Pancreatic Cancer
Surgery to remove pancreatic cancer
A consultant describes what types of surgery may be appropriate for patients with early-stage or...
A consultant describes what types of surgery may be appropriate for patients with early-stage or...
When the surgeon told Ann that she could have Whipples operation she thought there was no other...
When the surgeon told Ann that she could have Whipples operation she thought there was no other...
Hugh thinks that his mother was reluctant to have the operation but that she was glad that she...
Hugh thinks that his mother was reluctant to have the operation but that she was glad that she...
The Whipple's procedure
- part of the stomach
- part of the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine)
- the head of the pancreas
- the common bile duct
- the gall bladder
Vicky had an embolisation procedure two weeks before her Whipple's operation. She described what...

Vicky had an embolisation procedure two weeks before her Whipple's operation. She described what...
The recovery from Whipples operation was one of the worst experiences of Anns life. The nausea...
The recovery from Whipples operation was one of the worst experiences of Anns life. The nausea...
Recovery from the Whipple's Procedure
Helen described her time in the intensive care unit after a Whipples operation. She had a...
Helen described her time in the intensive care unit after a Whipples operation. She had a...
David found the intensive care unit very noisy. He found it hard to sleep and had nightmares. The...
David found the intensive care unit very noisy. He found it hard to sleep and had nightmares. The...
May described what it was like on the ward after the Whipples operation. The nurses were very...
May described what it was like on the ward after the Whipples operation. The nurses were very...
The physiotherapists helped Fred to get out of bed and to walk using a frame. They encouraged him...
The physiotherapists helped Fred to get out of bed and to walk using a frame. They encouraged him...
Vicky had to go home with a JPEG tube still in place because her bowel was not working properly....

Vicky had to go home with a JPEG tube still in place because her bowel was not working properly....
People were happy to be home but still felt very weak and tired, and needed painkillers. Some people had wound infections which needed regular dressing by the district nurse. May developed a wound infection and went back to hospital for a few days. Some people’s GP also visited or phoned.
One man decided to sleep downstairs for the first two months because he found it hard to climb the stairs. Ann had lost two stone in weight and needed to rest several times a day. She also had headaches which worried her. Fred had a lot of pain along the line of his incision.
Others recovered more quickly and became mobile, walking a little further each day. Tony, for example, recuperated at home for two or three weeks and then felt well enough to do a little gardening and painting.
Audrey described her time at home after the Whipples operation. The district nurse and the GP...
Audrey described her time at home after the Whipples operation. The district nurse and the GP...
What was it like coming home?
Oh it was lovely to come home, be in your own bed, but I’m a very active person really, I couldn’t believe how weak I was I’d lay on that settee for about 2 weeks. I always got dressed and I never stayed in my pyjamas but I found a shower, still now when I have a shower it comes over me, I think, “Oh I could hardly…”, it just used to wear me out just to have a shower, you don’t, you can’t imagine it can, you don’t know what it’s like. And my neighbour persuaded me after about a fortnight to just walk down the drive, it was a nice sunny day, it would be March I suppose and she just said just come, I think thought I was going to be stuck there forever, you know, I’d got no incentive at all to do anything. My first real trip out was to a, which I thought was rather apt really, was to, there was a mothers day service at my grand-daughter’s school so that was nice and then on the Sunday we went to a mothers day lunch and I managed that alright so. That was my first, first trips out.
Did the district nurse or any nurse call at all?
Yes, I had a lot of attention from the doctor and nurses came to take blood pressure and do dressings and keep an eye on this PEG thing that I’d got in my, they kept that in for quite a while and then when I went to see the surgeon afterwards he took it out.
Distal pancreatectomy
Alison had a distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy. She was out of hospital after ten days and...
Alison had a distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy. She was out of hospital after ten days and...
Yes, the surgery was quite lengthy. It was, it was about five hours. I had, my tumour was sited in the body of my pancreas, so I had 80% per cent of my pancreas removed along with the spleen in, in the one operation. And that’s called a distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy. And that operation went very well. The consultant surgeon got out all the tumour that he could see, and the histology came back that it was an adenocarcinoma in the body of the pancreas and one lymph node, node was affected. So I recovered pretty well actually from the surgery. I think probably because of my age and also I was relatively fit before I went in with all of this. So I was up and about pretty quickly and I was out of hospital within ten days.
Did you have an epidural?
Yes, yes. But I wasn’t in any pain. And they weaned me off the painkillers actually pretty quickly. And remarkably at the end of it I was sent home with paracetamol. So even though I had a wound which pulled and, you know, the discomfort that that caused, the, the, the actual searing pain that I had before was gone. I was like a new woman. So that, that was, that was brilliant.
Davinder described her return home after her distal pancreatectomy. The district nurse helped her...
Davinder described her return home after her distal pancreatectomy. The district nurse helped her...
Some people could not have surgery to remove the cancer. Instead they had surgery to stop symptoms like jaundice or sickness.
Last reviewed November 2020.
Last updated November 2020.