About Amber

[Guest guest]

I have gotten a lot of questions about Amber, so I think that I am

going to expalin some more about her condition....

It all started this past December. Amber was very fatigued & nauseous

just about the entire month of December. I took her in to see her dr.

& she was diagnosed with an infection, treated, but things still

weren't quite right.

On January 4th, my husband woke me to tell me that Amber was

vomitting large amounts of green bile & was very lethargic. I took

her temperature (concerned about fever) & it was 92.9. We took her to

the ER.

When we got there her temperature was only 90.3 degrees, she was

still vomitting. Her blood pressure was very low, as well as her

respirations, heart rate & oxygen levels.

She was admitted to the PICU. She was soon diagnosed with systemic

sepsis resulting from pancreatitis. Her lipase was 6,000 & Her

Amylase was at about 1000.

They placed a PICC line & fed her TPN over the next week or so. They

then re-fed her, although her levels weren't normal yet, but they

were dropping. They discharged her.

The lowest her lipase got was 430 (once she came home she was having

frequent labs to monitor the lipase until it was normal). 2 weeks

later she was re-admitted, her lipase over 4000, vomitting again & in

a lot of pain.

She has failed all re-feeding attempts since, continues to vomit

daily, has pain daily, has developed malabsorption & some sugar

regulation issues. She has been hospitalized a total of 62 days this

year due to complications. She has had a total of 3 systemic sepsis

infections since the onset of the pancreatitis.

She relies completely on TPN for all of her nourishment & needs vital

sign monitoring every 4 hours due to low blood pressure & heart rate

issues. She also now has oxygen at home and is taking morphine for

pain.

I hope that this explains some more about Amber. Please feel free to

offer any advice or help....

Thank You,

Amy

[Guest guest]

Amy,

Sorry this is so late, but I'd been offline a few times in the past

month or so and I'm still trying to catch up with my email backlog.

Here's a website that you might find to be helpful in understanding both

Acute and Chronic Pancreatitits. It's the Hopkin's GI website. The

URL directly to the Acute and Chronic section are long, so you might

have to cut and paste them into your browser if they go onto more than

one line.

Acute Pancreatitis:

http://hopkins-gi.org/pages/latin/templates/index.cfm?pg=disease1&organ=4&diseas\

e=22&lang_id=1

Chronic Pancreatitis:

http://www.hopkins-gi.org/pages/latin/templates/index.cfm?pg=disease1&organ=4&di\

sease=24&lang_id=1

There is a pulldown menu if you roll your curser over the words " Select a

Section " at the right. I'm so sorry that your daughter Amber is having such a

horrible time with this disease. Unfortunately, there are some people who seem

to have one huge pancreatitis attack that never seems to go away. Do the

doctors have any idea of why she got pancreatitis? Amber and all your family

are in my prayers. Please, give Amber a hug from me. It's not much, but

sometimes, knowing you aren't alone in dealing with this disease makes it a tiny

bit easier. I was 16 when I had my first official case of pancreatitis.

Kimber

--

Kimber

Vallejo, CA

hominid2@...

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

physician or health care professional.