We went back to Houston today to schedule my dad's surgery. He has an IPMT of the pancreas (intraductal papillary mucinous tumor of the pancreas) and will have the Whipple (pancreato-duodenectomy with partial gastrectomy) procedure done next week.
The surgery takes an average of six hours and involves the removal of the duodenum, head of the pancreas, gall bladder, a portion of the stomach and all associated lymph glands in that area.
The surgeon says that this type of tumor is not usually malignant but because of the size of dad's tumor, it "has malignant characteristics." If there are malignancies found in the tumor and surrounding lymph glands, chemotherapy would be necessary. However, all of the doctors were optimistic and they expect a full recovery after removal of the tumor.
We are optimistic, as well, and have been overwhelmed by the friendliness and professionalism of everyone we've encountered at St. Luke's Hospital and at Methodist Hospital in Houston. We also want to thank everyone for their prayers and good wishes.
(For those of you who don't know, my dad is a professional clown. That is a picture of him, a/k/a Jingles the Clown, at the top of the post. The picture below is of mom and dad taken in 1958. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in August 2004.)
9 comments:
I will keep wishing on stars.
oh and sending humor too. As the big sister of a 19 yr high grade brain tumor survivor, I truly believe humor can work magic.
Hi Laurie, sure hope things go well for Dad.
Isn't the WHIPPLE something they did on Grey's Anatomy?
verification:
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Hey isn't you rmom preggers in this picture?
What a wonderful profession! He looks good in makeup, too. I will say a prayer for your dad.
Susan - Thanks for the wishes and the humor. We're a pretty funny family.
Peter - Thanks!
Zina - Absolutely. Christina kept running around wanting to get in on the Whipple surgery.
Zina (Part 2) - Yep, she's pregnant for Stuart. If you look in the background, I'm in my wheelchair from when I broke my leg when I was 3 years old.
Miss Cellania - Thank you!
You'll all be in my thoughts and prayers.
Lorna - Thanks.
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