Hi everyone,
just wanted to post an update on this forum as I havent been on for a while as all has gone quiet on the diagnosis front until recently.
In July this year my dad underwent a splenectomy, and the surgeon also removed part of my dad's pancreas (the tail end) due to the mass showing on CT scans. They initially thought this was on his kidney but after further investigation they pinpointed this to his pancreas/spleen.
He recovered incredibly well from the surgery, despite some complications afterwards due to an infection whilst he was in hospital. He's now back to full strength 7 weeks later, and tbh he was doing really well quite soon after, he's very resilient and recovers really well from surgery (he had a hip replacement and was cycling again 4 weeks later!)
The mass was sent off to be assessed, and they have come back and said its an EXTREMELY RARE form of pancreatic cancer. So rare that the cancer hospital in the north west have only ever seen three cases of it in their history. it's called acinar cell carcinoma and is apparently far less aggressive than the more common forms of pancreatic cancer, so much so that they have said the mass has probably been there for quite some time and has never spread to any other organs or lymph nodes, but the rareity is still a big concern.
The consultant we saw yesterday said she is satisfied that the cancer has essentially gone, hadnt spread to any where else and no lymph nodes, however due to how fit and well he is, they have decided the can handle an intense course of chemotherapy for 6 months to avoid the risk of any recurrence as pancreatic cancer generally can recur, and due to the rareity they can't risk not doing any further treatment.
We are really gutted, and I suppose I don't really know why I'm posting here other than I feel quite lost. I'm an only child, and I lost my mum to cancer 7.5 years ago so this is just really unbelievable to be going through it all again. I go through phases of feeling quite positive but then everything comes crashing down again and I cant see past the negative thoughts.
Everything that was said to us yesterday pointed towards this just being a "belt and braces" approach. From people's experience, surely a specialist can't reassure a patient that the cancer has essentially "gone" after a very succesful surgery?
Would really love to discuss this with people and get some things off my chest. if anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them.
