Hello, I am new to this site, but I was searching and found exactly the support I needed. My mother (57) was diagnosed with pancreatic ca in January 2005. February, she had a 2.5cm tumor in the body of the pancreas. Complained of abd/back pain for over a year,but was treated with pain meds. The pain became unbearable and finally, a cat scan was done. The result illustrated that a tumor had invaded the splenic vein as well. Surgery performed was distalpancreatectomy resection with removal of the spleen.
I find it ironic that no one followed the complaints until a family member persued with more testing. She is 2 weeks into rad tx and chemo, lost with weight loss of about 30 lbs. Apparently, the treatment is for the surgerical bed(borders) and 1 lymphatic node.
She has a strong family hx of adult diabetes, but was not diagnosed as a diabetic until the found the tumor on cat scan. Anyone with common sense would known that the pancreas controls the insulin,therefore if there is a tumor in the pancreas that restricts that function, the end result will make you a diabetic.
My question: If the patient is predisposed to certain genetic disease (diabetes in this case) would you not do lab values on a routine basis to check the function? How long will it take for a patient to suffer before something is done? Where is the preventive medical approach in this case?
My prayers are with all of us.