You pose a very difficult question.
For me the Whipple was for a cure. For your mom, I am not sure that I hear you saying that.....with pancreatic cancer, there is no cure without the Whipple as far as I know. It did take some time to recover and then I had chemo and radiation. Of course I was 23 years old at the time.Highly unusual. My surgery took almost 10 hours. A week in ICU and a total of 17 days in the hospital. 16 of those days were without any food or fluid. Lots of tubes, lots of pain control. There is a 20% mortality rate just with the surgery and complications.
Well worth the results though ...... I sit here a relatively healthy cancer survivor of 39 yrs old. A chronic pain problem (tolerable) and a bad scar (cosmetic) are all that even remind me that I went through this cancer.
It is a big surgery. Is your mom on disability because of the cancer or because of another problem? I think that would make a difference to me. If they go in and find that it is inoperable, then they close her up and she heals....this happened to my mother in law. She was diagnosed about five months after my diagnosis. It was pure coincidence by the way. I had just finished treatments and after five months was going back to work part time. She jaundiced. Just like I did and they found a tumor just inches away from where mine lay. We had the same doctors but with different results. With her, the cancer was too vascular to be removed. Mine was 3mm and hers was the size of an orange. She lived another 11-1/2 months. So time is of the essence when deciding. It is a very aggressive cancer usually. We both had an adenocarcinoma. 5% survival rate after five years with no treatment I believe. She lost half her body weight, and was in some pain in the last year of her life. Either way you look at it....there is no easy path.
Good luck in your decision making. Please let us know how she progresses.
Traci