Symptoms

kelley502

Can someone please tell me the symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer. I feel like i am going crazy. I watched my grandmother go undiagnosed for over a year or better. CT scan, even a Biopsy. The Biopsy was Neg is late Nov. Then in late Jan her Cancer markers were sky high, she died in April. She had complained of a back ache in the small of her back on the right side, the told he it was arthritis. That was over a year before she died. I watched her lose weight, lose her appatite, lose her energy. This happen two years ago. I brought her home from the hospital on March 9 2004 and she passed at home on April4 2004. I have had some of the same symtoms in the last few months. I have lost 46 pounds since Oct. 27 of them since Jan 30, i have the chronic pain in the right middle part of the back..I am nausea when i eat , or if i do i usually have diarah. After complaining, they did do some tests and wound up removing my gallbladder, but the symptoms are unchaged? What is next for me. I am scared to death. I don't understand why the test do not nessacarily confirm this type of cancer? IS this common? After seeing My grandmaother have all the test and still not be diagnosed is frightening. How long and what did it take to get diagnosed?

roxanne53

I am sorry to hear about your experience with your grandmother. My dad had pancreatic cancer. He was not diagnosed right away either. It appears that my dad had the same issues your grandmother had.
I would suggest you get a specialist or an internist as a physician. They are more expereienced in looking for other problems. The GP's are not knowledgeable or equipped for this type of concern. (I will qualify this: as this has been our experience.)

It is terrible when you don't know what is happening with your body. I have had breast cancer 2ce now, so know what you mean.
two sites you can get information from are:
PANCAN.org and the Johns Hopkins Medical Center site. The latter has an area devoted to pancreatic cancer and the research. Good places to get knowledge and information along witht he Am. Cancer Society site.
Hope this is helpful.
Roxanne53

rodzilla

Kelley,
The symptoms you describe are nowhere near my experience with pancreatic cancer. I first saw jaundice (yellow skin) and some fatigue, and then it was months before we could identify it.
From what you say, it seems that it could still be any number of things....kidney stones? liver problems? some sort of benign infection? I agree with Roxanne that you probably should insist on some sort of marker test, but from what you've described, it's not a given that you have the same disease as your grandmother, and you shouldn't assume so. Perhaps you haven't had enough time to recover from the gallbladder episode? Also couldn't hurt to have an MRI or endoscopy performed to narrow it down. But, really, if these are your major symptoms, there's still a world of things out there that might be going on that are less serious than pancreatic cancer. I wouldn't leap to any conclusions if I were you.

Good luck,
-rod

roxanne53

rodzilla said:

Kelley,
The symptoms you describe are nowhere near my experience with pancreatic cancer. I first saw jaundice (yellow skin) and some fatigue, and then it was months before we could identify it.
From what you say, it seems that it could still be any number of things....kidney stones? liver problems? some sort of benign infection? I agree with Roxanne that you probably should insist on some sort of marker test, but from what you've described, it's not a given that you have the same disease as your grandmother, and you shouldn't assume so. Perhaps you haven't had enough time to recover from the gallbladder episode? Also couldn't hurt to have an MRI or endoscopy performed to narrow it down. But, really, if these are your major symptoms, there's still a world of things out there that might be going on that are less serious than pancreatic cancer. I wouldn't leap to any conclusions if I were you.

Good luck,
-rod

Hello
I agree with Rod. On the matter of symptoms could be from any number of things. From my experience, the symptoms mimic so many things that are not cancer, too. I had a thyroid condition that mimiced other conditions. such as loosing weight, fatigue, insomnia, etc. so it can be something else.
Getting to the bottom of the symptoms is important to ease your mind and do something about it.
take care
Roxanne53

Val_C

I am sorry to hear about your grandmother and I am was very worried when you said that you are having the same symtoms. My father just passed away March 15, 2006 of pancreatic cancer and it went undiagnosed for over a year as well. They thought he had pancretisis (sp) at first b/c there was a sist on his pancreas and then when they went to do surgery to remove it found the tumor behind it. At first the doctors thought there was different things wrong with him. He was diagnosed in Oct. 2005 and passed in March 2006. I am not sure how you are feeling and i am truly sorry, it must be so scary. But I think that you definatly should NOT think of this as something else, b/c from my experience with my father that it what we did and it was too late! Can you see if there are more tests the doctors can do? Please update us!!

jsue42

So sorry about your Grandmother. I too lost a loved one to pancreatic cancer. My husband died in 2002. I remember the main symptom was back pain and he was having a hard time digesting his food-especially high fat food. He was a small man, but he lost wieght and no one noticed but me and the doctors. They did 2 significant test. One was an MRI, which showed something. So then they went into the pancrease and took a sample and confirmed cancer. I encourage you to please don't panic, instead find a support person, then go to the doctor and ask for an MRI or CAT scan. Yes it could very well be a number of things. But my husband had back pain for years before he thought it might be something more serious. If it is something else you have a right to rule out cancer and deal with whatever the ailment it might be.

tnbikers

This may be kinda late, but I am new here. My wife's symptoms were loose light colored bowels. When she went to the doctor he saw the jaundice. Then she had a cat scan( which wasn't much help), the she had an ERCP, which showed an enlarged pancreas, then an Endoscopic ultrasound/needle biopsy which confirmed the cancer. All this took about 2 weeks from doctor visit. tnbiker

ajbf

hi kelley , my husband had pancreas cance of the tail of the pancreas , the symptom are diffront the the head of the pancreas,look on my web page on this sight,i wrote all the diffrent symptom he had.