Mom's cancer and whipple

starseed · Regular Joined: 06 Sep 2006 Posts: 17

I've been lurking here since my mom's diagnosis.

In '04, my mom was hit head on by a druck driver. She broke bones all over her body, including the thrid vertebrea and punctured her spleen and pancreas.

It too 2 years for her to recover - 3 month unconsious, 3 months temp paralisis and delirium, 3 months learning to use her hands, 3 months beginning to walk, 3 months of Tardiv Syndrom (from her meds) misdiagnosed at parkinsons dieseas, 9 month learning to walk, finally home after 2 years.

Then in June she turned jaundus.

2 weeks later, it was diagnosed at bile duct cancer.

4 weeks later she had whipple surgery.

The results from the lab showed it was either stage 2B or Stage 3 Pancreatic Cancer - the cancer was bigger than 2 cm, and spread to at least on lymph node.

4 weeks after surgery, she is still in the hospital recovering for the whipple. She is not able to eat, doesn't want to walk, in tons of pain, diarrea, etc.

I don't know if she is actually recovering from the surgery or not.

In the meantime, she has to recover from the surgery before chemo is started or considered.

I believe the cancer is still in her body - chances are very likely.

What I really want to know is how fast does reccurance occure after surgery (common for stage 3). If there is a reccurance, how much time is left?

What if she rejected chemo? I don't believe it will help, but only stall it and decrease the quality of life in the process.

How ling does one have to live with stage 3 post whipple?

missumom · Experienced user Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 65

Your mom has been through so much. This must be very difficult for you and your family. She is a fighter though and you have to keep reminding her that. My advice for you is to ask the oncologist. Write down all the questions you have so that when he comes to see your mom, you won't forget anything. Ask the oncologist...1) what is causing her to be jaundice? 2) has the cancer spread to the liver? 3) was all the cancer removed during the whipple?

Cancer in the pancreas (and the surrounding area), as I was told, is very painful because there are many nerves and tissues that are affected to the point where the pain seems to be everywhere. If your mom is in pain perhaps you should talk to the doctor who's in charge of pain relief. Maybe they have to increase her dosage.

I think your mom has a fighting chance if she's at Stage 3 and have had a whipple surgery. I hope all the best for your mom and yourself. Keep us in touch of her condition.

Take care..

starseed · Regular Joined: 06 Sep 2006 Posts: 17

Well...

I moved in with my mom.

She is recovering well from the Whipple.

She has started chemo (something with a Ge name) on Tues (today is Fri)

The steroids made her "high" for 24 hours, then she got sick and threw-up. The doctor recommended Marijuana Butter, which I got for her (I'm in California), and baked her brownies. She has felt much much much better, she is able to eat easily, she has stopped throwing-up.

The cancer is stage three, limited to the pancreas and local lymph nodes (8 out of 20).

Her jaundice was caused from the tumor, but was fixed (first w/ a stent) with surgery.

There was no sign that the cancer spread to the liver, BUT her tumors did not show up on scans anyway.

The surgeon thought he got it all out, but the Oncologist believes there are still cancer cells there because of the lymph nodes (I agree) and there even could be other tumors that were missed.

He wanted to do Radiation and a stronger chemo (something with a T5 name), but since the accident, he thinks it would killer her.

	Cancer Forums Forum Index -> Pancreatic Cancer Forum	All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

A website for discussions about any type of cancer, including lung cancer, breast cancer, mesothelioma, prostate cancer, laryngeal cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and others