On October 23, 2018, Rita Krueger underwent surgical procedure for pancreatic most cancers. Mark Truty, M.D., a Mayo Clinic hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgeon, eliminated her pancreas, duodenum, spleen and left adrenal gland and eliminated and reconstructed a number of blood vessels concerned in her tumor.
Within hours of surgical procedure, a pathology report revealed that Rita was cancer-free.
Eight months prior, one other surgeon had instructed Rita to get her affairs so as. Rita and her husband, Jim, sought a second opinion at Mayo Clinic, the place Dr. Truty and the pancreatic most cancers care workforce are advancing treatment for this lethal illness.
Five years later, Rita is doing nicely and studying to thrive with no pancreas. Here’s what life after pancreatic most cancers has taught her:
Life with no pancreas requires some adjustment.
Just earlier than her analysis, Rita realized she had developed diabetes, a standard sign of pancreatic cancer. She started taking insulin and can want to take action for the remainder of her life. Living with no pancreas requires vital adjustments to weight loss plan and way of life.
At first, Rita resisted utilizing an insulin pump, a tool worn on the body to dispense insulin by way of a catheter whenever you eat mechanically. “I wanted to be me — without a device attached to my body,” she says.
“I started off trying to give myself a dose of insulin once daily and before each meal, which helped me become more disciplined and more consistent about my eating,” Rita says. “But my blood sugar numbers continued to be unstable.” Her native endocrinologist, Crispin Semakula, M.D., instructed her he did not assume she might stabilize her blood sugar with out an insulin pump.
In September 2020, Rita lastly bought the gadget. “It can easily be hidden under clothes and doesn’t have any external tubes. I fill it with insulin and repeat the process every 72 hours. It does help a lot. It took a while to understand that some activities cause my blood sugar to drop. If I’m shoveling snow, working in the yard or taking a walk, all those things drop my blood sugar. It’s a balancing act,” she says.
Getting the pump was about accepting actuality, says Rita. “I used to have a different normal. I rarely got sick. I’d never had any surgeries. I was surrendering — giving in to my new normal.”
Chemo mind is actual.
Chemo brain is a time period that describes the considering and reminiscence issues that may happen throughout and after chemotherapy. It can be referred to as chemo fog, cancer-related cognitive impairment or cognitive dysfunction. The causes of those issues aren’t nicely understood, however they are often irritating and debilitating for most cancers survivors.
“I went back to work mid-January 2019,” says Rita. This was lower than three months after she accomplished chemotherapy, radiation and surgical procedure. “I’m an information technology analyst. I need to quickly answer questions and think through scenarios to solve problems. Getting back to that was a slow process. My word choices were more deliberate — especially at work — so I spoke slower. Because I was more relaxed around friends and family, they sometimes laughed at my choice of words.”
The severity and period of chemo mind signs differ from person to person. Rita’s signs lingered for a while, however she now feels they’ve resolved.
Prayer and positivity are healthy coping mechanisms.
Rita’s spirituality has helped her deal with the various adjustments that pancreatic most cancers has wrought. “I try to be the optimist,” she says. “I have faith in God. And I believe that we can overcome things with him. I pray, and I believe in God for restoration. That’s primarily how I cope.”
Confiding in family and friends helps her cope, too — however Rita has realized to be selective about whom she confides in. Before sharing her analysis with individuals, she rigorously thought of who might hear the data and reply in a constructive and supportive approach.
“When I started treatment, I didn’t want to tell anyone because when people hear ‘pancreatic cancer,’ they hear the death bell, and I only wanted people to speak positively about my situation,” says Rita. “I would only go to friends I could trust to give me positive feedback or sound advice. I needed to have good boundaries about whom I would tell things to and have people that prayed with me and kept me focused on the right stuff.”
Rita feels strongly {that a} constructive perspective has helped her recuperate. “There are a lot of prayers and people in my life that helped me stay mentally focused on the positives and successes — that’s huge in itself,” she says. “I find that if you’re always focused on the problem, you can put yourself in despair and spin out of control. But if you focus on the positive, the things that are going right and the things you can control, you will have a more successful outcome.”
Sharing is therapeutic.
To share her story with others, Rita started a blog about her pancreatic most cancers expertise and shares her weblog posts on social media. “I’ve had people reach out to me from multiple places in the U.S. They find me on Facebook, send me notes, and then I talk to them. It’s been therapeutic for me to help people. It’s helped me heal from my trauma,” she says.
Rita additionally has begun assembling care packages for newly recognized pancreatic most cancers sufferers, referred to as “Survival PACs.” The packages embody her guide about her most cancers expertise, “Hope… for an Outstanding Outcome,” assets for pancreatic most cancers sufferers, a water bottle, aromatherapy oil, a journal and a pen.
Helping others is now a part of Rita’s therapeutic course of. “When you’re going through treatment, you start thinking cancer is part of who you are,” she says. “It takes a while to remember that it’s not your identity, and you can get beyond it. And you can still live your life. I have some limitations, but I continue to do most of the same activities and live a healthy, productive life. God helped me take a curse, turn it around and use it to bless others.”
This article initially appeared on the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center Blog.
Learn extra
Learn extra about pancreatic cancer and discover a pancreatic cancer clinical trial at Mayo Clinic.
Join the Pancreatic Cancer Support Group on Mayo Clinic Connect.
Read the story of Rita’s analysis and remedy.
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