Update # 3: Pancreaticoduodenectomy

[The gist of the first two updates are contained in the previous post to this blog. See below.]

This past Monday, Aug 8th, I traveled to the Duke Clinic in Durham, NC, where I had a CT scan and individual appointments with the three doctors assigned to my case.

[Medical details follow. The squeamish among you are permitted to skip this update altogether. :-]

The good news is that my prognosis falls within the 15% for which the Whipple procedure is an option. Yippee! This means that the cancer has not developed very far, it appears not to have spread to other organs, and the tumor has not wrapped itself around a mass of blood vessels which would make removal difficult or infeasible.

At Duke, the Whipple surgical procedure is preceded by both radiation and chemotherapy for a trinity of reasons: (1) Many patients experience difficulties after the surgery which prevents them from receiving immediate chemotherapy to "clean up" any cancer thereafter. With the Duke protocol, patients get the advantage of the chemotherapy beforehand. (2) If the cancer continues to grow and spread while under attack from the rads and chems, the surgery is unlikely to be successful. (3) If the cancer responds to the therapy by shrinking, it makes the surgeon's job easier and less invasive–and improves the patient's prognosis.

At the moment I'm trying to decide whether to have the four to five weeks of radiation and chemotherapy performed at a clinic here in Charlotte or at Duke, which would mean relocating the fifth wheel to a campground in Durham. The therapy is a Monday through Friday affair, so my weekends would be free to travel or entertain visitors at the campsite.

Fingers and toes crossed for a victory of the rads & chems over the cancer cells. Getting finger cramps already. Where's my banana?

That's it for now. Update # 4 when I know more.

Thanks again for your support. I can feel it through the ethers...

--John, JR, Rocky...