Does this sound familiar?

October 4, 2003

In the posts earlier this week, I read several mentioning a lack of

appetite. That's rarely my problem. We're all different, I realize,

and this may be where I differ from most, but surely there are some

who have the same experience I do? I wrote a long, complicated post

on Thursday, the worst day of my latest flare-up and hit the wrong

button and lost the whole thing. Isn't that the way it goes when

you're having an attack?

Anyway, my personal experience frequently goes like this:

Day One: extreme fatigue, slight fever

Day Two: fatigue, fever, slight nausea, stinky gas

Day Three: stabbing, unremitting pain under left breast, bloating,

fatigue, increasing ache/pain center of chest

Day Four: pain in left side ( " stitch " like pain), feel lousy all

over, fatigue, ache/pain center of chest

Throughout, I had periods of voracious hunger, usually in the evening

after eating very lightly all day. It usually takes another week or

so before the chest ache/pain/pressure eases. The bloating continues

for another week or so. That was before I started the mild

anti-depressant, which has masked all pain (the constant

ache/pressure deep center chest)for the past month until this week.

I am extremely fortunate that my GP recognizes my symptoms as CP,

without any clinical evidence. All tests are in the normal range,

even when there is a flare-up. I was diagnosed with AP in the

emergency room at the hospital in November, 2001 and it never

resolved, so we've been doing all kinds of tests. I am taking the

pancreatic enzymes, the mild anti-depressant for chronic pain, and I

have a prescription for hydrocodone if absolutely necessary, which it

was twice this past week. I follow a very strict diet (except for

chocolate - I save my daily quota of fat grams for my See's Candy or

Hershey bars some days.) I lost 35 pounds from November 2001 to

February 2002 and have gained back 5 pounds in the last year. I am 5'

5 " and just under 120 lbs.

Sorry to go on and on. I post infrequently and have a lot saved up to

say, I guess.

Thank you, Tull, for putting up the new photos of the symposium. I

enjoyed them all.

Thank you, Mark Armstrong, for the very interesting history of

medicine with regard to the pancreas.

Thank you all for the loving support you give.

Aloha,

in Hawaii

October 4, 2003

The way it worked for me was I would be essentially pain free. Then

out of nowhere and suddenly as fast as the flick of a switch, I

would get a terrible hot feeling like acid had just been dumped into

my mid section. Within 5 minutes my whole belly would bloat and the

pain would become unbearable. It would feel like a hot sharp knife

digging inside a belly that had been filled with gasoline and set on

fire.

Recovering from such an attack would take a good month and the pain

would change to firm,solid, ache in the right upper quadrant. Over

time it would slowly get less but as I had more and more attacks,

the pain would stick around longer, and eating would worsen it.

Finally enough attacks occurred such that I would have one day that

would be a mild pain day, and the next day I would have an attack,

slowly recover, have one mild day, and then another attack. I was in

the hospital every 3 weeks for a week like clock work. That is why I

had the total panc.

Your pains sound different to me, but I had recurrent acute

pancreatitis. My sister has IBS and her pains sound somewhat like

yours.

I pray you will find relief and improvement,

Bert

October 5, 2003

don't apologize for the long post. Sometimes you need one to get

everything out. You said you had an attacked that never resolved and I

wanted to let you know that you are not alone. Our Founder, Karyn, also

had tha, I believet. She had one attack of acute pancreatitis that just

never went away. I've been the opposite. I've had repeated cases of

acute pancreatitis since 1986 and then in 2001, I had an attack that

never really got better with the pain coming 24/7, though the pain did

reduce to a level where minimal pain meds were needed. I still

occasionally have acute attacks where the pain is alot worse, as well as

periodic flares. My story can be found here, under the name Kimber:

http://www.pancassociation.org/storieshome.html

Unfortunately, I don't see Karyn's story located anywhere, or I'd point

you to it.

Kimber

--

Kimber

Vallejo, CA

hominid2@...

Note: All advice given is personal opinion, not equal to that of a licensed

physician or health care professional.

October 5, 2003