To Laurie re changing location of pain

[Guest guest]

Hi Laurie,

I'm not sure if this will be helpful but I'll have a go! As you

know, the question of pain, its nature and significance and the way

it is perceived by CP patients, is one that interests me greatly.

First, I think it's a difficult topic because we all expaerience

pain differently and even in different places for broadly similar

conditions.

I have different types of pancreatic pain in my back.

I sometimes have pain in my back which is ALMOST indistinguishable

from muscular pain (eg from an injury) but which I know is from my

pancreas. It's almost as if the pain is just under the outer layer

of the back (forgive my ignorance of correct biological terms!)

right where the muscles might be. It catches me on certain movements

just as muscular pain might....but I know it's pancreatic because

other symptoms might be happening at the same time. In any case,

there are some difficult-to-pinpoint variations from ordinary

muscular pain which make it apparent to me that I am dealing with

pancreatic pain. I don't sound very convincing but I know I'm right!

(I have, after all, like most of us, experienced pain from pulled

muscles, rheumaticky pains etc. and I know the difference.) I have

only experienced this sort of pain in the last decade or so.

Then I also experience the sort of back version of my horrible,

bitter, upper-abdominal pancreatic pain which goes right back to

very early childhood for me. The pain goes right through, as it

were, and needs topical relief (heat) front and back as well as

painkillers. This pain almost radiates from the very centre of my

being and seems to be destroying my very self. Sorry to sound

dramatic. As a little girl I used to think that this destruction

could posibly occur. My whole self revolves around this pain when it

occurs. This pain was very much on the increase in frequency, if not

intensity (it was most intense in childhood and earlier adulthood) a

couple of years ago and has decresed in frequency and intensity

since my Creon/low fat/no alcohol regime, ie. since diagnosis.

I have experienced abdominal pain in different ways also. The worst

I have described above. I have also had AWFUL RUQ pain but never

pain on the left as described by so many. Sometimes I've had

sharper mid-abdominal pain which seems to me more as I imagine ulcer

pain might be. This is usually more bearable than my other types of

pain.

I have also experienced severe and very severe lower-abdominal pain

associated with malabsorption. This pain is more like

gastroenteritis pain (I've had that once!)and goes with the

steattorrhoea and diarrhoea.

Of course, I have had symptoms of CP since the age of five so it is

perhaps not surprising that I have experienced the pain in so many

different ways as my illness has gone through different stages.

I don't know whether or not I have confused the issue but at least

it shows that pain can develop differently at differnt stages.

The phenomenon of this like-muscular-back-pain pancreatic back pain

is very bizarre but I definitely experience it regularly and it can

wrap around my ribs.

I do hope your new pain (a) gets better and (b)is sorted soon by the

medicos. I tend to find they are not as interested as they might be

in different types of pain. Every time I go to clinic Prof asks me

to grade my pain on the 1- 10 scale and this really annoys me.

Surely frequency should be as relevant as intensity?

Ragards and thanks, as always for your very informative posts.

Fliss (UK)