Hello All,
Well our "not so good news" turned out to be fairly good news. A recent CT scan showed a cyst in the tail of Bob's pancreas. For 4 days we worried & feared that the cancer had come back with a vengeance. Friday we had an appointment with a surgeon who after reviewing the scans feels the oral cancer is not connected to the pancreatic cyst. Apparently many people have such cysts, 80% of the time they are benign & asymptomatic so they are often not immediately discovered. As the person ages, the cells in the cyst changes & can sometimes turn into cancer. The symptoms of pancreatic cancer include intermittent stomach pain & weight loss so many people do not always go to the dr for such symptoms, thus when pancreatic cancer is found it is often advanced. The dr said most of his patients having this surgery are over 60 yrs old.

In Bob's case, the cyst never showed up on a PET scan & he has not had any symptoms. The dr offered to do just a needle biopsy but feels it should come out even if it is benign. Bob & I agreed & he will have surgery over his Spring Break on March 29th. Even though it is a laproscopic surgery it will still take 2 1/2 hours & may require Bob to stay in the hospital for several days~we're not too happy about that part! Basically, if Bob had not had a CT scan as part of the follow up tests, the cyst might not have been discovered & he could have developed pancreatic cancer 20-30 yrs down the road.

While another surgery will be difficult, we are sooo relieved that it wasn't a recurrence! Thank you all for your support!