To Chrissy re my mother's pancreatic disease

[Guest guest]

Hi Chrissy,

Thank you for your kind message in the midst of your own curent

problems.

Actually, the one thing thing the docs were certain of in my

mother's case was that she did NOT have any trace of cancer at any

stage. She had CP, calcifications etc. and had an operation on the

pancreas in 1959 in London at St 's Hospital. When I tell my

specialists that, they immediately know who the surgeon was! I

expect such surgery was very rare at the time. We lived in

Manchester, probably the country's second city (sorry to anyone who

lives in Birmingham!!) with an excellent university medical school

and major hospitals, but she still had to go to London. She had

already lost weight and begun to have pains in her joints and limbs.

After the operation, she continued to go downhill, losing more

weight, becoming anorexically thin, unable to eat and with

increasing pains which forced her into a wheelchair. She had more

than one AP attack, one of which finally killed her in 1965. All

this is very painful for me to remember and nobody really knew fully

what was wrong. With hindsight I wonder if she had autoimmune

diseases, possible including undiagnosed coeliac disease. I even

wonder if it might have been lupus.

The specialists and GP all assured my father, right up to her death,

that she had no cancer. It is pancreatitis, not cancer, which is on

the death certificate.

To-day I am worrying, of course! I hope it will not turn out to be

lupus in my case. This hasn't been mentioned but I can't help

wondering. The " upside " is that the link with cancer might be weaker

than with classic hereditary pancreatitis.

Of course, they know very little about autoimmune pancreatitis and

haven't said I've got it. It's just a possibility but it would

explain the coeliac disease.

I wonder what could go next?!!

How are you, my very kind friend? Please update me.

With my love,

Fliss (UK)