Pancreatic Cancer Group: Introduce yourself and connect with others

Hello @mikelab and welcome to the Pancreatic Cancer support group on Mayo Connect. I am glad that you found this forum. It helps so much to meet others who are on a journey similar to yours.

First of all, congratulations on the effectiveness of the chemotreatment. Not having any growth or metastasis is good news.

We have a discussion group that might be of interest to you. Here is the link,
--Recovery after distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/recovery-after-distal-pancreatectomy-and-splenectomy/
I would also like to invite some other members of the Pancreatic Support group to meet you and share their experiences like @mnewland99 @stageivsurvivor @gamaryanne and others.

I look forward to hearing from you again, Mike. How are you feeling now? Have you been able to maintain your weight? Do you have any specific digestive problems?

Hi. I'm Mike LaB. I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on May 13, 2024. Since then I have completed chemo with Gemcitabine and Granisetron for 9 weeks. I had my last chemo on October 4th. I had no idea the side effects would have such an impact on my quality of life. The good news is that the tumor has not grown or metastisized. I am scheduled for a distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy on January 23rd. I have to admit that I am very nervous about this upcoming surgery and the recovery from it. I look forward to hearing from others who have gone through this journey.

What is the Oceotride shots? I don't know, is there such a treatment?

It is the number of people with cancer per 100 thousand people. In other words, there are more people with cancer in the USA than in Turkey. The USA is the 4th country in the world with the highest number of people with cancer.

Hi, I am Don. I was diagnosed with stage 4 in May of this year. I am on Oceotride shots once a month. I am doing well so far. I just wish I knew what is ahead for me.

This citation shows cancer rates in the US are 362.2 (4th) and in Turkey, 231.5 (49th).

So, you are not saying Turkey has higher cancer rates than the US? I'm confused.

I found that I had to take additional Creon when I was going to eat fatty or greasy foods. I also found that for some reason, no matter how much Creon I took, my body responded negatively to broccoli and high sugared pastries. Each of us is different so we just have to experiment to see what our body’s can and cannot take. Best of luck… be patient. I trust that you’ll find that happy medium in time. Even nearly 1.5 years post surgery, I learn new things each week or month. Just recently, my body just doesn’t want any coffee intake… decaf nor caf. It rejects its and makes my stomach feel awful. Continuous learning I guess.

My doctor said that you can eat everything except foods that are too fatty and are problematic for chemotherapy. He also said to experiment and stay away from food that causes a lot of diarrhea and abdominal pain. I am on Creon. Sometimes with diarrhea, sometimes without diarrhea, life goes on.

What issues are you having with digestion? Are you taking enzymes? Have you changed your diet to significantly reduce fat intake as our newly reconstructed digestive systems can’t handle fat.

Please reach out to the Pancreatic Cancer Network (PanCAN). They will be able to assist you with any questions you may have.