Post Op Care

My husband is seven months post op Whipple surgery and is experiencing abdominal pain, bloating, gas, and this week has begun intermittent vomiting. and weight loss.  Does anyone have ideas about what may be going on?  Should he be taking enzymes before eating?  He is also experiencing IBS symptoms and/or dumping syndrome.  We have not been able to find much material about post op patient care when the patient is several months post op.  Anyone with information to share, please pass it on. 

Is your husband taking prescription strength enzymes at all?  What works for me is to take them throughout a meal.  One with first bite of meal, one in middle of meal and one toward the end of the meal.  I take Creon, but there are other brands available as well.  

If he isn't seeing his doctor already about the weight loss and vomiting, he should.

My experience is that the symptoms you mention, gas, bloating and abdominal pain should be helped and in some cases eliminated by taking enzymes in enough quantity. Dumping syndrome can happen if you eat things high in sugar content.  Some of the protein drinks, like Ensure, can have lots of sugar. It is often trial and error until you find what foods affect you adversely.  Keeping a food diary helped me.  Also, for some folks it helps to drink liquids after the meal, or between meals instead of during meals.  Weight loss can be caused by malabsorption of food, and in my case, getting the enzymes started and learning to how to take them stopped the weight loss.

Hope your husband's situation improves soon.  

Take him back to the doctor. Make them test his CA19-9 to make sure the cancer hasn't returned. And when they tell you, no try this, this and this first... You tell them YES, NOW. Demand it, you can't afford to waste time if it has returned.

That may not be what you want to hear; but (if) that's the cause of the symptoms; the sooner you catch it the greater your chance of stopping it/treating it.

 

 

I am a 20 month Whipple survivor..... Had the same problems, minus vomitting. I take enzymes and they clear up alot of the problems, surgeon and oncologist said to stay away from sugar which I do most of the time. Once in awhile I splurge.

I'd get back to that Doctor or Oncologist fast and make him find out what is going on. There is no need for him to be going through this. 

 

I'm 3 1/2 years post op after a whipple surgery.  The complete pancreas was removed so I'm also a diabetic dependent on insulin.  I agree with the comments of "AliveinOldeTown".  I had terrible gas and indigestion for the first few months until I started to take Cotazym enzymes.  I take them with all food.  2 or 3 for meals, 1 for a snack.  I still get up some night because of gas, but it's tolerable.  Also high amounts of sugar will cause dumping.  I now eat fairly normal type of meals, but try to avoid certain food - cheddar cheese, fatty foods, too much raw fruit/vegetables, any excessive sweet foods. I eat a lot of whole wheat cereals and bread/buns.  Need to cook my meat well done.  My wife uses 50% Splenda in most cooking to reduce the sugar.  I try to have a balanced diet with everything in moderation.  But I can still eat pizzas, have a little wine, etc.  In January we were at an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean.  I can still walk to play golf (but usually need to cart the back nine holes).  Good luck.