancer

I’m newly dx with pancreatic ca, stage 2. I’m having the whipple surgery in Sept.
what do I expect? Has anyone been through this?

Hello @bede and welcome to Mayo Connect. I can certainly understand that you want to learn from others who have also had a Whipple surgery. It is great to have an idea of what to expect. We have several members on Connect who might help you understand the recovery process. Here is a link to one of those discussions.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pancreatic-cancer-whipple-procedure/

I would like to invite some members to discuss their experiences (or their family member's experience) with you including, @dakotarunner @susan2018 @marvinjsturing, and @dianamiracle.

@bede, did your doctor suggest radiation or chemotherapy after surgery or will this be determined later on?

I was diagnosed in 2012 with stage III borderline resectable pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma (PACC) in the head of the pancreas. It was initially staged as IIb but upon gross morphological examination at the start of the procedure, it was noted that the tumor was in contact with the portal vein. That resulted in being restaged as III, locally advanced, borderline resectable. I had my surgery at an NCI designated Center of Excellence in Cancer Treatment with a pancreas program and surgical oncologists on the team that had performed a very high volume of Whipple procedures and liver transplants so both were highly skilled in vascular surgery allowing surgery to proceed…just a few of the reasons why you want to be treated at a large medical center with surgeons that perform a hundred or more Whipple surgeries per year and not at a small regional medical center where few pancreas patients are treated.

Time in surgery can vary from about 4 hours on average for a straight-forward uncomplicated procedure to more complex ones requiring 7-11 hours. With the portal vein resection, I was in the OR a total of 11 hours with the surgery taking 9.5 hours. The waiting can be nerve-wracking for the family waiting on word on the outcome of surgery. Recuperation can vary and generally ranges from 7-11 days. Some patients are released earlier and others can be in for 2, 3 or 4 weeks. The key is in the GI tract waking up and being able to digest food. My stay was a total of 16 days because of the added portal vein resection and GI tract a little slow in waking up. Otherwise there were no complications.

Major surgery can take a lot out of you physically. You have to build up stamina, muscle tone, strength and lung capacity. I was doing 50 mile bike rides up to 10 days before my diagnosis and was amazed at how much stamina was lost and decrease in lung capacity resulted from the long surgery. Gaining weight back was another challenge and that became easier once I was prescibed pancreas enzymes supplements. I had daily exercise goals and kept to them even when feeling fatigued. I kept a positive outlook and pushed myself to reach or exceed daily exercise goals and that helped in rebounding faster. I returned to work full-time 8 weeks after my surgery.

I have a very good quality of live and the new normal is not much different than the old normal. I eat much of the same foods I enjoyed before surgery generally avoiding fried, fatty foods but now and then will have small amounts of something friend and tolerate it with supplemental enzymes.

Thank you for words of encouragement. I am 80. I do go to pool 3-4 days a week for 50 min or so. I try and do. A restorative yogi class for older people. I guess the success is dependent on your physical shape and tgen afterwards exercise.

Exercise helped me with recovering from the surgery and tolerating side effects of chemo. PanCan.org has several articles on exercise suggestions for pancreatic cancer patients-

LetsWinPC.org just posted this article in the past week-
https://letswinpc.org/managing-pancreatic-cancer/2022/07/06/execise-during-cancer-treatment/

Hello bede. I had Whipple surgery in March of '19. I had been very ill for a month before surgery, and was being fed thru a tube for th4ree weeks before surgery, which put me in a not so good position for surgery, but there was no choice. I made the BIG mistake of eating too much too soon. I paid the price for that mistake and spent a few extra days in the hospital. Was home for a week, and ended up back in the hospital with severe pain and dehydration. Got intestinal tract finally working and back home. Once the bowels started working, things got better fast. Eight weeks after surgery I went thru 6 months of chemo The main thing I learned during the Whipple, and especially the chemo was to get prepared as much as possibly physically, but even more important mentally and emotionally. I pushed myself hard after surgery and during chemo, and still push myself hard. I count each day as a blessing and would do it all over again if I had to. You will do fine.

Thank you for words of encouragement. I’m on chemo, trying to shrink tumor and can’t eat so drinking my meals.

I am 84, diagnosed Sept. 2021, Type 1/II. Had 3 months chemo then Whipple March 23. No more chemo(too old), just CT scans. Feeling pretty good, working on increasing stamina. Spent 1 week in hospital after surgery, no complications. Advice: make sure you get enough calories after surgery! You may not want to eat, but you can drink. Use Premier Protein drink for protein, Ensure or Boost for carbohydrates (I used all 3). Each is about 200 calories, I needed a minimum of 1200 calories so this meant at least 6 drinks per day. Initially I was using only 3 per day(thinking 1 per meal) - but I was really starving myself - and feeling terrible. My PT alerted me, I increased the drinks to 6 per day. It took 5 days but suddenly I felt better! Had stomach cramps and my GI told me to increase Creon to 2 per meal. Again took 5 days to feel good! Good luck to you!

Thank you for your positive experience My cousin has stage four pancreatic cancer and the tumor is in the body tail. the tumor is attached to either a vein or artery so it’s difficult to operate right now she’s undergoing chemo and has been in treatment for one year
we are hoping that when the tumor shrinks the doctor will take on this risky surgery.
I am so happy to hear that you are doing well and have had a positive experience with the Whipple operation

Pancreatic Cystic foci are present, the largest in in mid pancreatic body measuring 12mm in size, demonstrating mildly lobulated morphology and very thin separations and additional Y shaped cystic structure along the posterior mid pancreatic body in close proximity measures 9mm long. A smaller cyst in the anterior mid pancreatic body measure 4mm. A smaller cyst in thew pancreatic tail measures 6mm. No evidence for solid infiltrative mass or abnormal main pancreatic duct. No evidence for acute pancreatitis or no evidence for pancreatic divisum

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