My wife is having a Whipple!!!!

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Emergency, LTC, Med/Surg.

My wife is undergoing a partial pancreatectomy. The MD is unsure if they will be doing the Whipple, Mesopancreatectomy, or Distal pancreatectomy. My question is, Have any nurses on this forum seen a good outcome with the Whipple, I really would like to here something positive.

A Little backround. Approximately a month post c-section my wife began having back pain accompanied by severe nausea. I insisted that we go the ER since it could be a complication after the surgery. A PE study was performed and that is when we found a 3 cm mass on her Pancreas. It was calcified, so we were really worried much. We followed up with an MRI which showed us less than the CT, so we followed up with a gastroenterologist who recommended a endoscopic ultrasound with small needle aspiration of the pancreas. The biopsy showed that the mass was benign, however it was obstructing the pancreatic duct. The tumor is a pseudopapillary tumor. The GI doc recommended removal of the tumor d/t the nature of it's location and they are finding that these are turning into cancer in some patients. So here we are, facing a partial pancreatectomy. All of this has happened within the last month. Please give me some feedback, I want some real answers not the surgeons smiley, everything is going to be ok attitude. (I do expect everything will be ok)

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Specializes in ICU.

I saw them do it once on Grey's Anatomy,, but, since I really only work LTAC ICU, I don't see much surgery. Please remember, we can't give advice here. I know that you are only asking for past experiences,... just keep that in mind.

I hope that everything turns out okay for your wife. :)

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Specializes in Emergency, LTC, Med/Surg.

FYI:THIS IS NOT REQUEST FOR ADVISE!!! My wife has already made the decision that this surgery is going to happen.

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Specializes in OR, ICU, Physician office.

God bless you and your wife.

We do 2 or 3 Whipple's per year at the most where I work.

This IS a big surgery.

But your wife, I am assuming, since she is still of childbearing age is young and without comorbidities.

This is a big plus.

Encourage her in her decision, and stick close to her during her recovery.

Peace.:nurse:

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I had a friend who had a distal pancreectomy who did very well with the surgery. She had chronic pancreatitis non alcoholic. Hers was bad before and she had to take insulin. Depending on how much they take out, she might become a diabetic that needs insulin. She stayed a week in the hospital. 2 days in ICU at first. Back to work in 6 weeks. But everyone is different with recovery. Just be sure the surgeon has done several of these. Preferably a transplant surgeon at a big university. It is a delicate surgery.

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Ones I have seen..patient and family that have had whipple had poor outcome but NOT due to the surgery...due to the underlying metastasis. Your wife sounds like she would be in good shape to be able to recover completely. Wishing you both well!

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I work on a transplant floor and we do alot of whipples (SICU)... The honest truth is that they are a 50/50 chance. The good thing with your wife is that she is young. But I have seen young and old people suffer from this. You can never really tell with a whipple. This is in no way a light surgery. I hope she does good. Please ask about the MD's experience on this.

Let us know the outcome

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Specializes in OR, community nursing.

I can understand that this is scary for your family. The most important person in your team is the surgeon. As others said, you need to to do some research to find a surgeon with lots of experience since not too many centers do whipples frequently. Our facility does have a world reknown hepatobiliary team and whipples are done very often here. Outcome often depends on the patient's underlying condition and location of the tumor. I am glad to read that your wife's tumor is benign. Best wishes to your family.

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Specializes in Oncology.

I was actually talking to one of our SICU nurses recently. Being a larger cancer hospital, we do a fair amount of Whipples. I was asking him about them, and he said in his career he's seen the recovery time decrease dramatically and the outcomes improve.

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We do around 5-10 a week. Most Whipples for benign processes do well. The recovery period can be extensive but younger patients definitely do better. Here is a nice description from USC that has good information on benign tumors:

http://www.surgery.usc.edu/divisions/tumor/pancreasdiseases/web%20pages/pancreas%20resection/whipple%20operation.html

David Carpenter, PA-C

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My mother had a whipple done for soft tissue ca around her ileostomy site. In addition, they moved her ileostomy site. This was 25 years ago and she is going strong!

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Hugs to both of you...and to have a newborn baby to boot!

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