My Husband The Miracle Man

I just found this web site, had been using the wrong one! My husband had the Whipple August of 2005. The first attempt was aborted after 4 hours of surgery as the Pancreas was destroyed by leakage of the dye  from the Endoscopy. 3 weeks in to the healing process he developed a double e coli infection. A week later the "real" surgery was done and very successfully. His cancer was in the bile duct valve. We had all of this done while on vacation out of town. Coming home to Phoenix on the plane his 3 drainage tubes blew out. I don't think Midwest will ever let us on again. Then a tiny hole developed at the resscection and he went in to re-hab for 1 month on nothing but an IV. No water at all nothing. It did heal and we are thankful that another surgery was not needed. He will be 75 in October and until the last 2 months had been doing quite well. He keeps getting colds, virusus, infections. Has anyone had this problem. We just learned that the immune system is not what it was.One thing leaves another comes out. Otherwise he is working and golfing. He just gets very tired at times.

To all of you who have survived this monster you are Miracle and to all the care givers you are angels.

Stay strong and well....Lainy 

On 6/8/2007 Lainy wrote:

I just found this web site, had been using the wrong one! My husband had the Whipple August of 2005. The first attempt was aborted after 4 hours of surgery as the Pancreas was destroyed by leakage of the dye  from the Endoscopy. 3 weeks in to the healing process he developed a double e coli infection. A week later the "real" surgery was done and very successfully. His cancer was in the bile duct valve. We had all of this done while on vacation out of town. Coming home to Phoenix on the plane his 3 drainage tubes blew out. I don't think Midwest will ever let us on again. Then a tiny hole developed at the resscection and he went in to re-hab for 1 month on nothing but an IV. No water at all nothing. It did heal and we are thankful that another surgery was not needed. He will be 75 in October and until the last 2 months had been doing quite well. He keeps getting colds, virusus, infections. Has anyone had this problem. We just learned that the immune system is not what it was.One thing leaves another comes out. Otherwise he is working and golfing. He just gets very tired at times.

To all of you who have survived this monster you are Miracle and to all the care givers you are angels.

Stay strong and well....Lainy 

Hi, what an amazing story.  My mom was diagnosed with bile duct cancer contained in the liver.  The liver mass is large and doctors are telling us that she is not a candidate for surgery.  What is the name of the doctor and phone number that you husband used???I would love to explore other options for my mother.  She is currently receiving chemo (gemzar) and tarceva.  Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Kelli

Hi Kelly:  We were very fortunate that the Cancer had not spread to the Pancreas or the Liver. We were on vacation in Milwaukee and after 1 day he had totally jaundiced and we had to act fast. Fortunately we got a great doctor, Dr. Lyle Henry. They do very few of these in Milwaukee! We were so lucky. The other recommendation I have is Dr. James Cashman in Phoenix where we live. He is director of liver transplants at Banner Samaratin Hospital Downtown Phoenix. We continued with him when we got home after the 3 months in Milwaukee. We both said if we ever needed more surgery he is the one we would go to. Unfortunately I cannot vouch for any other place. I  understand  Stanford in Calif is excellent as is  Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN.  Wish I could be of more help.  Also check out on the Internet 

cholangiocarcinoma.org. Excellent for information and help of this kind.

Good luck and stay strong, you are not alone in this.