Hi again Stephen,
My husband had his Whipple with Dr. Talamonti 12/06 when he was still at Northwestern Mem in Chicago. I agree he is excellent. Are you aware his father died of PC? My husband required a portal vein patch taken from his jugular vein so another surgeon was called in for that part of the surgery. He had negative nodes and no mets at surgery and none so far. However, he does have lung mets from 9/01 colon cancer; we were all surprised when the lung mets turned up 3/08. We thought the colon cancer was a thing of the past. He has 3 lung lesions, bilateral, not operable. His oncologist prefers not to do chemo at this time but will wait until he has symptoms; his quality of life at this time is pretty good. He goes out every day with his buddies, bowling or golfing or just for lunch. By the way, my husband will be 77 years old in August. He is somewhat older than I am, so I am still working.
Keep up with your enzymes, take it slow and get a lot of rest. Also visit the Johns Hopkins support board; it's much easier when you know you're not in this fight alone and those folks really have very good info.
Best wishes for continued recovery.
Joan