History

[Guest guest]

Thank you all for the replies to my earlier post. My bout with

pancreatitis started in 2000 or so.

My doctor had been warning me that I was a candidate for a heart

attack. My blood pressure high, cholesterol high, triglycerides

high, and newly diagnosed with diabetes.

On Easter, I was in a church play. I had stabbing pains in my back.

I was sweating up a storm. On Monday, I went in to work, and could

not even tolerate it. I got in to see my doctor and she took one

quick look at me and called an ambulance. I went to the hospital,

the guys on the ambulance feeding me nitro. I spent the afternoon in

the emergency room until I said something that made them look for

pancreatitis. Up till then they were looking at my heart. There, I

spent a month and a half in the hospital.

Several months later, I went in for tube feeding because my

triglycerides again went up.

A year later, I came home from a village board meeting feeling pretty

bad. Stomach pains, nausea. Finally I went to the emergency room at

a local hospital. September 12, 2002. By then the pain was too bad.

I don't remember much. They woke me up in the ER telling me that

there was nothing they could do, I was going to die. They asked for

phone numbers of relatives I might want to see a last time. My blood

chemestry was way off. My pancreas had swollen so that it was

pushing on my lungs, and I was not getting enough air. I was

panting. Later, they did get me stable. My wife went home and a few

hours later they called her back, again breaths away from death. I

did recover but spent a month in intensive care. That part, the

hospital was top notch. They moved me to a floor unit and care went

from great to horrible.

Student doctors figured I didn't need anything for pain any more.

They wanted to put me on something that I already knew would cause me

to throw up. They did it anyway. And I did what I told them would

happen. After 3 days of agony I demanded to see the doctors and told

them they were fired. I didn't want them, they were not listening to

me. The head student doctor apologized and got something more for

pain. By the 5th day, they started me on food again. Nothing stayed

down. By the 7th day they released me from the hospital. Great! I

thought. But no. I was to see my regular doctor in 7 days. They

assured me he had been informed. By that appointment, I'd been

throwing up, running helacious fevers and in a lot of pain. We

couldn't keep dry sheets on the bed because of sweating. I was on

morphine and it didn't have any effect on the pain. I go to see my

doctor, too weak to walk, so by a wheel chair. He looked at me and

asked what had been going on? He had no knowledge of what had

happened. He immediatly put me in the hospital where I was put in

ICU again. The pancreatitus was raging. Fluid, acid all over my

stomach cavities. Couldn't even get a scope down my throat to take a

look because of how swollen it was. I had 5 drains in, and a 6th

later into the bile duct. Cat scans every other day, moving the

drains, the threat of surgery to scoop out the bad stuff,

infections.. it just went on and on. No holidays with my family.

Finally came out of the hospital after 4 months. The following 2

months I endured throwing up every 18 hours. I lost over 100 lbs.

They were going to do surgery to remove some of the " burned "

intestine to relieve that area which they felt was causing the

vomiting.

Finally, things started going to where I wasn't thowing up as often

and the surgery is on hold for now.

Today, I live in pain most of the time. I am on a duragesic patch,

with perceset for breakthrough pain. Eating is horrible. Nauseated

all the time. Strong stomach pains at times which feels like I've

been punched in the stomach. Back pain all the time now. I am on an

anti depressant called lexapro, which I thought earlier might be

helping but over these last few days determined it's losing the

battle.

I've not been able to work full time since. I've forced myself to

work at every chance I can but in between I feel like all I can

tolerate is being in bed. I feel guilty for not working more but it

is so hard to do that. I had a robust business building and selling

new computers, and repairs. When this hit, my business died, and me

with a lot of product ordered for clients who cancelled because I was

in the hospital. One of my jobs is a school bus driver. I've had to

pull off the road and step off the bus to throw up! (Bus load of kids

on board) I work as a part time air personality and one night on the

air, I had an attack because of something I ate. It seems that since

my last attack of pancreatitus, I am now allergic to oregano. It was

in a slice of pizza I had earlier that night and it put me in serious

pain for over 24 hours!

As I mentioned, the stress is getting to my family. Extended

relatives think I avoid them. My wife feels like she is a single

parent. We've thousands of dollars in past due bills, a majority of

which is medical. We are just barely hanging on to our house.

During the time when I was in the hospital for 4 months, my wife took

FMLA from her job. No money during that entire time. No electric

bills were paid for that winter. They wanted it when the weather

turned warmer. We spent a day without power because we couldn't

afford to pay that bill at that point.

Frustration doesn't begin to describe my life right now. Reading

these posts help, because at least I know others are in the same boat.