Pseudocyst questions again

May 11, 2005

Hi,

I spoke with Heidi a while back. My husband has CP, one attack

April, 04 that left him with significant pancreas damage. He did

well with no pain, he is diabetic but non-insulin, just takes one

pill and manages his CP and Diabetes with diet and exercise, does

not drink alcohol, is listed as idiopathic I believe, no known cause.

He started having pains in January of this year. They did a cat

scan and found a cyst that was 9cm x 6 x 5. They said it was

shrinking and they just wanted to monitor it.

He has since seen a specialist who does Pancreas only and he ordered

a MRCP. My regular doctor just called me (hubby is out of town for

two weeks) and said the cyst had grown to 10.9 cm x 9 x 9. He said

I should call his specialist to let him know that the results were

back.

Is this a very large size for a pseudocyst? Is it dangerous for it

to be this big? The specialist had already told my husband

depending on the MRCP he would do one of four things:

1) drain the cyst to his stomach

2) drain the cyst to his intestines

3) possibly rebuild his pancreatic duct, he suspected it may be

damaged or crushed by the cyst, if the duct was what was feeding it

4) leave it alone and see if it shrinks on its own.

I am just sort of scared at the moment, what you read online is

sometimes scary. I don't know if these things can get bigger or if

he needs to get back home sooner so we can take care of this.

Any advice from someone who is knowledgeable about these things will

be greatly appreciated in giving me peace of mind. I hate waiting

on calls from doctors anymore

Thanking you in advance,

May 11, 2005

Diane, I had a pseudocyst back in 1998 and my surgeon, who is a

Biliary Disease/Gastroenterologist/Surgeon and well known for his

excellence, said I had no option but a distal pancreatectomy. By that

time, I had many acute attacks and much damage was done. I was

painfree for 2 years, but then I had an attack it became chronic. Jim

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