Since exhibiting symptoms (jaundice, abdominal swelling) in early to mid May '09, my husband (age 49) has had 3 endoscopies all of which came back negative for cancer (even all of the blood tests came back normal). Unfortunately, our luck ran out on July 9th when it was confirmed by an exploratory surgery that he has PC. The tumor is about 3 cm and the cancer appears to only be on the belly of the tumor. He is not eligible for the Whipple at this time because the tumor (most of which is fibrosis/pancreatitis) is pinching one of the main arteries. We are told that he's had chronic pancreatitis for at least 3 years but exhibited no symptoms. After an 8 night stay in the hospital, he was discharged on July 17th.
The surgery was much more extensive than we had imagined. He is 6'1'' and started out at 240ish in mid-May. He now weighs 212 . Most of the weight loss is due to having to fast for all the endoscopies/MRIs/CT Scans/surgery and of course, nerves...he had a good appetite up until the exploratory surgery. He was very active prior to the surgery (we have 3 little ones - 6,4,8 mos). He has had to take it very slow b/c of the 9" incision. He is scheduled for his first chemo treatment this Thurs/Friday which will continue every other week. We hoping that he'll be stronger by later this week. After the round of chemo, he'll have radiation daily, and then back to chemo. The Drs. hope that the treatment will shrink the tumor off the vein thereby making it re-sectable.
I did want to mention that we are very comfortable with the treatment plan proposed by Drs. Avram Cooperman and Michael Wayne @ St. Vincent's Hospital. They have been amazing since day 1 and continue to amaze us by their compassion and genuine interest in their patients.
The thing that worries me (besides everything else) is that ever since the surgery, he has had night sweats which have been more pronounced ever since he's been home....fortunately, his night sweats the past few nights have not been as bad. There have been nights where he's had to change his t-shirt and sometimes his pj bottom b/c of how much he sweats. We've noticed that the sweats are only at nighttime when his body is relaxed. His surgeon thinks that the cancer is causing the night sweats.
Has anyone else experienced these episodes of night sweats?