Diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer: How to deal with anxiety of surgery?

Your first consult should not be your first chemo session. Oncologist will have to run through with you the chemo available to you - administered intravenously or orally. If it is a month after surgery, I am not sure if the biopsy report is ready - if that is, he will also run through that with you. Oncologist may also outline what devices to be put in to facilitate chemo administered intravenously - a Port-a-Cath or a Hickman line. You can Google these. The devices have to be inserted about a week before chemo - usually done under LA, relatively painless and it is a day-surgery. I do know of people starting chemo about 4 days after the Port-a-Cath was put in.
Hope that helps.

I am replying to your original comment on being anxious ..I think you are very fortunate to be considered to have surgery due to the fact that it has not spread. That is very very positive .., the fact that chemo is a consideration is another positive .. so my advise is try to replace the anxiety with feelings of gratefulness. Most pancreatic cancer patients find out to late to have surgery, and sometimes to late for chemo . So as difficult as this is… you are one of the lucky ones and the process will be inconvenient but I am so happy for you that you have options which equals time

Chemo (combo of these: Fluorouracil, Oxaliplatin & Irinotecan) scheduled to start on 24th Mar 2025, total of 12 cycles. CA19-9 will be the marker to be monitored.

Anyone had undergone chemo and care to share your experience? Thank you

My husband only had 3 cycles of that chemo combo you are going to be on, known as Folfirinox. Chemo is administered once a fortnight - you do it in the centre for about 4 hours and then you take Flourouracil home for infusion over about 46 hours. Then you go back to the centre for them to take the paraphernalia off.
Do you know if they will put in a port-a-cath or a Hickman line or they are just going to do it through an IV each time?
Once the oncologist suspected metastasis, she switched my husband to Gem-Abraxane. But Folfirinox is the "gold-standard" for adjuvant chemo after pancreas resection. The usual side effects are hair loss, loss of appetite, nausea, fatigue, tingling sensation at the extremities and sleep might be affected but your oncologist will be able to deal with most side effects save for hair loss (it will grow again!). Oxaliplatin also had the effect of making cold things unpleasant - so no cold food and no touching cold water, cold surfaces. Others here have posted about neuropathy but I reckon my husband was not on Folfirinox long enough to have that problem. You may want to search and read posts by @stageivsurvivor and @mnewland99 on neuropathy and how to manage it.
You can wait for others with more experience to reply to your post.

Yes, Port-A-Cath to be installed one week before my chemo starts.

Thanks @joiedevivre for sharing the experience and the side effects especially the one on cold food, cold surfaces and cold water which my oncologist didn't mention.

@ayeo Includes going out in cold weather too! It is apparently only for the first 5 - 6 days after chemo that you avoid cold stuff but I was extremely paranoid and kept my husband away from cold stuff all the time he was on Folfirinox.

The oxaliplatin agent of Folfirinox is neurotoxic to peripheral nerves of the hands, feet and throat. Close to a decade ago, someone with an understanding of anatomy and physiology proposed cold therapy which causes constriction of capillary beds temporarily preventing the oxaliplatin from coming into contact with peripheral nerves when most concentrated as it is being infused. By causing constriction of blood flow during the 90 minutes of the infusion, the nerves are protected. The cold mitts and booties are then removed and the diluted oxaliplatin circulates and is active and toxic to tumor cells for several days post infusion.

When I heard of pushback from a physician or an N.P., it was clearly obvious they had no familiarity of the technique and poor understanding of the physiologic response to cold. This was usually health care workers in smaller hospitals that don’t have expertise in treating pancreatic cancer. Sadly a technique that has shown benefit in helping as much as 50% was denied them. The larger centers are more amenable in letting patients use the technique and there is even a large clinical study at a major pancreas center in the US. When cold therapy is used from the start, it leads to a better patient experience of tolerability and the patient able to get the full number of cycles with oxaliplatin to derive maximum benefit.

NEUROPATHY PREVENTION WHEN TAKING FOLFIRINOX/ICING

Feature story on cold therapy
https://letswinpc.org/disease-management/ice-prevent-neuropathy/
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https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/ice-chips-prevent-hyperalgesia-with-oxaliplatin
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7810270/
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https://learn.colontown.org/topic/managing-neuropathy-and-cold-sensitivity/
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https://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/JCO.2020.38.15_suppl.e16140
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https://paltown.org/icing/
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https://letswinpc.org/research/more-research-needed-for-neuropathy/
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https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-and-a-cold-cap-therapy-can-reduce-hair-loss-caused-by-chemotherapy/
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Link to booties and mitts for cold therapy. https://a.co/d/ipJy8Hq
Two sets of booties/mitts are necessary for the cold to last through the infusion cycle.
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Article from Iris Oncology: https://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/hand-cooling-compression-nearly-halve-risk-of-neuropathy-from-chemotherapy
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Article on exercise in lessening CIPN
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38559210/

I completely agree with "shell from Canada". I felt VERY grateful I was a candidate for the Whipple....healthy enough to survive the surgery. Many people are not. I also had 6 months of chemo. Both are a small price to pay to be ALIVE !! It's been over 5 years since my Whipple and chemo and I'm very healthy and active still. (perhaps talk to your Doctor about anxiety medication....helps. ) Gratefully yours, Karen from Canada

Do you also feel the following after the Whipple operation? My operation was done 5 weeks ago.
I realised that my sense of smell is better.
I feel low mood and no appetite
I don't feel hungry ( i mean the growling in the stomach and the feeling that one is hungry)

Are the above feelings normal? Will it improve over time?

I wonder why every dr doesn’t recommend the mittens and booties during infusion of platins and abraxane, if it can prevent or attempt to prevent or lessen neuropathy. We need to get the word out!