Guest guest Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 Hi all,hope everyone is having a fairly comfortable day ! I've been reading the board for a fairly long time but, rarely post. I need some input regarding the whipple procedure I'm facing in February. What are my chances of coming out of it with a reduction in pain/chronic/acute attacks? Currently my panc is about 50% calcified and my duct is totally blocked. I don't have much choice on the procedure...it's gotta be done...just wondering what I can excpect. Thanx in advance, if anyone can give me some indications,I know this is the place to ask. Regards, knox Northern Ca. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 I was just wondering how many others have had or heard of this > procedure? I have yet to be able to tak with a single person who has had Dear , I had the Whipple in November, 2000. The surgery was performed by Dr. , at The Medical University of South Carolina here in ton. To the best of my recollection, I was told that the procedure lasted nine hours or so, and that I didn't even bleed enough to merit any blood transfusion. It is major surgery though, and took me about three and a half weeks in the hospital recovering, and about three months before I felt really comfortable and able to move about, and to stand up without discomfort. The technical aspects of what the surgery is are better explained and illustrated than I can, on a web site such as the MUSC Digestive Disease Center, or the 's Hopkins site which you can find using a search engine such as Google, or MSN. Also Mark Armstrong always has tons of info. handy. I can tell you that it involves removing a large portion, or the head of the pancreas, the jejunem (small bowel), the gall bladder, if you still have it and the lower portion of the stomach, so it is a big surgery and not without risk, but lots of folks have Whipples and do great. Mine didn't " take, " as I have pancreas divism, diabetes, and too much damage may have already occurred by the time I got through the years of ercp's, stent placements, sphinterotomies, ect., but Dr. is a very good surgeon and he gave me all of the probabilities before hand and at that time I was just existing in and out of the hospital, so it did do some good as I'm not in the hospital as much now, but unlike some lucky folks, it wasn't the cure I wanted. the trend seems to be going more toward the total pancreatectomy, and islet cell transplant, and there are a lot of folks here that have had it, or have a loved one who has had it, Shirley, Peg's son Brandan, ect. If there is anything else I can answer I'd be happy to. Your new pancreas pal, Henry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 I was just wondering how many others have had or heard of this > procedure? I have yet to be able to tak with a single person who has had Dear , I had the Whipple in November, 2000. The surgery was performed by Dr. , at The Medical University of South Carolina here in ton. To the best of my recollection, I was told that the procedure lasted nine hours or so, and that I didn't even bleed enough to merit any blood transfusion. It is major surgery though, and took me about three and a half weeks in the hospital recovering, and about three months before I felt really comfortable and able to move about, and to stand up without discomfort. The technical aspects of what the surgery is are better explained and illustrated than I can, on a web site such as the MUSC Digestive Disease Center, or the 's Hopkins site which you can find using a search engine such as Google, or MSN. Also Mark Armstrong always has tons of info. handy. I can tell you that it involves removing a large portion, or the head of the pancreas, the jejunem (small bowel), the gall bladder, if you still have it and the lower portion of the stomach, so it is a big surgery and not without risk, but lots of folks have Whipples and do great. Mine didn't " take, " as I have pancreas divism, diabetes, and too much damage may have already occurred by the time I got through the years of ercp's, stent placements, sphinterotomies, ect., but Dr. is a very good surgeon and he gave me all of the probabilities before hand and at that time I was just existing in and out of the hospital, so it did do some good as I'm not in the hospital as much now, but unlike some lucky folks, it wasn't the cure I wanted. the trend seems to be going more toward the total pancreatectomy, and islet cell transplant, and there are a lot of folks here that have had it, or have a loved one who has had it, Shirley, Peg's son Brandan, ect. If there is anything else I can answer I'd be happy to. Your new pancreas pal, Henry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.