Anomalous Pancreatico..what?

That's my dilemma. Well it's called an Anomalous Pancreaticobiliary Ductal Junction. Normally during embryonic development the Pancreatic Duct will join to the bile duct right at the Ampulla Vater at the Duodenum. This allows the Pancreatic Juices and Bile to not intermingle before entering the intestinal tract. Somewhere in development of this system a small small portion of people will oddly have the junction created well before (>5 mm) the Ampulla Vater. The will result in a slew of digestion, pancreatic, gall bladder, and bile duct issues. This is because the pancreatic juice is free to back up into the biliary tree (which isn't equipped to handle it).

It's first caught in by those cases that develop choledoctal (spelling) cysts, mostly in young children. It's treated by surgical resection, and a Roux-En-Y (if possible), rarely results in cancer. Then there is the segment of those with an APBDJ who don't develop one of those cysts. They often aren't so fortunate, they often suffer with pancreatitis for years, living in pain when the eat certain things. Then at some point all the irritation to the bile ducts manifests itself in strictures, tumors, and gallbladder problems or CANCER.

I'll get to the point. I don't know if I have cancer but there's a wall thickening mass (14X17 mm) growing in my distal bile duct. I have an APBDJ. It probably should have been found months ago, but the doctors weren't looking for it, their concern was my ductal blockage. With what I have there is a high likelihood of developing cancer. I don't know what the doctor plans, the Roux-En-Y or the Whipple, depends on the "mass."

For the metrically challenged...


Been riding terribly the last two weeks, going to turn that around, stop driving to work... I don't even think I made the top 10% on Tunitas today, just couldn't hold the pace past 15 minutes. Feel great but just blow up, mostly breathing problems, need to do more long threshold intervals, and more than 100 minutes of mid week riding...

I found a spent shell casing on Lobitas Creek Road this morning, careful of those Bay Area rednecks!