Sister with pancreatic cancer - confused about treatment plan

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Hello my sister woke up on the 2nd of January looking very yellow 'shes not a drinker or smoker ' was admitted to watford general on the 5th and there she had many test and a drain from her bile duct and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, 3 months on still with the bile duct drain had the whipple surgery she had a tumour on the head of the pancreas, after the surgery they told her that shes just had lymph nodes that wrre around her pancreas that were removed and that they couldn't remove them all the cancer cells were still there . She's had 2 follow up appointments and has had 2 lots of blood tests and 1 more to be done on the 27 also a ct scan was done on the 21st and we spoke to the specialist in regards to her past surgery .

The outcome was that she has now been been offered the standard chemotherapy in the form of 2nd june & 8th 15th day of the month and also tablets to take daily , this they say will go on for 3 months and will prolonge her life for 3 months IM SO CONFUSED .

So at this moment my sister is feeling so much better than shes felt since this all started IF SHE STARRS THIS CHEMOTHERAPY WILL SHE STOP FEELING BETTER

She has an over the phone appointment on the 30th of may to discuss this chemotherapy but what questioned should we ask?

Elena1970 2 days ago

I’m sorry about your sister, but have faith that she will be okay.

My mother had surgery on her pancreas in November; two-thirds of her pancreas and her spleen, which was already affected by metastasis, were removed. The following 3 months of recovery were very difficult, with many episodes of vomiting and times when she couldn’t eat at all. Every day I feared I might lose her, but little by little she started to recover. However, she hasn’t gained any weight back — she lost 30 kg in the first 2 months after the illness began.

After the critical phase, she started chemotherapy — the exact same treatment plan it seems your sister has: days 1, 7, and 15, plus 5 pills a day. She has now been doing chemotherapy for 4 months and there are moments when she is very bad, in special first 2 days after chemo but after is better with more energy.

It depends a lot on what stage your sister is considered to be in. You can ask the doctor if the chemotherapy brings more benefits than side effects.

Ask if they can provide an antiemetic patch to help with the vomiting episodes after chemo.

check if her hemoglobin levels are within normal range, so that her body can handle the treatment.

If she feels very unwell, ask if they can shorten the treatment cycle — for example, just day 1 and 7, and only 14 days of pills.

This was also the case with my mother — her treatment plan was reduced because she was feeling very sick, and her body was already weakened by the disease and the surgery, so continuing with the full treatment would have done more harm than good.

Best wishes!

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Sister with pancreatic cancer - confused about treatment plan