Dude, I just looked that up. That’s a serious “kitchen remodeling.” You going to be ok afterwards?
I hope to be released to go home around July 1st. That assumes no complications. The ampullary tumor is just big enough to obstruct flow of bile/pancreatic enzymes. Just enough obstruction to inflate the common bile duct to resemble a sock all the way to the liver. Just enough to raise my alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin to levels that resulted in denial of life insurance. The surgeon who did the ERCP placed a plastic stent to hold the "ampulla" open so bile and pancreatic enzymes can flow freely. My bilirubin and ALP lab results look normal now.
I'm expecting to be back to work the first week of July. I'll have to see if that is realistic once the "remodeling" is complete.
First time back in my basement office since June. It is been a long slog. The Whipple itself was fine, but a "complication" in the form of a nicked renal artery spoiled an otherwise well executed Whipple. I bled significant amount of blood into my abdomen before a CT scan spotted the origin of the bleed and "interventional radiology" performed an embolization of the "leak". 10 transfusions followed to get enough blood circulating to keep me alive. The pools of blood in my abdomen required drains for a period of months and pressure from the blood hampered the Whipple recovery. In the midst of all that, I contracted an MRSA pneumonia and required weeks of IV vancomycin to clear it. I'm finally building back muscle lost to atrophy from being in a hospital bed too long. I'm still tethered to a naso-jejunal feeding tube supplying 1800 calories per day. I eat regular food now that it can pass from stomach to jejunum. The Whipple really didn't get to "functional" until mid-August when the first food finally passed though. I'm thankful to be approaching "normal" again. Planning to resume full time employment on Nov 25th.