how to help
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Dear Friend – welcome to this wonderful site. Don’t forget that you will need support, too, as you support your friend & this is a BRILLIANT site for carer support, as well a patient support.
Good Luck to your friend & to you as you go through this together.
Julia
I agree with everything above, do make sure your friend (and her carers) are prepared for how she will be immediately after the op – she may not be up to visitors that day, will have tubes, drains and wires all over and may be in pain (check the epidural is definitely planned).
She now needs to eat and get herself as well and strong as possible. My dad’s whipple was a near ‘textbook’ success with no leaks or infections and he was not allowed to eat for nearly a week. Vital that she tries with the physio to get mobile asap – this prevents lung infections even though it can be hard.
My dad is now having chemo on a trial but would only in the last few weeks have considered going back to work if he had to (3 months out of surgery). He was incredibly fit beforehand which helped, although maybe his standards of feeling ‘normal’ are different (dissapointed he can’t do his daily running/swimming etc).
Good luck to your friend – I hope she has as good a surgeon as my dad did at Leeds.
Hi Friend. please remember that everyone is different and has different circumstances. Teddy’s 1st Whipple was aborted after 4 hours as the dye from the endoscopy leaked on the pancreas and literally destroyed it. While healing for the next go around he developed a double e coli infection. After 3 weeks the “real” Whipple was done. It took 8 hours and he had all clean margins. With all he went through at 73 he did amazingly well. Even with hitches he came out ok. Even with the return of the CC, he has done well. A whole lot is attitude and amazing friends like you. Don’t look for something before it occurs
and as I always say we prefer to remain realistically optimistic. Please keep us advised.Thank you all for responding. I never realized how huge this operation is, it really is not a “procedure”. I am sure she will try to do too much, but hopefully all will go well. She has many friends that will help as I will.
My husband is 51. He had the tumor near his pancreas too. He had a whipple and went through chemo and radiation and will get results of tests in two weeks. Hopefully cancer free. Make sure your friends gets treatments afterwards even if they say they got it all. It is your insurance policy so it won’t come back,,,since it always seems to. Also, my husband had his whipple on jan 4th. He lost 60 lbs and is still in pain and his stomach is still a mess and it is 4 months later. He is not able to work, Sleep is messed up, eating, so many Rxs to try to help issues. Granted everyone handles this differently, but the whipple is a huge conconstruction. 6 weeks wasn’t even close to when my husband was up and about. Good luck. If you need to email for any details of what to expect after whipple, how to handle when they pull out the drain tubes etc etc…let me know. linda.sisman@ipaper.com
Dear Friend,
I didn’t have the whipple surgery but a liver resection….its major surgery as well. It took me about 6 months before I was really feeling like myself again. I was 48 years old and in pretty good shape prior to my surgery. The things that really saved me and continues to help me are DVDs…I subscribed to Netflix and got hooked on TV series. My friends also pitched in and bought me an Ipod touch! Can’t tell you how much I use that. I couldn’t manage without it anymore. It was wonderful to have in the hospital because I could download anything I wanted right from my hospital bed. Everyone does heal differently and at his/her own pace but you might consider cautioning your friend to lower her expectations just a little bit. I know I was told I would be up and around in about 10 days and I was really concerned and disappointed when I wasn’t.Betsy
Dear Friend, and what a great friend you are! My husband had a Whipple almost 5 years ago and he is now 77. Yes, it is a huge surgery, not life threatening but the largest surgery to the human body. His recuperation was about 6 months at which time he started to go back to work and pick up on his golf again (gently). One of his big annoyances was not wanting to eat. He was an avid eater before and he really took a long time to get that appetite back. For exercise, when he was able he would just walk to the end of the driveway and back. Just a suggestion….tell your friend to ask for an epideral which will help ease the pain for the first 2 days. It is surprising but they did get Teddy up rather quickly. Much good luck to you and your friend!!!
Hi,
Welcome to this site and stick around, as you will receive really helpful tips to help your friend’s recovery. I was diagnosed with CC last September, located in the distal area close to the pancreas, in the same area as your friend. My first whipple operation failed because I had a temporary infammation of the pancreas, which was not picked up on the scans (complications of this kind are not unusual). Kris mentioned the pillow (to press against the incision when she coughts) – this is an absolute life-saver and eases the pain considerably. My next whipple is scheduled on Thursday the 13th of May. With regard to your question concerning recovery, my surgeon indicated that if all goes to plan and there are no complications, I should expect to be released from hospital after 10 days and that recovery at home would take about 2 months. I don’t expect to be back at work until August. The surgeon warned that complications cannot be ruled out (as the whipple is a very serious procedure), in particular leakages from the incision along the pancreas are common and delay recovery considerably.Hoping all goes well for your friend…………….Gerry
Agreed that people heal differently from surgery. I am status post hepatectomy Jan. 19th. I’m 51 years old and was in very good health going into surgery. 3 months have passed I’m healing well but at 1 month things were a little difficult. I had no post op complications but the body does not bounce back as we would want it to. All of Kris’s ideas were great especially about the pets I have a dog and the first time I was able to walk her again made me feel like I was really going to be able to do the things I used to. I have a very large family and I love them all dearly but, I wanted to do things on my own I know my limits. Of course they did help a great deal in the beginning but if your friend feels she is up to something let her try. I think the most important thing for me was when people would talk to me about what was going on at work, their families, the neighborhood etc… CC consumed and continues to consume much of my life but to just speak about everyday occurences made me feel better and put the CC in the background just for a little while. You sound like a wonderful friend and I wish your friend nothing but the best. Know that my thoughts and prayers will be with her. Nancy
People heal differently from surgery, but the whipple is really hard on the body. You might want to prepare her for a longer recovery period.
Things that can help…
Offer to do laundry. Bending is really painful for a bit and heavy wet clothes are not fun.Take her shopping. Again groceries are heavy and right after surgery, just walking around the store is exhausting. Since my second surgery, Hans and I have mainly stuck to the “little” grocery store in our neighborhood. I dont have to walk so far to get milk and lets be honest, I dont need a choice of 30 kinds of beans.
Audio books. I had the worst time sleeping in the hospital and they helped.
Pillow to hold agaist incision when she needs to cough.
If she has dogs, offer to walk them. If she has cats, offer to change the litter. She doesnt need to risk an infection from cat poop.
When she is out of the hospital, make a point to visit.
Let her be afraid. I get frustrated when people around me are so positive that there is no room for me to voice my fears. They are real and need to be said.
Hope that helps.
kris
My best friend has CC. The tumor is near the pancreas. Her whipple surgery will be in about two weeks. Fortunatly the cancer has not spread to any other areas. since the doctors want to take an agressive approach, I assume they think they can “get” it. she is only 52. What can I do to make this easier for her? She thinks she will bounce right back to work. I viewed the operation link on this site. I think her recovery will be at least a month.
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