alchemist10's Journal

Hello all those who will read this.  Below is what has been happening with me so far with pancreatitis.  My first stay was at Salem Hospital in Salem, MA and I have stayed there once and moved onto a specialist at Beth Israel in Boston.

Well to start with I have had pain before and probably never knew it was pancreatitis as I just put up with the pain.  My root causes for pancreatitis as alcohol and weight/gall stones.  I woke up one day after a weekend of binging and found myself to be in the most intense pain.  I had a history of gastritis and assumed that was what it was and assumed it would clear up like the previous bouts of pain I had.  I was vomiting, but being stubborn I was forcing myself to drink water and eat anything as I thought it would help with the pain.

So this all started on July 30th, 2007 at about 3am.  Spent most of the day as described... throwing up and trying to control a fever just waiting for the pain to go away.  So by the time 4pm rolled around I decided I had to go to the Er... made a call to family and got ready to go to hospital.  For anyone who has been through this it was the standard set up except that I felt like I was having chest pains as well.  I had an extremely high temperature and my blood sugar was over 400 (I didn't have a history of diabetes at the time).  After waiting for hours the finally gave me some pain meds to get a CTScan.  Well the morphine lasted all of about 5 minutes.

The first week or so I was in the hospital I really don't remember much as I was kind of doped up.  They had said mild pancreatitis, acute pancreatitis, gall stones.. lucky to be alive and all that.  Was hooked up to oxygen for at least a week as they were worried about lung failure but I never was in ICU.

It was touch and go there as they weren’t sure if my pancreas would make it but I still have the little bugger with me and they didn't remove the gall bladder at the time as they diagnosed me as purely having alcoholic pancreatitis.  After a couple of weeks in Hospital they tried to feed me and that didn’t work so I ended up having an NJ tube inserted, which stayed in me until February... so from August to September with that lovely tube in my nose to help me get nutrition.  I got out of the hospital by the end of August but was still in incredible pain.  It took me at least another month or 2 before I was able to have broth and jello.

Things were looking better and I was starting to have soup and it looked like I had the one bout of acute pancreatitis.  Then I must have eaten too much or who knows what but I had another flare up in Nov/Dec.  As became a constant worry in the past and from that point onward they were worried about pseudo cysts.  But it appeared that they would never fully form or would resolve themselves.  I was just finishing up this last bout in December and was starting to eat more food.  There was even talk of getting the NJ tube outta my nose.  I was sent to a surgeon (In Dec 2007) by my GI specialist to see what the options where for surgery and they determined that there was no need to do anything.

Of course as I now know I have chronic pancreatitis and will be no surprise to some of you I was getting another flare up.  The problem this time was that in January of 2008 the NJ tube would come out because I was so nauseous and throwing up.  So it came out a few times and was replaced a few times.  I was hospitalized again in Salem, and my GI doctor finally came around and suggest I see a specialist at Beth Israel in Boston to see what was going on as I was dealing with this for a long time.

Anyone still reading this?  Sorry it is so long but I am finding this to be a cathartic experience and will just be good to get everything down in writing even if no one else reads it all the way through.  Anyway I was sent to see a Dr. Mark Callery, who has turned out to be great.  My meeting with him was fruitful in that at least something was being done.  They decided to have the gall bladder out and replace the NJ tube with a J tube and see if that made things better.  That was done on Feb. 19th 2008.  So I was in the hospital for a few days and they was released.  Was improving at home and eventually got some food in me and then had a flare up or something.  Was hospitalized again as I was malnourished and couldn't hold down my tube feeds. 

It was off home again and back to the hospital about 2 weeks later.  it turns out my Spleenic nerve had a clot.  Also turns out this is a rather common complication in Pancreatitis.  So I was in Hospital again for a few days.  And back home doing well and then had myself readmitted as I was not feeling well again.  Got to the point where I was really advocating for some sort of surgery to be done and it turns out that the flare up after the gall bladder was removed was another pseudo cyst.  I was told by the good Dr. to be patient and wait for my body to be doing a bit better and see if we could go in and get the cyst drained and maybe a stent put in to help with drainage.

I was back in the hospital yet once again and had the good fortune of running into Willlaim73 who directed me here for the support group.  I am going to be seeing my doctor on the 12th of May and am hoping that we will have a surgery date to plan around.  Now there is my story for now.  Hope it wasn't too boring and if anyone has any questions or suggestions please post them or message me.

Mike