Sarah Bennett survived neuroendocrine | Whipple procedure | duodenum | endoscopy | oral chemotherapy

After experiencing gastrointestinal issues in 2022, it took a total of four visits to ERs and an urgent care before a CT scan revealed Sarah Bennett had a mass in her duodenum, near her pancreas. The mass later led to a diagnosis of a rare cancer, neuroendocrine. She did not have to undergo a Whipple procedure, but did have to take an oral form of chemotherapy. That preceded a successful surgical removal of the mass. Sarah achieved survivorship and said her health is very close to what it was before her diagnosis.

In 2022, Sarah Bennett moved from her hometown of Salem, Oregon to Excelsior, Minnesota. Not long after her arrival, she began to experience severe diarrhea and vomiting. She visited an ER and was told she just had gastrointestinal issues and was given some anti-nausea meds. However, Sarah could not keep anything down, be it food or fluid.

She returned for a third visit to the ER and underwent a CT scan. That’s when we found there was a mass pushing on the duodenum, which is the beginning of the small intestine, connected to the stomach and right behind the pancreas. They performed an endoscopy with a biopsy, and from that she learned that I had cancer. It was neuroendocrine cancer. I had twelve days of vomiting and diarrhea before I finally got any answers.

Sarah knew nothing about what with which she had been diagnosed, but learned the neuroendocrine cells are all over the body. They have similar traits to nerve cells as well as hormone-producing cells. The tumors can occur anywhere in the body. The most common locations are in the lungs, appendix, small intestine, rectum and in my case, pancreas. So, it varies, and the neuroendocrine tumors produce excess hormones in a neuroendocrine tumor; or these tumors release hormones and so that is a non-functional neuroendocrine tumor.

Sarah Bennett was living in Minnesota, but her health insurance was only good in Oregon, so that is where she went for treatment of her cancer. She said she had multiple treatment options. With the tumor that we discovered behind the pancreas, it was about the size of a lemon at that time. She was told what her options were. They could do surgery based on the location of the tumor, but there are some complications that come along with surgery. Then we talked about doing chemotherapy, and for the type of cancer she had, they had the new pill form of chemotherapy, and she opted for that. So, I was taking two types of oral chemotherapy for two weeks, then two weeks off while they waited to see if the pills were effective.

Sarah didn’t lose her hair, but even with the oral form of chemotherapy, there were nasty side effects, including severe cramps in her chest and back. However, a major plus with this type of chemotherapy was that it allowed her to return to Minnesota to be with her husband and daughter. She was also able to seen by specialists in Minnesota.

Ultimately, she would have to return to Oregon to undergo surgery. Due to where her tumor was, if they were unable to dissect it from the end of my pancreas, they would have to do a Whipple Procedure and that entails removing the head of the pancreas and then having to reconnect everything to the pancreas, so the pancreatic juices and enzymes didn’t end up eating her in the process. That was hard because the pancreas is like a sponge, they poke holes in it, and it leaks. They didn’t want to deal with that, so she was spared going through a Whipple Procedure. Thankfully, the surgery was a success.

Sarah Bennett achieved survivorship, and makes periodic followup visits to specialists in Minnesota. She does have the occasional bouts of fatigue, but she says other than that, her health is very close to what it was before her diagnosis, allowing her to be an active wife and mother.

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