Pancreatic Cancer Group: Introduce yourself and connect with others

Long story short: dark urine, jaundice. 5 days in hospital where plastic stent was placed to drain bile duct. Two days later it clogged so metal stent was put in. Pancreatic cancer diagnosis with recectable tumor on head. Scheduled for whipple in about five weeks. Have lost 15 lbs and can’t seem to do anything but maintain. Energy and strength at about 50% of my old normal. Question is: is this normal? I’m thinking that if I go into the whipple surgery feeling like this that I will never come out and will go straight to hospice. I’m 69. Anyone else have these feelings?

This is exactly what I went through last October. My oncologist recommended 12 rounds of chemo. Then the surgeon at Mayo wants 3weeks of radiation. Then the Whipple. But I guess every person has a different diagnosis. My tumor is on the head of my pancreas and is sitting on a major blood vessel so they really want to shrink the tumor as much as possible before surgery. The surgeon says once you do the Whipple there’s no do over. He’s got to make sure he gets it all with good margins.

I wish you the best. The whipple scares me to death but maybe it’s the only hope. Curious if you could share any information about a Mayo Clinic whipple. Would it be done laparoscopically and perhaps even robotically? What did they tell you about surgical complications and what a post whipple surgery recovery/life would be like. Thanks.

I wish you the best. The whipple scares me to death but maybe it’s the only hope. Curious if you could share any information about a Mayo Clinic whipple. Would it be done laparoscopically and perhaps even robotically? What did they tell you about surgical complications and what a post whipple surgery recovery/life would be like. Thanks.

My surgeon says not laparoscopic or robotic. He said he will do it the old fashioned way. A cut from the bottom of my ribs to my belly button! I have heard they can do it laparoscopic but my surgeon won’t. It could be because my tumor is sitting on a major blood vessel.

I had an open Whipple surgery 12 weeks ago and am finally able to say that I feel pretty good. The road to recovery was slow for the first 5 weeks and then things gradually started getting better from week to week. Going in to it, I was most concerned about recovering my appetite and not losing weight post-surgery. Fortunately, I was able to eat fairly well one week after surgery and never had any major gastrointestinal issues. The main issue was pain and discomfort from the incision and itchy sensitive skin around the incision. It just took time for this to heal.

I had my surgery done at Johns Hopkins and my surgeon has considerable experience doing robotic Whipple procedures. I was expecting/hoping for a robotic surgery, but plans changed at the last minute due to some unexpected pancreatitis-related issues I had leading up to the surgery. My tumor was also in close proximity to blood vessels, which complicated things. Having been through an open surgery and the experience of dealing with the incision, I feel that recovery from a robotic procedure has got to be a lot easier to deal with. But whether this is an option will depend on where you are and your specific circumstances.

marviak9,

The usual reason for not doing Whipples laparoscopically is the lack of training of the surgical team, and the lack of sufficiently advanced surgical theater and equipment.

While the survival rates are close to the same, reportedly, the post operative infection rates are better with laparoscopic approach.

Please consider going to a major pancreatic cancer center.

This is exactly what I went through last October. My oncologist recommended 12 rounds of chemo. Then the surgeon at Mayo wants 3weeks of radiation. Then the Whipple. But I guess every person has a different diagnosis. My tumor is on the head of my pancreas and is sitting on a major blood vessel so they really want to shrink the tumor as much as possible before surgery. The surgeon says once you do the Whipple there’s no do over. He’s got to make sure he gets it all with good margins.

@howleegirl, it can be so terrifying to read pathology results before reviewing them together with the oncologist. I've moved your messages to the Pancreatic Cancer Support Group, specifically to this discussion:
- Pancreatic Cancer Group: Introduce yourself and connect with others: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pancreatic-cancer-group-introduce-yourself-and-connect-with-others/

I did this so you can easily connect with other members and read their posts. In particular, I'm members like @debleigl @lovingwifeterry @susan2018 @julie2018 @sw54 @ticklefeather to bring them into this discussion. Like you, they have husbands who have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. They've been where you are now.

Please keep in mind that the pathology report is only one piece of the diagnostic interpretation. There are treatment options for cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes. Waiting until the 18th to speak with the oncologist will be hard. There's no denying that. But we're here and ready to listen and talk.