Mom's whipple surgery July 2017

by Kelly
(Virginia )

Found this site invaluable through this process so far with my mother's pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

She is currently in ICU 1 day post op from her whipple procedure. They thought her cancer was confined to head of the pancreas prior to surgery with no node or vessel involvement . When they opened her up however the tumor was much larger than they thought on her EUS and involved the portal vein. They did the Whipple and took approximately 70% of her pancreas and did a portal vein resection. Traditional whipple otherwise removing portion of her stomach, bile duct, gallbladder and many lymph nodes.

1 lymph node was sent during surgery and looked at immediately and was positive . We will have to wait on pathology of the remaining 11 or so and to see if all margins were clear.

I will try to update on here as we progress for all of you going through this difficult journey seeking information. My mother did have a stent put in her bile duct about 6 weeks ago which is when the cancer was discovered due to diarrhea, back pain and jaundice. They thought it might be gallstones and did an ERCP and found the cancer.

Prayers to all of you and best wishes for you and your loved ones.