Diane

[Guest guest]

Hi there,

I'm not a newbie, but I was in some type of contact with you last

year and the year before. I'll give you an update on what happened

to me. I spent most of the time of November 2002 to Jan 21st in

hospital, with only about 19 days at home. Then on 24th January 2003

I was admitted to hospital locally and from there was sent via

ambulance to Vanderbilt on 4th March for a Whipple procedure. When I

was on the operating table, Dr Sharp found masses of small tumours

on my pancreas, mesentery, duodenum and in other parts of my

abdomen, and couldn't call enough small bowel up to perform a

whipple. He also said that if he tried to cut me further I would

have risked bleeding to death, so he just closed me up and I was

handed over to an oncologist.

I went back to being in and out of hospital, as you have been, until

September 2003, when I went down to MD to get a second

opinion on these tumours. Whilst there, I was admitted with another

round of pancreatitis, and during an ERCP, the doctor found a polyp

(related to my hereditary illness) growing 5cm into my pancreatic

duct and this was causing a blockage. When they removed that they

also found the very first stent that I ever had placed in my

pancreatic duct. It had obviously travelled north east instead of

going south *L*. Since then I am just left with the Biliary duct

spasms caused by drinking cold or carbonated drinks, and if I get

hungry, I get spasms also, but nothing that could be called a

pancreatitis attack and that gives me long standing pain.

As for the tumours, I've had 2 surgeries, and unfortunately, surgery

is the best cure to get rid of them, but gives the highest

recurrence rate. So after my second surgery on Sept 2nd, I am facing

a 3rd one in a few months time, as 2 more tumours have already been

found to start growing, and I'm feeling more in different areas

occuring.

I have my tumour removal done in Knoxville which is closer to home.