I guess it would depend on what I needed the whipple for. AdenoCA? See ya, headed to Margaritaville. Low-grade neuroendocrine tumor? Probably would sign up.
One of my friends, a plastic surgeon, was seen rounding on patients two days before his scheduled Whipple after mostly nonresponsive neoadjuvant chemo therapy. All of us were like, "**** no we would be laying on a beach somewhere".
I've always thought that in cases like this you should be able to make a deal with your insurance company. I imagine it would be something like "Between the whipple, chemo, hospitalizations, and end of life ICU stay you're going to spend a million bucks. Or you can give me 400k cash, and you'll never see me again because I'll be on a beach in Tahiti until I drop"
Herpa derp blast from the past, didn't realize that this got bumped. I sometimes cringe when I read my older posts, thankfully this one wasn't that bad, but a good reminder that I've learned a little bit about surgery over the last 4 years 😉