Fainting Students, Bellowing Bulls and the Whipple...

For years I worked with a rural veterinarian.  Loved. It.

Well, actually the poop I could do without... but everything else was my kind of job.  The kind where you get paid to do something you love...

We were a country animal clinic, serving a grand variety of patients from tiny kittens to bellowing bulls.  You never knew what a day might bring... but you could always count on something exciting.  Like the day a box of feral cats got loose in the lobby.  Or the time we had to remove a metal T-post from the chest of an over-zealous colt. 

And of course you could always count on surgery.  Might be a run of the mill neuter or spay surgery on said feral cats (we did catch them, finally, have the scars to prove it!) or pinning the broken leg of the poor cattle dog that ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time...

We participated in the career program at the local high school and each semester the doctors would interview and select several students to interim with us...shadowing the techs, learning from the drs., deciding if the vet profession was the right one for them.

Great Program.  We enjoyed the students immensely, especially the ones who willingly cleaned the poop without nagging!  And every semester we waited to see who would be the first to faint during surgery...

It got to be almost a tradition.  Watching surgery is not for the squeamish.  As a matter of fact, the doctors seemed to relish making these surgeries more yucky and bloody than required just for the effect... and the effect was usually pretty dramatic.

Poor kids... can't imagine why anyone would put up with such "abuse"... except, of course, they were young and invincible, they made us smile...

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, surgery... as in pancreatic cancer surgery.

It's called the Whipple surgery.  Actually it's a pancreatoduodenectomy.  But it was nicknamed the Whipple, after the doctor who first described it, and that's so much easier to say...

As I mentioned before, watching surgery is not for the squeamish.  Well, having the surgery is no picnic either.  The Whipple is one of the most demanding of surgeries.  It is also one of the only traditional pancreatic cancer treatments that can offer a real chance at a "cure."

If the cancer is caught early enough to perform surgery, then statistics show survival rates of 20-40% at the 5 year mark.  Much better than the 5% survival for traditional chemotherapy alone...

But better than statistics are the real life testimonies of pancreatic cancer patients who have had the Whipple Procedure. Mom's pancreatic cancer was considered inoperable because the tumor had wrapped around her portal vein, making it impossible to remove safely...so surgery was not in the cards, but we've heard from a handful of pancreatic cancer survivors that have shared their experience with the Whipple surgery.   Perhaps their stories will provide an insight into this most difficult of surgeries...

 It's been 1 year since my whipple surgery was performed at Hackensack University Medical Center in NJ by an amazing surgeon, Dr. Marson Davidson. I was in surgery for 12 straight hours and was kept unconscience for 1 full day after surgery. After successful removal of the tumor and a 10 day hospital stay I was released and sent home to continue the recovery process. After 1 year the only problems I seem to have is I am not breaking down fatty foods properly and have multiple foul smelling bowel movements almost everyday. Imodium helps with this problem. Doc says I should take pancreatic enzymes to solve that issue. The only other issue is fatique and the stomach area is still tender to the touch. Other than those things my surgeon says I am recovering great. He pushed me to 6 month visits now. So far so good. Good luck to all and God Bless.
     ~ Rich


My father was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in late 2004 when he had his gall bladder was removed. His cancer was resectable and the surgery was scheduled after he has sufficiently recovered from the gall bladder procedure. He was 74 and had been in excellent health. He did not smoke or drink.

The procedure took quite a long time to complete (I believe almost 8 hours). I believe it required removing part of his pancreas (head), stomach, bile duct, small intestine and stomach. He spent a couple of days in ICU after the surgery and was moved into a normal hospital room to recover more. Immediately after the surgery he was doing quite well. However, things changed.

About two weeks after the procedure he became very weak and nauseated. He had a very difficult time keeping anything down. He seemed to spend almost all of his time in the bathroom. He had to be hospitalized because he developed a fever and they had to try to get some nutrition into him via IV. He went from around 160 pounds to 105 during his recovery. After a week or so he was sent home. He had to start to eat around 7 very small meals a day and that helped. He really was not put on any meds and started to get better.

However, the process of going back to the hospital occurred roughly every 6 to 8 weeks for the first year. However he slowly regained his strength and his hospital stays after fever were getting shorter and after about 14 months he had recovered about as much as he was going to recover.

Yet, the best part of this was my father then survived until 2010. He lived right at 6 years after diagnosis and Whipple procedure. The quality of his life was very good until the very end and then things went down very quickly.

Unfortunately in the last 6 weeks my (now 82 year old) mother has been diagnosed with non-resectable pancreatic cancer. Her cancer has invaded the portal vein and has spread into the lymph nodes and she will not undergo the Whipple. We have started chemo. It is interesting to note my father never underwent chemo.      ~ Mark

And then there are two blog/websites that share in much more detail the experience of their Whipple Surgery and subsequent recoveries:

My Whipple Experience

and

Pancreatic Cancer and the Whipple Procedure

Both sites are full of actual, personal information about the Whipple and are paying forward the gift of gaining their lives back.

It is what we all pray for on this Journey.  Wherever we are, may we see the treasure in each sunrise, knowing it is another day to live life well.

All's Grace Today,  Jane