The FAP - Whipple Report

 I am excited and feeling very thankful that I am able to return to work with Alberta66 MTB as a coach / guide this season. It was a long difficult recovery from the Pancreaticoduodenectomy or "The Whipple" in Nov 2023. Things didn’t go as plan after the surgery, complications slow things down and set back the recovery. Staying focused on a positive out come and making a full recovery was the main goal but spending 140 days in the hospital took a lot out of me. Walking as much as I could early on really helped me keep moving, and then I was gifted an e bike by family and friends which got me on the bike as soon as I could build the strength to sit on the saddle. I lost around 13 kgs which I had to work at putting back on, a TNP and a NJ feeding tube helped and then I was able to transition to solid food. IT’s been a challenge to stay on top of eating enough and staying active. Because of the new changes to the digestive system I have to eat small meals/snacks more often...

 WARNING: This post contains medical graphic pictures. Apr 1, 2024 was a day I had been dreaming about since my Whipple Surgery ( Nov 17, 2023) and the complications that started a few days later. It was the day the Enterocutaneous Fistula stopped outputting any fluid or paste. I was secretly happy to see no discharge from the fistula, but was still skeptical to believe things were healed. I think I didn’t even tell the medical team for a day or 2. For 4 months I had spent many sleepless nights reading about how these fistulas could cause problems requiring surgery to try and fix them. I had even had a room mate for a day who was back in the hospital again because they were experiencing problems with a similar fistula for over a year and a half. I was very concerned the fistula would cause more problems than the original surgery or reduce the quality of my life. Zero output of the fistula was a huge step forward in the recovery but it was still another 3 months before the scab fel...

 I went into the Whipple Surgery , Nov 17, 2023, with the belief that I would be home in 7 days and recovered in 3 months. The surgery it’s self went okay they tell me, but 4 days later I developed a pancreaticojejunostomy (PJ) leak, followed by hepaticojejunostomy (HJ) leak and there were delays in acting on these complications. It got so bad 2 of my close friends had to come in and talk to the medical team to find out why a CT scan ordered on Nov 24,2023 wasn’t done until Nov 26, 2023. By the time the CT scan was done things had gotten much worst and it was the start of a very long recovery . This when I started to notice it was very important for me to pay attention and advocate for my self and my health care. Nobody knows your body and how you feel better than your own self. Unfortunately I didn’t start making notes or taking pictures until I was discharged, Jan 5, 2024, after 50 days in the hospital. I was sent home with 2 drains and a very active leak that was coming out of a...

 I had been living a very active life since I was in my late 30’s. I started road biking, and then mountain biking and loved it. Mountain biking became my to go to exercise, and I loved peddling up the longest hills I could find . I took part in many races, single and multi day events, never really too win but to see what I was capable of doing, to see new wilderness areas and meet good people. Living with  Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP) gave me a reason to take care of myself and keep pushing myself, I figured if I was able to ride a bike as much as I did there wasn’t anything wrong with me. In July 2023 polyps in my duodenum started to show signs  of change, and a large flat adenoma was un able to be removed, so I decided to have the Whipple Surgery in Nov 2023. The surgery went okay, biopsies of the large adenoma showed high grade dysplasia and I had a lot of complications after. As a result of the complications I was put on TNP feeding, then transitioned t...