Hi Joe,
I’m glad you took your time and talked to all the doctors and surgeons. I had the same problem. The head and body of my Pancreas were totally damaged. I couldn’t go to Mayo or Johns Hopkins at that time. But we found a good pancreatic surgeon who has done lot of Whipple Surgeries. Actually I have met a person who had Whipple surgery by the same surgeon and she was working, she just had her daughter’s marriage and leading a normal life. This is at a time when I gave up hope because I haven’t seen patients like me. When I was there second time her mom was a patient and they recognized me as they saw my little girl and remembered. So, she came and talked to me about my problem. And immediately she said, 'I was a Pancreatitis patient and I suffered a lot moving around all the hospitals.
Then I called the chief of the Gastroenterology department and they directed me to Pancreatic surgeon. I directly talked to him and set up an appointment and he did some tests, as I was very anemic and underweight. I was on TPN until I gained some weight and I had surgery. That’s it, it changed my life.’ It gave me hope and I called the surgeon,talked to his nurse and set up the appointment. He was so nice, compassionate person. He used to call me,‘his little girl.’ He did some tests, sent me to Gastroenterologist at PENN. My GI doctor was closer to my house hospital. But until the surgery is over and the recovery he was my Gastroenterologist. He suggested the Whipple surgery and I was in my early 30’s and had a baby who was just one year old. I was following the nutritionist suggestions. They used to check my blood work and give me Iron, vitamins necessary for my body to gain some strength that needed for surgery.
I asked him for total Pancreatectomy but he said, I’m too young for that so he wanted to do just Whipple procedure. I trusted him. The surgery was supposed to take 6 hrs but it took 9 hrs for me. And to recover fast he has put the J-tube again for nutritional support in additional to eating. I started eating after such a long time. I’m here now and doing lot of things that I like and most importantly I’m there for my kids who need me. I used to think they are better off without me. But now I see the difference in their faces. They need their mother and nobody else. I watch them growing, their activities, their talents, their energy and want to do so many things in life. I’m so happy that I met that lady and I met wonderful surgeon who thinks my kids as his grandkids. I’m so lucky in so many matters. I found good friends, good doctors who really took good care of me, (of course sometimes annoy me care about me).
So, think about it and learn a lot about the procedure. Of course there are some things that didn’t work out for me, that risk always be there with every surgery but it doesn’t mean that you are going to be like that. For every surgery there will be successes and some failures, but regarding Whipple we cannot say it will be a total failure, it saves the life, takes out lot of things that there were before surgery. It took care of so many things which I had before surgery. I’m glad I had that surgery otherwise I don’t what could’ve happened with so much pain and it’s not good to have the damaged parts in the body. My Pancreas head and body were so damaged and they had to come out.
You are in my prayers and thoughts that the surgery should work out entirely and you get back to your normal life like the lady I met. She was a normal person who carried her enzymes, gained weight, she was 55yrs old when I met and she said, she had surgery 5yrs ago, she is a single mom, got her daughter married, takes care of her old mom etc.
I wish your life should turn out to be totally normal and take good care of yourself. Don’t you get scared about the surgery. If the surgeon has done so many Whipple surgeries I’m sure he’ll do a wonderful job and after your recovery in no time you’ll be leading a great normal life and have good time with your family.
Lots of love,
Durga.
