home at last!

[Guest guest]

I'm WAY behind on my mail. I had an attack of acute pancreatitis on Thursday

night (after feeling great for 3 days). It started about 10 p.m. and when it

wasn't better by 3:30 a.m., I had my mom take me to the ER. At 8:00 p.m. that

night I had talked to my mom and told her that from now on I was going to go the

ER in the next town because our little hospital cannot check one of the pancreas

enzymes (Lipase) in house, so they just never check it. They only check the

amylase, which is another pancreas enzyme. With the last several episodes of

my typical RUQ abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting, my liver enzymes have been

getting higher. My amylase has been normal, but on the two occasions that I

went to the larger hospital in the next town, my lipase was slightly elevated.

I had a theory that for some reason, my lipase was elevating during the attacks

even though amylase was normal. Only way to test that theory was to go to a

hospital where they can check the lipase during an attack. Didn't know I'd get

to test my theory in just a few hours! Well, it seems my theory was right! My

mom took me to the ER in Huntsville (about 30 miles away). Ended up my liver

enzymes were 726 and 368 (forgot which was which and don't have copies yet).

Amylase was smack in the middle of normal but lipase was 514 (almost double what

it should be). High enough to lock me up from early Friday morning until

today (Monday)! My only doc in Huntsville is my internal med doc so I was

admitted under him. He told me that the episode was absolutely acute

pancreatitis as lipase is over 99% specific for pancreatitis. He said the

episode was absolutely not caused by the AIH and that I DO have two separate

things going on - AIH and pancreatitis. He told me that it is not at all

uncommon to have a normal amylase and elevated lipase and that it is essential

to check both when pancreatitis is suspected. He was not happy to find that my

local hospital never checks the lipase. He told me that even though it is

harder on my family to go to the next town, that I absolutely must go where the

lipase can be checked during the episodes.

My daughter and her fiance came home from college on Friday afternoon. We were

going to meet with the wedding coordinator on Friday afternoon and then do some

wedding planning stuff over the weekend. Instead I spent my weekend in the

hospital! Nikki and met with the wedding coordinator at the church so

she could give her advice on decorating. They managed fine without me!

had to go back on Sunday so he could go to work, but Nikki is here til

Wednesday morning. Tomorrow we are meeting with the florist, baker, and

photographer.

The doc pumped me full of solu medrol while in the hospital. He had them giving

me 60 mg IV three times a day. I looked up the comparison dose of solu medrol

vs prednisone and it showed it the same. If that's right, he was giving me the

equivalent of 180 mg of prednisone a day! No wonder I was a total emotional

basket case today! I thought I was going to have to be committed! It was

awful, I was a wreck! I have never been so emotional in my life. I didn't do

bad on the fluid retention until this afternoon. I squatted down to pick

something up and my skin was so tight I thought it would split open! The doc

also had me on lovenox (a blood thinner) in addition to the coumadin I'm already

taking. Guess he wanted to be extra sure I didn't get a blood clot! I am

bruised from head to toe. Most are from scratching since I seem to be itchy all

the time lately.

I asked the doc today if he thinks I have chronic pancreatitis. He said that he

couldn't say for sure at this point. However, in his admitting history and

physical, he says " The patient is a 42-year-old female with history of chronic

pancreatitis. "

This was the first time I've been admitted to this hospital. I've been to the

ER several times and everyone has been wonderful. I got a real jerk of a doc

Thursday night. I told him that my pain began at 10:00 p.m. and I took

oxycodone at 10:30 p.m. I threw up at about 11:30 p.m. and used a phenergan

suppository. I didn't have anything else by mouth after that because I didn't

think I'd be able to keep it down and it was obvious the oral meds weren't going

to touch the pain. The doc walked in the room with an attitude. He says, " I

can't believe you're in this much pain, but didn't take another pain pill at

home. Did you just not have any more pain medicine at home? " I told him I had

plenty of oral meds since my pain doc prescribes oxycodone, but that when the

pain gets severe, oral meds won't really help. He then asks why I'm seeing a

pain doc and why I need the pain meds. I told him that I have autoimmune liver

disease, lupus, and recurrent acute pancreatitis. He then asked me why I had

those illnesses. Like I know! He says he'll get labs and walks out. After

about 10 minutes I sent my mom to ask if I could please have something for pain

and nausea. He said no, he wanted to see what was wrong with me first! Labs

came back pretty quick and as soon as he saw the numbers, he had the nurse in

there giving me morphine and phenergan. By then it was shift change and another

doc (very kind and compassionate) comes in and tells me I have acute panc and

need to be admitted. He called my internal med doc. My doc was at the ER just

a few minutes after they notified him.

Anyway, I have 364 e-mails. I will most likely have to delete most as I don't

think I'll ever catch up. Other than being an emotional basket case, I'm doing

okay, I guess! I'm hoping the steriods will be out of my system soon!

If there's something important that I missed, please re-send it and put my name

in the subject line.

W