I was interested by your message, which was very positive, and wondered if I could ask for advice.
Our 78 yr old father has been diagnosed with pancreatic ca, after a long illness the symptoms of which were ascribed to gallstones. He has been losing weight for a year, and had been through lots of lower GI investigations which showed up a sigmoid diverticular stricture. He had an episode of cholangitis last spring and was listed for a cholecystectomy.
He had cholangitis again before christmas, was very septic and then had a silent MI. He then was discharged and readmitted within 48 hours in cardiac failure, with further cholangitis/sepsis. They put a drain in his gallbladder at this point. A CT showing a 3cm pancreatic mass at this point: deemed to be either inflammatory or neoplastic, but he was deemed unfit for an ERCP or biopsy. After one month on a surgical ward, he was discharged. He then was readmitted 10 days later with duodenal obstruction;the gallbladder drain had blocked too. This turned out to be due to tumour expansion. He is now deemed unfit for surgery including palliative gastro-jejunal bypass, and has been told that chemo and radiotherapy are not applicable. He is being sent home with nursing care. Does anyone know of any options we might have? He has been given 6 to 8 weeks.