8 Years After Whipple

Hello folks, I'd like to share my Mom's story as I believe she may be one of the record-setters for this disease. In 1998, yes 1998 she had the whipple done because she had bile duct cancer, basically it was wrapped around the bile duct, but no cancer anywhere else. She came thru fine at 71 years old. No chemo, or radiation after it at all!! She is also a diabetic! Last year, in 2005 she turned yellow very quickly with pain etc and they found another NEW tumor inside the little bit of bile duct she had left. They stented, twice, the second a more permanet stent I guess and gave her five weeks of radiation. In May of this year, a year after the stent and radiation was done, they could no longer detect the tumor inside the bile duct. But now she is 79 years old and for the past several months has had tremendouse back pain and difficulty eating, lots of vomiting and nausea. They discovered that now she has another tumor outside the bile duct. But her liver, pancreas etc are all clear of any cancer. Unfortunately the failure to eat has left her in a greatly weakened state now and tomorrow they will have to place a feeding tube in. They tell us if they can just get her strength up by feeding her this way they will treat this tumor with chemotherapy (3 kinds, I forget the name but it includes Avastin) It's been a really long journey and when I read these posts here, I feel really blessed at my mother's longevity with this disease. Does anyone know why this is causing such excruciating back pain, that is really her worse symptom. She is not jaundice at this time but just can't see to get food down and keep it down.

Hi, my name is Helen, I live in Scotland in the United Kingdom.

I was really heartened to read your post about your mum and how she has had 8 wonderful years after her Whipple's.  My husband is 36 and this February he got jaundice very badly, after a few tests he was admitted to hospital for a Whipple's procedure and diagnosed with cancer, also in his bile duct, just at the end near his pancreas.

His surgeon has assured us his cancer was completely removed, and he was offered a chance to take part in a chemotherapy trial.  My husband jumped at the chance, for us it felt like a bit of extra insurance against any stray cells.  We have a little girl who is just about to turn one at Christmas time, she was only 5 weeks old when my husband got sick. He has been receiving Gemcitabine every 3 weeks, I think in the US it is Gemzar?  He has been quite well and managed to work 3 days a week around his appointments, with no nasty side effects, although he has been very fatigued.He gets his last chemo session this week and we hope we can put the bad parts of this year behind us and get on with family life.

It feels like a big question mark over our family future though. A lot of what I read about whipple's and GI cancer is such bad news, I feel like there is nothing to look forward to for us and we can't plan a future.

Your story has changed all that, with a bit of luck and God on our side, my husband can have at least 8 happy years watching our girl grow up if not more, your story about your mum is such a positive one, and something that I can cling on to with hope.

I do hope things are going well for your mum now, that her strength has been renewed and she can receive her chemo.I hope you have a merry Christmas with her.

Thank you. 

 

On 12/11/2006 Nel5371 wrote:

Hi, my name is Helen, I live in Scotland in the United Kingdom.

I was really heartened to read your post about your mum and how she has had 8 wonderful years after her Whipple's.  My husband is 36 and this February he got jaundice very badly, after a few tests he was admitted to hospital for a Whipple's procedure and diagnosed with cancer, also in his bile duct, just at the end near his pancreas.

His surgeon has assured us his cancer was completely removed, and he was offered a chance to take part in a chemotherapy trial.  My husband jumped at the chance, for us it felt like a bit of extra insurance against any stray cells.  We have a little girl who is just about to turn one at Christmas time, she was only 5 weeks old when my husband got sick. He has been receiving Gemcitabine every 3 weeks, I think in the US it is Gemzar?  He has been quite well and managed to work 3 days a week around his appointments, with no nasty side effects, although he has been very fatigued.He gets his last chemo session this week and we hope we can put the bad parts of this year behind us and get on with family life.

It feels like a big question mark over our family future though. A lot of what I read about whipple's and GI cancer is such bad news, I feel like there is nothing to look forward to for us and we can't plan a future.

Your story has changed all that, with a bit of luck and God on our side, my husband can have at least 8 happy years watching our girl grow up if not more, your story about your mum is such a positive one, and something that I can cling on to with hope.

I do hope things are going well for your mum now, that her strength has been renewed and she can receive her chemo.I hope you have a merry Christmas with her.

Thank you.