Thank you Tull : TP, diabetes etc.

[Guest guest]

Thank you Tull for your very quick response to my post. I really do

appreciate your very informative and balanced reply. You have

answered a number of important questions I had about diabetes,

confirmed what I thought was the case but needed further reassurance

on.

I know that an ICT is always preferable to none but I am having to

weigh up the chances of success for me with this procedure against

the fact that there is one surgeon whom I would prefer to any other.

He is a leading panc specialist/surgeon in this country and beyond.

Patients are referred to him from all over the country and elsewhere

and the hospital's record of success with all pancreatic cases is

excellent. They have a leading pancreatic team. ICT is done at one

or two other UK hospitals but not here. My chances of success with

ICT are very poor (atrophy, extensive calcifications

throughout....very advanced pancreatitis with impaired glucose

tolerance likely to turn very soon into diabetes) and this view does

actually coincide with what I have managed to read in some of Dr

Sutherland's writing. He (Dr S) also says that the success of ICT

depends on the number of islet cells harvested and that depends on

the morphology of the pancreas. Of course, if I could have an ICT

with my chosen surgeon, I would but it seems to me that I don't have

that much to lose from that point of view.

Hereditary pancreatitis is covered in the top5plus5 library and the

cancer risk seems to be around 40% over a lifetime...that's high!

Other sites I've visited confirm that, as well as both my panc

specialist and my gastroenterologist. Actually, I don't think

the surgeon would be willing to do the surgery for me at the moment

if my CP was not hereditary because he judges that the interference

in my life from the pain and other symptoms is not quite bad enough

at the moment to justify this very major procedure but the cancer

risk is. He has done the op before on other patients like me. (My

pain levels and frequency vary. I've just gone through a very good

spell.....I even thought I might be heading for that famous

burnout!..... but over the late spring and summer months I was much

worse and I had to leave work for a while at the beginning of

September.)

Thanks again Tull. I just can't tell you how much I have appreciated

your help, in all sorts of ways. The symposium downloads and your

personal advice have been a godsend. If there is any way I can be at

next year's symposium, I will be! (I could watch this year's video

as well!)

Best wishes,

Fliss