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Benign or Malignant IPMN? What to do next?

Pancreatic Cancer | Last Active: Apr 8, 2023 | Replies (79)
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@loklcw

Hi Lori,

Thank you so much for your detailed reply, it really did help me out a lot. I know it’s anxiety which driving me crazy now, which stops me from thinking logically.

It’s actually pretty reassuring that all 4 doctors had told me even IF the cyst grow bigger in future, surgery at that time can absolutely cure it and won’t affect my survival rate. I keep telling myself that it’s a benign lesion now, and I still got plenty of time to monitor and treat it, it’s just my over thinking which freaks me out and giving a panic attack everyday.

All my symptoms are not related to this cyst according to all 4 doctors, since it is too small to cause any symptoms. Beside abdominal pain (which later found out that it is actually muscle pain), I’m also experiencing a mild steatorrhea, but the doctors all said it isn’t pancreas issue, so I’m still quite lost on this.

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Replies to "Hi Lori, Thank you so much for your detailed reply, it really did help me out..."
Lori, Volunteer Mentor | @loribmt | Aug 28, 2022

Hey @loklcw, Looking for those pesky ‘what ifs’ in the future are really detrimental. Yes, the outlook online at pancreatic cancer statistics are not favorable but the odds are increasing with new treatments and research.
Most often pancreatic cancer isn’t discovered early enough for treatment.
In your case, the best news is that you don’t have cancer and with annual MRIs if there ever is anything detected it will have been caught very early in the game. So I think it should be pretty reassuring for you at this point. You may exhale now. ☺️

With your mild steatorrhea, have you discussed this with a gastroenterologist? There are a number of tests that can be run to determine if you’re having malabsorption issues in your digestive tract, Crohn's disease, chronic pancreatitis, etc.
Steatorrhea is also symptomatic of Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. You might want to check out this article from Cleveland Clinic regarding this treatable condition. Don’t go reading too much into these articles though when they mention pancreatic cancer. You can rule that out! 😉 You’ve already been given the all-clear there.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21577-exocrine-pancreatic-insufficiency-epi
Another article on EPI from Healthline.
https://www.healthline.com/health/exocrine-pancreatic-insufficiency/signs-and-symptoms
Mayo Clinic’s main website has this information on steatorrhea
https://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/digestive-diseases/news/identifying-diarrhea-caused-by-bile-acid-malabsorption/mac-20430098
Stress can also bring on diarrhea as well. I’m just curious, was this something new that happened since your MRI discovery?

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