jk77,

You sound smart and brave ... thus forum and the kind people here will be helpful.

I can only offer an opinion: you want to optimize your treatment; one way is to ensure you go to a center of excellence for pancreatic cancer. One way to tell is to ask if the surgery can be done laparoscopically. Lap surgery is not always the right answer, but if you are at a center of excellence they are able to do lap Whipples.