Health update - early June 2010

Dear "blog-viewers",

It’s been a while since I have been able to give any news so I just wanted to offer a little update.

Four weeks ago I was suffering some serious eating difficulties, cramping, bloating and eventually vomiting.  The GP made a few visits at home but despite trying various medications nothing seemed to help.  So – I was admitted to the Aberdeen hospital on Monday 24th May.

In the first week I had various tests which were a bit unpleasant but manageable.  Sadly it was clear that I did actually have an obstruction below my stomach in an area called my duodenum.  Finally, on Saturday 29th May I had an operation.

This operation was technically called a “laparoscopic gastro-jejunostomy” -
in lay-mans terms a keyhole gastric bypass, or simply a “re-plumb” !
For a week after this operation I had a tube up my nose into my stomach – very unpleasant.

Regrettably this first operation was not successful in my case – nothing was wrong with the operation itself, it just didn’t work on my particular stomach.  A shame because the tiny key hole cuts were healing nicely.

So – on 5th June I had to have a second operation on my stomach.  This time the surgery was through a full cut from my belly button up about 15 cm.  Very sore this time & I was to spend several days on the high-dependency ward.  I had lots of tubes in and out (a new one up the nose too) and for several days I was being given nutrition directly through my veins.  I also needed some very strong pain relief.

Finally I was able to try some real food again – which thankfully made the journey in the correct direction through my body.

I expect to be fully released from the hospital on Monday 14th June.  STOP PRESS - this has now happened.  I am very weak and stiff.  The wound on my tummy will take a fair bit of time to heal – I will have to take things very gently at first.  My eating has to be little and often, I simple cannot eat a big plate of food at the moment… it remains to be seen if my appetite will fully return.  I have lost about 8 kg over the last few weeks.

I’m afraid that this problem is very clearly linked to my pancreatic cancer.  What has happened is that tissue has become a bit harder around the tumour and this hardness affected the ability of my gut to squeeze food through in the usual way.   We expect that the cancer will continue to cause more symptoms as time goes on.  The operations I have had have not affected the cancer at all, and were simply to try and relieve some of the symptoms; they have not addressed the root problem.

I am grateful for all the messages of support (and especially, of course, to Jane for all the care she has given through this.)  Sorry that I have been out of touch for a while and I hope you find this little update has kept you posted.

Regards

Steve W.