whipple

I bumped a few threads up from past pages on this site for you.  

The one thing I made sure I did was to stay possitive and keep a sense of humor about the whole ordeal.  You are so very correct about surgery being no fun. 

While the Whipple proceedure is something you ,others and myself may have in common. What all was worked on during the Whipple can have a lot of bearing on what each of us did post Whipple.

Having said that.  I was out of the hospital in a week. But, not being able to keep food down and having been on a J-tube in order to keep nutrients in my body for months before my surgery.  After the Whipple.  I had to learn how much I could actually eat or drink without my abdomin becoming distended. Spell that  EXTREME PAIN ! Even after eating very little.  All the insides had to settle back into place. This took a good while (months) . Some of this, I'm guessing, was from also recieving chemo post Whipple.  So if you find eating hurts like you've never known before.  Even when eating just a couple of bites. ( You know the feeling you get when you were eating and you felt like after a couple of more bites. Then I'll be full and finished eating?  BELIEVE ME! DO NOT TAKE THOSE couple of more bites! ).    Keep notes!  Matter of fact make a note of everything you are experiencing that doesn't seem normal to you.  Then take your notes and let your oncologist know.   I had my wife keep a spiral notebook.  They don't know what's going on if you don't tell them or ask about it.  Like I mentioned  each person who has gone through this can have little to none or more issues than imagined. 

Hope that helps some.

I have been trying to get on the threads more often here.  If I can give you some insight from my experiences.  I'll try to answer your posts.  There are some good folks on here who's experiences can be benificial. But, ALWAYS check with your own oncologist!

Keeping you and yours in prayer,

Oneshot

Billcraig,

        Kaleena had a very good point about supplements.  In my case I could only tolerate Boost. But, there is Muscle Milk and Insure  . They can be bought at almost any store now days.  Not to mention what your oncologist orders for you if you have issues with gaining weight .  Try to stay away from anything with seeds, such as strawberries.   It will be trial and error for a little while.   Just eat small portions at first.  I know this might sound redundant ( from most of our childhoods) . Chew your food good.  Do not use a straw to drink with ,if, you can keep from it.  Drinking from a straw will give you gas bubbles !   I imagine you already know how bad a gas bubble right after surgery feels.

As time passes you will find out what you can and cannot eat as well as how much to eat and when to stop eating .  Your stomach and intestines will eventually (for lack of a better term) stretch back out and it should get easier to eat a little more.

I did chemo after my whipple so I dealt with eating problems for sometime. Keeping food down was interesting to say the least. But now ,9 years out. I can eat most things with in reason.  When eating pork of any sort I have to watch out! This sucks too!  Because I dearly love bacon,ham and such.  I can eat pork.  Just not very much. I limit it to a very small potion, if, any at all.   I like eggs but have found out I tolerate scrambled way better than fried eggs. Even the scrambled cause some discomfort.   Hopefully you will not have the issues like that.  If it's something you really love to eat but you had a bad experience with it cooked one way . Try it fixed a different way and it might be just fine!  Just like the pork for me. The only sausage patties I can eat without adverse issues is a brand called OLD FOLKS sausage (mild) . But anything else pork gives me fits. Like I said Trial and error

  I was told that lettuce would not be to fun to eat. But after some time passed I can eat most lettuces with the exception of Iceburg. With little or no problems! 

Avocados put on weight better than most anything. (per my nutitionist).

Kaleena said her husband get an early warning. well she's correct about early warnings ! I'm guessing each of us have different ones. I'll mention one of mine as far as pain goes in the abdominal area. While I do get abdominal pains more often than I care to admit. Alot of them come with an early warning, as a pain in my right shoulder. Then I know to just take my pain medication and lay face down across my bed or any place to put pressure on my abdominal area because the abdomin is fixing to let me know it's there!   After this happened the first time.  I asked the oncologist about it. He said it is from the Whipple .  Some have this issue some don't.  Hopefully this won't happen to you but if it does. You will at least have a pretty good idea what's taking place.

As far as bathroom dealings ...well, when in doubt go that direction!  If you are having to take pain meds pretty regualrly. Take plenty of stool softners. The one thing you do not want to do is strain. When you do have a bowel movement of any sort. Check for blood. Esp. dark coffee ground looking stools. I had this after my whipple and found out I had several bleeding ulcers caused by the rads (more surgery).  Again this doesn't happen to everyone but, keep an eye out .  Even years later for me. Bathroom runs can range from a couple to way more than than I'll admit to. The way I see some of my issues . I look at them as a trade off. I was diagnoised with stage 3 pc. in 2008 and I'm still here. Small price to pay! 

What kind of cancer did you have.