Whipple Surgery and Recovery

Hi,Monkeytet,
How old is your dad?
I had liver resection for 8hrs in 2009,everything was fine,out of the hospital in five days. I lost about 20-25 lbs. and regained 30lbs later(in about 4-6months period).
Always consult your doctors first; the following suggestions are for information purpose only.
1. give your father Carnation breakfast drink (200-300cal/can)1 can in the morning in addition to what you have done for his calorie intake.
2.Give another can of Ensure or similar protein drinks in high calories(360 cal/can) any flavor. any time in the afternoon;between lunch and dinner time.
3. encourage him to eat vegetables and fruits ,banana(high potassium);blue berry and the like(high antioxidant) orange and pears (4-6servings/day) ;in addition to the regular meals.
4.Ask your doctor to change Reglan and prescribe something else)- it is drug that increase the motility of the upper GI tract ,therefore diarrhea is a common side effect;Reglan is also an older medication that prescribed for treating nausea/vomiting due to its anti-dopamine effects to block the stimulation of dopamine.Therefore drowsiness and fatigue are also common but less so.
Older anti-nausea/vomiting drugs included
1. Group 1(antidopaminergics).- prochloperazine;promethazine;reglan.)
2. Group 2 like cyclizine, meclizine,dimenhydrinate, benadryl,scopolamine and tigan are belong to anticholinergics group.
3.Group 3 like corticosteroids (dexamethasone),cannabinoids and hydroxyzine are belongs to the miscellaneous group.
Try to ask your doctor to switch to another group of med if the one your father took is not working or try a combination from different groups.
or use newer ones like the following;
New antiemetics such as the
1. 5-HT3 receptor antagonist group- ondansertron (Zofran), dolasetron(Anzemet), granisertron (Kytril)and palonosetron(Aloxi) and
2. the NK1 receptor antagonist like aprepitant (Emend) and others are on the market ;they come as an oral capsule or tablet.Emend has to be taken with other antiemetics and on schedule for the maximum anti -nausea/vomiting.
On one of the ASCO 6/2011 poster session abstract#9091,indicated
“significant clinical benefits in favor of palonosetron were also seen in the delayed and overall time periods on the number of emetics episodes and the severity of nausea.”when compare to the other 3 5-HT3 receptor antagonists.
Also for anticipatory nausea;XanaX 0.5mg-1mg with Benadryl 25mg-50mg 20-30min before chemo works well with me.
Ginger root has been used for a long time for controlling nausea in Asia. a study of 644 patients were randomly assigned to placebo or ginger (0.5-1gm capsule twice daily for six days) ;starting three days prior to the first day of the next 2 cycle of chemo treatment.all of the patients received 5-HT3 receptor antagonist on day 1 of all cycles.Significant reduction in nausea throughout day 1 of the chemo cycles was observed.
To find out the cause of nausea and vomiting besides thinking it is only comes from the chemo is important too. (ie; is the patient on antibiotics too?does the patient have no bowel movement?Is he on too much opiates?
5. if the lab work was done in a hospital,ask your father for permission tolet you get all the copies,including MRI,PET and CT scan and pathology and surgical reports for surgery.(It will be of great value in the future).

A final note,don’t be afraid , but be strong;your father needs you to be calm and confident to help him.From my experience,everything will be fine. I was and I am still a patient of CC. I learn one thing from having this disease;there is really nothing I can do except praying and keeping on learning about this disease.
God luck and God bless you.

Last edited by PCL1029 (Today 14:09:22)

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Hi Monkeytat and congratulations on your Dad, he is now a survivor! To have a slow recovery with a Whipple is not unusual. It is the largest surgery to the human body. Not life threatening but huge. It takes months to recover fully. Also with a Whipple the whole digestive system is changed. No energy, weight loss all go along with it. You really need to talk with his ONC about his digestive problems. My husband was told he would be on Prevacid ever after to aid in his digestion. Slowly, his appetite picked up as did his energy. He started with slow walks to the end of the driveway. He loved golf and instead of golfing would go up and putt a few balls. Carnation Instant Breakfast worked very well as it can replace a whole meal and I would blend fruit in with it. But, please call his doctor and tell him what is going on, no need for anyone to sufer these days. Please keep us posted.