Re: Re : Misery doesn't want any company to Fliss

[Guest guest]

Dear Fliss,

It's so good to see you posting, among us once again! Although we

all understood the difficulties you were going through with Jim's

health and the need to focus yourself on his care and your increasing

workload at school, we missed you when you were so silent and

there weren't any of those friendly, informative emails from

across the pond.

Yes, no matter what the circumstances, life does have to resume it's

" normal " pace, sooner or later. Your panic is so understandable,

though, you should not feel that you should have to explain it at

all. If it had been my Bob who was experiencing what Jim had,

I would have been in a panic and so outside of my normal

behavior that it would have been impossible for me to deal with

routine things. We are so accustomed to being the " patient " that

it's a whole new story when the shoe is on the other foot, isn't it?

I'm glad that Jim has such a good attitude about all of it.

In regards to your question about burnout and returned pain......I do

believe that it is entirely possible for this to happen even after

burnout, and even without those pesky pseudocysts that I have!

I don't know whether one would call this residual pain or phantom

pain, or whether it's caused by some still lingering glandular

function. But I do believe that there can still be some remaining

" bouts " of that familiar pancreas pain after burnout. Yet I will admit

that episodes like this last one are very infrequent, as it's been nearly

two years since I've had anything close to what happened this

past week, with the continual boring, knifelike twisting in the

abdomen accompanied by all the piercing mid back and shoulder

area pain.

The pancreatologist that I saw last fall did say that he thought that

the greatest " majority " of all the pain I was still occasionally

having was caused by the pseudocysts. We did discuss the burn

out at length, though, and he admitted that even if the pseudocyst(s)

were completely resolved or gone, he couldn't promise that I would

be completely pain-free. He said that patients had still complained of

" some " occasional pain after burn out, but that it was nothing of

the intensity or duration as it was when their chronic pancreatitis

was active and they had a still functioning damaged pancreas.

Last week's bout just caught me off-guard and it's length was

completely unexpected since I hadn't had any episodes that severe

since burn out in March of '03, except for the time I was vacationing

in C.A. and had to be air-evacted back to the states more than a

year and a half ago. I was afraid it was going to be another

hospital stint like that time, and since it took me more

than 6 weeks to recover from that hospitalization, I was upset

and mad that it happened. Fortunately, although I'm still having

some quirks now and again throughout the day, it does appear

to be nearly over with. My greatest problem right now is the

severe pain I get whenever I've been sitting for a little while, and

try to stand upright. I still can't do that without getting hit with

the pain mid way through sitting and standing up.......so I have to

walk around in that bent over, half erect posture a bit before

stretching up to a full upright position. LOL!!

But the whining is over for now, and time has done it's work for the

best. Although I will be going to my PM doctor's office this week

for my bi-monthly refill script, I won't be seeing my GI until fall.

I had given myself until this past Friday, (1 week), to re-evaluate

how I felt before blowing the horn and going to see my

gastroenterologist. Just under the wire, but I made it, and thus

won't alert him to last week's difficulties. They will be doing

another CT-scan in September, so if there's anything different

or changed, it will show up then.

With love, hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

www.pancassociation.org/anthology#Heidi.html

Bluffton, SC

SC State & SE Regional Representative

Pancreatitis Association, International

www.health.groups.yahoo.com/group/pancreatitis/

Note: All comments or advice are personal opinion only, and should

not be substituted for professional medical consultation.