Trip to the dentist saves a girl's life [pancreatic cancer]

CBS ^ | February 12, 2015 | Jessica Firger

[Slings and Arrows]

-snip-

Last week, the 11-year-old from Edmond, Oklahoma, was getting a cleaning from dental hygienist Rachel Stroble.

-snip-

Stroble told the dentist, Dr. Michael Chandler, that Journee's eyes looked yellow. The dentist took a look and agreed that something wasn't right.

Chandler urged Journee's mother to take her to the doctor right away, and the yellowing of her eyes turned out to be a sign of something serious. After blood tests, an ultrasound, CT scan and MRI, the family learned their daughter had a large mass on her pancreas, and she would need extensive surgery to remove it.

-snip-

"Friday she underwent a 9 hour surgery to remove a grapefruit-size tumor. Surgeons performed 'Whipple Procedure,' a major operation that removed part of her pancreas, stomach, gall bladder and part of the intestine."

[Slings and Arrows]

Second that.

[melissa_in_ga]

Prayers for the girl. Edmond, OK. My hometown.

[Pontiac]

Grapefruit-sized tumor. And the kid is only 11 years old. How big is the kid? Are we talking about minority obesity here?

Large tumors often do not produce any externally visible bulge, they often displace or partially crush internal organs.

My older brother had a football sized tumor on his thyroid gland that did not noticeably change his outward appearance.

The surgeon that removed it wrote a paper on the tumor because of its size. Sadly the tumors removal did not cure my brother’s migraine headaches.

[Tax-chick]

Large tumors often do not produce any externally visible bulge, they often displace or partially crush internal organs. Interesting. I've often wondered how someone could not notice a basketball-sized tumor, for example.

[Pontiac]

I've often wondered how someone could not notice a basketball-sized tumor, for example.

If you think about your anatomy for a moment you will remember that muscles cover all of your internal organs keeping them inside your body.

So if a tumor is internal to those muscles it too will be kept in proximity to your internal organs. The muscles will press the growing tumor in to the space occupied by your organs displacing them from their normal position eventually crushing them. Often it is the lungs that are crushed because they are the least substantial being bags of air.

People usually think of a tumor making someone fat. But fat is subcutaneous (under the skin) and outside of the muscle envelope. Of course there

[Pontiac]

Of course there are tumors that grow on the skin or under the skin and those are visible.

[Tax-chick]

Thanks for explanation. It’s common sense, really, but I hadn’t thought it through before.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

She’s black. Jaundice not so obvious on her skin.

She is a doll. I pray for a good outcome. She needs our prayers because the odds are not good.

[Chickensoup]

Plenty of people need help with medical costs with insurance. Our town is now raising money for a much loved citizen with enormous bills from a sick baby. Sad are the not much loved or well known people who lose everything to the medical/government/industrial complex.

[PLMerite]

“My older brother had a football sized tumor on his thyroid gland that did not noticeably change his outward appearance.”

The thyroid gland is in the neck. I would think a football-sized tumor would show somewhere. Hope he’s okay though.

[GailA]

Hope in all that probing and cutting of her innards they don’t damage the Vagaus Nerve, because that leads into a life long disease called Gastroparesis
http://patients.gi.org/topics/gastroparesis/ and it is NOT pleasant. There are no cures, and many of the drugs have bad side effects.

[midnightcat]

too true. even with the Whipple surgery, she may not have escaped it. the cancer usually has spread by the time people realize they have it.

[Pontiac]

Yes he has been fine sense he had it out thank you.

The tumor grew down in to his chest mostly so it really did not show.

And he had a thick neck anyway.

[SaraJohnson]

My mom had that only instead of a tumor on her pancreas, she had it on her bile duct. Whipple surgery is nothing to sneeze at. She lived for six years and then cancer spread throughout her body and she died.

[kalee]

Some are too afraid to let others know they need help because of harsh judgement of others.

Our town does fundraisers too. Spaghetti and BBQ chicken dinners, fish frys, pig pickin’s, concerts. We just need to know when people need it.

[Tired of Taxes]

the tumor is benign, thank goodness!

That is great news. :-) Of course, a benign tumor can kill a person. Thank goodness the dental hygienist was so observant and this young girl was saved. I hope she recovers fully and quickly.