I’m so sorry to hear this. Sending you support.

I’d be interested to find out why they are starting with chemo. Is the tumor not receptacle because too large or situated near artery? Or are they trying to bring the CA 19-9 down under 200 (there’s some evidence that this is correlated with better surgical outcome)? If I were confident there isn’t spread, personally I would want to have surgery asap. If in doubt I’d consider getting a second opinion.