pancreatic cancer

pancreatic cancer--WHIPPLE
I had my whipple in Aug 2006 and now are having problems in 2008 regarding my pancreas again not functioning properly. I am looking for someone to talk to regarding maybe a chat group on the idea of Pancreatic cancer (PC) moving forward. I am a 59 year old grandmother trying to finish raising my 12 year old grandchild, I also got thru another granddaughter that is now in college and the sister of the 12 year old, I am only asking to get thru her final years of school and see her go to college also.

Pancreatic Cancer - new to the board
lucy11 -

My husband was diagnosed March 25, 2008. He is 44, I am 41. His cancer has metastisized (liver, chest lymph nodes, pelvic tumor, omentum nodules, spleen, etc.) so surgery is not an option. He has a great doctor. He has been through two different treatments so far (we are at 10 months) and feels pretty good most of the time. We had a rough spot last summer when his liver ducts plugged up and he got terribly jaundiced. They put in billiary tubes and he has gotten steadily better since. The tubes are a pain but they are just a fact of life for us. His first treatment was Gemzar with Tarceva and Lovenox. When that failed, they moved him to Oxylaplatin, 5FU and Leucovorin keeping the Tarceva and Lovenox about six months ago. A month ago, they had to drop the Oxylaplatin because of nerve damage. The last six months has shown good results - his CA19-9 went from 32,000 to 4400. I am worried what will happen now that he can no longer tolerate the Oxy. We will see. His quality of life has been very good and we have no complaints.

The cancer has changed our lives. We can no longer plan for the long run, just the short and even that has to be flexible. He has days he is tired but he still goes to work everyday - even on chemo days. He goes in every 10 weeks to have the billiary tubes replaced and every two weeks for treatment. We try to keep our life in between these times as normal as possible. It is hard. My daughter is living with us right now with our 2 year old grandson. He is the light of our life and I am glad my daughter is there for support and to talk to. Since our children are both grown, I worry less about them than if they were still young but I do still worry. I have good friends and am close to my family and his. We have a good support network at church, at work and at home. We try to take each day as it comes. I still get angry sometimes - it is not fair. We had just got to the "good stuff" - our kids are grown, we have good jobs and we were planning for the future. That has been taken away and it is not fair.

My advice at this point is to make sure you trust your doctor. Make sure he has your husband and your best interests at heart. The first question our doctor asks my husband everytime we go is how has his quality of life been. If the answer is good, we continue on. At the point that the answer becomes not so good, the treatment will stop. As he says, it doees no good to knock out the cancer at all costs if it alo knocks him out. We know his treatment will not cure him - that is in God's hands. The treatment will extend his life and give us more time. If God decides to heal him, He will. If not, we probably have less than a year left to be together. I will miss him.

God's Blessings to you and your husband and best wishes for the future - whatever it brings...

do_over