Whipple Or Not?

My Mother has stage III Pancreatic Cancer, diagnosed June 2007. She has been receiving Chemo/Radiation/Genzar at the City of Hope Hospital. In June, she had exploritory surgery at a different Hospital and they determined it was localized but inoperable. Since then, the tumor has grown from 1.7 MM to 2.2 MM but has not spread.

She was told yesterday by the City of Hope Doctor's that an operation is available to her, where they would open her up to see if the Whipple Method is an option. The Doctor's give her a 25% chance of receiving a Whipple Method Surgery and 20% of living 5+ years if she receives that surgery.

Some Background: She is currently on disability, receiving SSN. My Brother lives at home with her but has a full-time job. She is strong, currently in no pain and again, the tumor is sustained.

My question is: Given the quality of life scenarios and the recovery time, I am interested in the good, bad, ugly stories that exist for the Whipple Method. What would YOU do?

 

I am so sorry too hear that your mother is dealing with PC. This
decision is dificult and totally up to your mother but you are right to
get other
opionions.  The only good chance to beating this disease is to
have the Whipple and since she is in stage lll with no mets, I believe
she is a good candidate to live much longer if the Whipple can be
completed
successfully.  On the other hand it is a very tough and long
surgery in which complications can arise afterwards.  If your
mother is strong and is mentally ready to fight this disease I
would 
advise my mother to go for it. You did not mention how old your mother
is.  As for me, I am  56 with stage lV inoperatable PC, no
mets and I would have a difficult time deciding myself. 

Take care,

Jaice
                                     

 

 

Thanks for the reply...she is 61 years old.

Deciding can be a hard decision.  If she decides to have a whipple, go somewhere that do at least a hundred whipples a year.  That is very important.  I am sorry to hear they did exploratory surgery and didn't do a whipple.  I had the slow growing PC Stage IV and it had mets to my lymph nodes and liver.  I don't think the doctors knew that ahead of time.  But the whipple saved my life.  If PC has not mets, then she will have a better chance to live longer.  Dawnella

It is a tough decision, or at least would be, for me.  My DH opted for the surgery even though, in his case, he knew it would be an extemely complicated whipple and a long shot for success.  The good news is that his margins are clear and lymph nodes negative.  The bad news is that he has had many complications that has had him in the hospital as much as home in the several months since his surgery.  Our lives consist of hospital and doctor appointments and constant care at home.  He does not have much quality of life, but is alive, months past his predicted life span.  At the moment, you have hit us at a down point.  He is very ill in the hospital at the moment.  There is still hope, though, that he may turn around and return to the fight. 

Please don't let our experience be the only one to guide you.  There are many positive stories as well.  Since you asked for good and bad, I thought I would chime in.  If you asked my DH today would he do it again, he would probably still say "yes."

Thank you very much and good luck to both of you.

That is good advice and insight, thank you for sharing your story!

You pose a very difficult question.

For me the Whipple was for a cure. For your mom, I am not sure that I hear you saying that.....with pancreatic cancer, there is no cure without the Whipple as far as I know. It did take some time to recover and then I had chemo and radiation. Of course I was 23 years old at the time.Highly unusual.  My surgery took almost 10 hours. A week in ICU and a total of 17 days in the hospital. 16 of those days were without any food or fluid. Lots of tubes, lots of pain control. There is a 20% mortality rate just with the surgery and complications.

Well worth the results though ...... I sit here a relatively healthy cancer survivor of 39 yrs old. A chronic pain problem (tolerable) and a bad scar (cosmetic) are all that even remind me that I went through this cancer.

It is a big surgery. Is your mom on disability because of the cancer or because of another problem? I think that would make a difference to me. If they go in and find that it is inoperable, then they close her up and she heals....this happened to my mother in law. She was diagnosed about five months after my diagnosis. It was pure coincidence by the way. I had just finished treatments and after five months was going back to work part time. She jaundiced. Just like I did and they found a tumor just inches away from where mine lay. We had the same doctors but with different results. With her, the cancer was too vascular to be removed. Mine was 3mm and hers was the size of an orange. She lived another 11-1/2 months. So time is of the essence when deciding. It is a very aggressive cancer usually. We both had an adenocarcinoma. 5% survival rate after five years with no treatment I believe.  She lost half her body weight, and was in some pain in the last year of her life. Either way you look at it....there is no easy path.

Good luck in your decision making. Please let us know how she progresses.

Traci 

 

 

Thank you Traci...great imput! I will be sure to share this with my Mother...

 

On 2/10/2008 Son of Mary jo wrote:

Thank you very much and good luck to both of you.

 

If Whipple was an option and that would have extended her life, I think we owe it to our parents to do it.