Patient London, I don't know if there is enough room on this message board to respond to you, so if you'd like, email us at: --Message edited by CancerCompass staff. For personal protection, email address removed. Consider private reply. Please review CancerCompass Member Guidelines at http://www.cancercompass.com/common/guidelines.html--. My 53 yr old wife, Sun, has ampullary cancer. She had been feeling tired, weak, etc for a while. Finally on 22 Oct, she went for some blood tests. Within a day or so, her fever peaked at 104.6. She had cold chills and shakes. She jaundiced very badly. She underwent a week of tests in the Cape Canaveral Hosp in Cocoa Beach, FL with the team of surgeons adamantly insisting she must have gallstones, although none showed up in any of the tests (ultrasound, ECRP, MCRP,MRI, CT Scan). I asked several times if they were considering a tumor. Right up until the day before surgery, they continually blew me off, as she does not meet ANY of the cancer criteria (smoker, drinker, family history, overweight, etc.). The day of surgery they told us they thought she had a lump but still didn't believe it was a tumor. Post surgery, the doc told me he removed an infected mass from her the ampullary of her pancreas and sent it out for analysis, but was sure it was not a tumor. However, during surgery, as they could not discount it being cancerous, they did the Whipple procedure. All her lymph nodes were clean, as was her liver. Results of the mass came back stating it was malignant. I bought a huge stack of books on cancer, and found nothing on ampullary cancer. She was in intensive care for 5 days and in a post-surgical ward for another 5. Total time in the hospital was almost 3 weeks. She is still suffering serious post-surgery problems. A puss blister surfaced on her surgical cut line a week after she was released from the hospital. Her surgeon cut it open and it practicaly geysered from so much. He patched her up with several 4x4" gauze pads and sent her back home. By the time we got home, puss had soaked through all the bandages, her clothes, and was running down her legs and dripping on the floor. What a mess. The drainage has slowed to leave a 3" spot on her bandage every 12 hrs. She has no energy. She is still losing weight. She was 105 post surgery, and is now down to 91 lbs. She still has internal pain. Doc is still taking a wait and see attitude, although last week he discussed cutting her open again to see if he can find a problem. He ran another CT Scan, and based on it, said we will continue to wait. Sun asked him if that meant she was good. He said, no, you are not good...let's just say you are OK. So we continue to wait. Meanwhile, we have seen 2 oncologists. Local ones are only general practicioners. Both have given differing opinions of follow on treatment. One wants to give Gemcitabine and radiation on a 3 week alternating schedule for 6 months. The other wants to give Gemcitabine only as he feels her margins are wide and clear. He said the Gemcitabine and radiation counteract each other so cannot be given simultaneously. He also said he will give whatever follow on treatment we desire, for example, if we want to use the old style chemo with radiation, he will do that. He saidnow that we have differing opinions, he would prefer we get an opinion from a cancer center specialist, so has referred her to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for a consult. In either case, no follow on treatment can begin, as her present surgeon will not allow them to implant the port in her neck until her post-surgical problems are corrected. So we wait. I have strongly suggested different a different surgeon and another opinion, but Sun wants to stick with this one. We are scheduled to go to Moffitt Cancer Center on 27 Dec. She has another post-surgical follow up appointment this afternoon, although I doubt anything will come of it as she is still draining puss. And by the way, it looks like when this is all over with, she will have a second belly button, from where the drainage hole has been trying to heal, but the puss is keeping it open. Hopefully this will all post. If you'd like, I'll keep you posted on her progress. However, if no others on this site express an interest in ampullary cancer, perhaps we should correspond directly. We are also interested in the details of your surgery and progress, as well as the follow on treatment decision you make. If you would prefer to respond privately, please do. We wish you well and pray for your full recovery. George & Sun Cole, Cocoa Beach, FL