New to this Pancreatitis stuff...

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I was admitted to the hospital 2 weeks ago, for only 3 days, with

what they told me was pancreatitis. This is really all I was told...

they have no idea why or how it was caused. I had an episode of

severe stomach and low back pain on a Friday afternoon, my husband

rushed me to the ER and I was admitted 6 hours later, taken of all

food and liquid, hooked up to an IV and told to rest. I am a new

mommy with a 3 month old at home... no rest for me. I cried myself

to sleep since I couldn't be with her. I was in the hospital for 3

days, discharged, saying my " levels " looked great and to follow up

with my GP ifI felt I needed to.

One week later, and I had another episode with pain. Two weeks it's

been, and I STILL cannot keep anything in my system. I eat and

then " go " within a half hour... liquid... everytime. Is this typical

of pancreatitis? I don't find much in depth information online for

this disease.

I have an auto-immune disease called Grave's Disease. I was

diagnosed with that in September 2003 and had a complete

Thyroidectomy in November 2003. Is pancreatitis at all, related to

any sort of auto-immune diases?

Looking forward to hearing from anyone at this point!

Take care,

Mommy

[Guest guest]

Dear Mommy,

It's a shame that you had to suffer through such a confusing ordeal

with your pancreatitis and then be left afterward with so many

unanswered questions. Hopefully some of us here will be able to help

you with any questions you may have, and also offer you some

understanding and support when you most need it.

What we recommend anyone in your situation to do at this point is to

find a good gastroenterologist in your area who can help you. A

pancreatologist is really the preferred physician, but there aren't

too many of those in the country, and depending upon where you live,

seeing one may be logistically impossible for you at this time. A

gastroenterologist who is experienced in pancreatic issues would be

much more suitable and knowledgable than any GP or PCP. Think about

it this way, if you had a problem with your heart, would you go to a

general practice doctor or a cardiologist? A tooth problem....would

you go to a doctor or a dentist? Since you have a problem with you

pancreas, you should go to a doctor who specializes in

gastrointestinal problems.

As Karyn indicated, auto-immune pancreatitis is a known type of

problem with this condition. Your problems with diarrhea are not

uncommon for this disease, and the sooner you see a professional,

the sooner he or she will be able to prescribe medication that will

help control your motility problems.

In our database section on the left hand side of the Yahoogroups PAI

main webpage is a folder entitled " Doctor Database. " I've put the

link here just in case you aren't familar yet with our webpage and

how it works. Just remember to type in all the full url if you

aren't able to include it all in your brower to copy and paste, or

if it won't take you there by clicking on it.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/pancreatitis/

database?method=reportRows&tbl=10

You might read through all those names and addresses and see if any

of those doctors are located anywhere near to where you live. If you

can't find one there, you could call your local hospital, or your

insurance carrier, and ask for a referral to one in your area. An

appointment with a gastroenterologist would be the first step to

finding out exactly what's wrong with you, and what may have caused

your pancreatitis. There are several different types of diagnostic

tests they can do to determine the cause and what kind of damage may

or may not have been done by your two recent attacks.

In the time being, you would benefit from eating a low fat diet,

staying away from fried foods, heavy meals, and abstaining from any

alcohol. Alcohol is very damaging to the pancreas when pancreatic

problems exist. A damaged pancreas has difficulty digesting high

fats and proteins, so that's why a low fat diet is suggested. Most

of us eat no more than 30 grams of fat each day, and try to eat

several smaller meals throughout the day other than the traditional

three large meals.

We have an excellent library at: www.top5plus5.com/ that was put

together by one of our members, Mark Armstrong. This Pancreatitis

webpage is probably the most thoroughly researched, interesting and

informative webpage on pancreatitis and all the other issues related

to it that you can find anywhere on the Internet. Take some time

and read through anything there that interests you, I guarantee that

you'll learn a lot.

Also feel free to ask any questions here on the message board, or

comment on any posts that interest you. We have a wonderful, warm

and knowledgeable family of members here who can share their

experiences with you, or listen to yours, while they offer you

support and encouragement. This is probably a very frustrating and

scary time for you right now, but just remember that we all started

in similar circumstances, and here you will never be alone with your

fears. Just let us know how we can help you, and someone will always

answer.

With love, hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

SC Rep

SE Regional Rep

PAI

Note: All comments or advice are based on personal experience or

opinion only, and should not be substituted for consultation with your

medical professional.