Sleeping

My husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer with metastasis to the liver two weeks ago. He had a stent put in to keep the ducts open. However, he does not have very much appetite and sleeps quite a bit. Does this suggest that the disease is already progressing? Lynn

Hi,

I also had a stint put in to drain the bile from my liver into the small intestine because it was blocked by the tumor in the pancreas. It is very important that he eats as much food as possible. I would recommend he try Ensure or Boost to help supplement his eating, this helped me.

I am sure he will start chemotherapy soon and he needs as much energy as possible. Don’t worry too much about his sleeping a lot, the cancer makes you very tired. You may find once he starts the chemo he will get some energy back. At least that is the way it worked with me.

BTW – I was diagnosed in April 2004 and after 5 months of chemo had the tumor removed, Whipple procedure. I then did radiation for several months. The cancer returned 6 months later and I am going through more chemo now. I just started on a new drug called Tarceva a few weeks ago.

Regards,

Barry

Thank you so much for responding to me, Barry. Since this is all very new to me, everything (well, almost everything) is overwhelming. I was beginning to think the struggle was ending before we even started. My husband is not a candidate for surgery since his cancer has already metastasized to the liver. Also, he is in dialysis with renal failure as a result of renal limited vasculitis. He had an atypical carcinoid in the lung 3 1/2 years ago which was treated with surgery and 6 months of chemo. This cancer is apparantly completely unrelated to that.
He is trying very hard to eat well and I am trying very hard to think of everything and anything I can to make the food as interesting as possible. He is drinking something called Nepro which is like Ensure but for renal patients who must limit potassium and phosphorous. He understand the importance of nutrition, especially since he lost about 15 pounds in the last month, before becoming jaundiced and being diagnosed. We see the oncologist tomorrow. Tarceva and Gemzar seem to be the ones that are used the most for pancreatic cancer. I hope your chemo goes well. Will let you know what our dr. says. Thanks again for responding to my email. I am very grateful. Lynn