Hearing the words: My cancer diagnosis

I got the phone call - the call that confirmed I had cancer. It was a moment I had dreaded, yet somehow anticipated. Dr Hwang rang to let me know that the outcome was as expected - pancreatic cancer. Hearing those words was surreal. The tumour was in the head of the pancreas and was of the neuroendocrine type. While I understood that in the realm of pancreatic cancer, this was the "better" type compared to adenocarcinoma, it still felt overwhelming.

The tumour was low grade and, in terms of staging, it was stage 1, meaning that there were no tumours elsewhere. This information was somewhat reassuring; knowing that it was caught early offered a glimmer of hope amid the uncertainty.

We spoke about all the different options, what everything meant, and potential next steps. It seems so simple to say "just cut it out," but there is so much involved in coming to an answer like that. The current size of the tumour was approximately 1.7 cm, and there was no way to know when it might reach 2 cm, at which point the decision to operate would become clearer.

Dr Hwang shared that cancer is measured by the 5-year survival. Grade 1 was the most positive thing we heard and was promising that it was slow growing, but it was tempered by the reality of what lay ahead. He was going to refer me to a surgeon, Dr David Cavallucci, based at the Wesley in Brisbane. He would send through the referral but noted that Dr Cavallucci was away for a week or so. Dr Cavallucci was a Hepatobiliary surgeon (liver, bile ducts, and/or gallbladder).

Surveillance or surgery would be something for discussion with the surgeon, but something we should think about in the meantime. It was personal preference as to lifecycle factors as to the surgery plan. Some want it out now, some want to travel and some want to monitor until it grows to 2cms. When it grows to 2cms then it goes up a grade less promising outlook.

There was so much to consider, so much research we would need to do and things we need to think about. It was a lot to process, but I felt ready to tackle the challenges ahead.

[Ros] Shattered and in shock, reality hits hard, hearing those words Jim has Pancreatic Cancer, how is this possible he is so young, he is healthy, he was just tired... Jim and I both lost all of the colour in our faces and both just started crying and just hugging each other. What the F... all sorts of things rushing through my brain, how can we get through this, Dr Googled everything to do with the Pancreatic Neuroendocrine cancer, survival rates (was not a good idea), treatments, surgeons, risks of surgery, (everything I read has high risk of mortality - all not good) and this 5 year survival rate .... on a positive Dr Cavallucci had the best reviews as a surgeon for something called a Whipples.