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So very helpful. Thank you so much. We will be asking all these questions and whatever updates I have, I will be sure to post here. Can I ask...at diagnosis, what stage were you? I'm hoping my brother continues to do as he has with the folfirinox and finds foods that he can tolerate while having the nausea. Or hopefully, they can modify his meds to cause less of this.
Replies to "So very helpful. Thank you so much. We will be asking all these questions and whatever..."
With regard to nausea and food: I've had good luck with bland carbs (bread, cornflakes, plain mashed potatoes, bananas, pasta, matzoh). For protein: eggs, plain chicken, plain turkey, and mozzarella cheese. And I drink a fair amount of ginger ale.
Before I became ill, I ate a plant-heavy, whole-grains, little-added-sugar, few-lab-chemicals, minimal-dairy diet, so this dietary shift has made me unhappy BUT as I understand it the point is to do whatever works during chemo to ensure that one is getting sufficient calories.
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@amchurch , I was stage 2 at my initial diagnosis (before neoadjuvant Folfirinox and Whipple). I was "at least" stage 2 when the recurrence was first suspected 3.5 months after Whipple, but officially stage 4 by the time a recurrence was confirmed.
The tumor at my original surgery site (pancreas head) went from undetectable on MRI to 2cm in 3.5 months, and evaded detection by two ctDNA tests and an EUS biopsy in that time. Follow-up ctDNA, CA19-9, and new MRI 4-6 weeks after the negative biopsy confirmed the recurrence as malignant. Mets to peritoneum were suspected in that MRI, and confirmed on CT a month later (along with rapidly climbing CA19-9).