I think I might have an answer from T.

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

Thanks to all of you who responded to my post and I send a special hug to those

of you who are keeping me in your thoughts and prayers!!!!!!!!!! I am doing the

same for all of you!!!!!!

I have been doing an extreme amount of thinking and going over pros and cons of

my surgical options. The day after I had my initial consultation with Dr. Lowy

he called me and told me that he had taken my films to Grand Rounds and to a

pathologist and radiologist to look over them. When he called me he did suggest

that a Whipple was a possibility although he only gave me a 50/50% chance of

being pain free. At that point, I told him that if I was going to have this

major of a surgery I only wanted to do it once. He agreed, but insisted that I

have the liver biopsy. I will say that my GI doc in town has also mentioned the

Whipple to me as most of my problems are in the head of my pancreas. I do have

SOD and looping of my pancreatic duct for which I have had many ERCP's with

stent placements by Dr. Fogel in Indiana. Dr. Fogel has also mentioned the

Whipple to me every time I have seen him (4 times). I am going to talk with Dr.

Lowy this week and have him answer more of my questions. Right now I am leaning

toward the Whipple. I have pretty much ruled out the TP because of the fact of

being a brittle diabetic (which Dr. Lowy's nurse told me I would be) and also

adding to that, which is a serious disease in itself, having my spleen removed,

which is your auto immune system. To me at the age of 35 and having two young

boys (6 and 7) I think being a brittle diabetic and being auto immune

compromised is probably a worse situation than I am in now!!!!!!! I really feel

that Dr. Lowy will seriously recommend the Whipple and I believe that the 50/50%

chance of pain free will be increased to more like 60/40 or maybe even 70/30

given my situation.

What do you all think about this?

What is a Beger procedure? Why would one have this instead of a Whipple? What

are the " pre-requisites " as far as having the Beger? I would love to hear as

much about this procedure as anyone knows. Maybe that would be a better option

for me than the Whipple?

Again, thank you to all who are thinking of me and keeping me in prayer. I

would love to hear from as many of you as possible who knows a lot about my

above questions or who has experienced them!!!!!!!!!

My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

T. (Ohio)

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

There is a good website which explains the different types of surgery :

_http://www.liv.ac.uk_ (http://www.liv.ac.uk)

It is the website of the Royal Liverpool Hospital, UK. If you click on

chronic pancreatitis, and go through the info it will tell you about the various

procedures.

I have had the TP without ICT, and had my spleen removed. That was back in

August, 2000. I am diabetic, but i wouldn't say the diabetes is particularly

brittle, and i cope well with it. I have 4 injections of insulin each day, and

i check my blood sugar regularly. I haven't had any adverse effects from not

having a spleen, but i do take a low dose of penicillin daily.

Having a TP and spleen removed has improved my quality of life considerably,

and may not be the negative experience that you think. Obviously the

decision on what type of surgery to have is very individual, and my advice was

be to

get as much information as possible, and discuss all options with your

doctor, until you are happy that you have made the right decision for you.

I'm a nurse, and i work with sick children, many of who have infections, and

it has not been a problem for me, having no spleen. I work shifts, including

nights, and my diabetes is quite easily managed.

I hope you're feeling better soon, and if you need any further info please

contact me.

Best wishes,

Sue