dawnan

Hercules,

Thank you for your encouragement back in April. I am now recuperating from a Whipple surgery where they took half of my pancreas out along with my duodenum, part of the common bile duct and a bottom portion of my stomach. It turned out the tumor was in my pancreas and grown to the duodenum causing the restriction problems I was having. Unfortunately, 7 of the 19 lymph nodes they took out in that area had cancer in them. The tumor itself had good margins all around it.

I go to see the chemotherapy oncologist next Monday and chemo should start in early July. I am now recovering from Whipple surgery where they took out half my pancreas, my duodenum or most of it, some of my common bile duct where the restrictions were taking place, and the bottom portion of my stomach too.

Upon seeing the surgeon last week, he said that the surgery went very well and that he could see I was doing extremely well myself recovering, although I hadn’t felt like I was. He stated though that compared to many many others, my recovery was excellent and to keep positive. Good to hear.

It’s hard not to pay attention to the horrible statistics regarding my type of cancer. It seems to be a death knoll. They made it clear that if the cancer does come back that there is nothing else they will be able to do for me, so at the same time I am trying to be positive I am also realizing the need to get a will done and make funeral arrangements so that all these nasty things are taken care of and I can put them out of my mind and not leave anyone a mess to deal with. Such a strange time of life!

Thank you to everyone for your stories here. It helps!