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DiscussionHow do you deal with Chronic Diarrhea and Pancreatic Cancer treatment?
Pancreatic Cancer | Last Active: May 3, 2023 | Replies (11)Comment receiving replies
Replies to "Wow. You are amazing. Thanks for sharing. I have gone from 145 to 107 and have..."
I was diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer in jan 2021. I have had Whipple surgery with msv reconstruction followed by 12 treatments of Folfirinox. Dietician guidelines for Creon were:
Take 300-1800 units per gram of fat, or 500-2500 units per kg of body weight per meal. Too little Creon results in gas, bloating and diarrhea. Sufficient Creon usually results in darker stools.
I am currently taking 125,000-175,000 units immediately prior to eating a meal with generally good results - no gas, bloating or diarrhea, although still no change in stool colour. I was assured it is almost impossible to overdose on Creon, so to continue to increase until stools darken to normal colour. Recently, they had me try to reduce the amount I was taking but that resulted in gas and diarrhea returning. I have had to adjust dose as I slowly regained weight. Latest discussion indicated stool colour can also be impacted by surgery, so the go more on how I am feeling than colour of stool. All the best to you!
Undigested fat from lack of lipase enzyme is not the only cause for floating stool. Eating a diet high in fiber can also be a cause. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables will air to be released and gas being produced as part of the digestive process. In this situation it is normal. If an oily sheen appears on the toilet water, that would indicate there is undigested fat in which increasing the pancrealipase (Creon, Zenpep, etc) should solve the issue.