re:alcohol-to robert (& others)

October 30, 2005

hello everyone,

i've seen alot of the posts lately have been about

alcohol and pancreatitis.robert,when i first joined the group in

july,alot of people welcomed me,but i beleive you were the only one

who said in your " welcome " that your pancreatitis was also brought on

by drinking beer,like mine was.my dr. and i had a long talk about my

drinking history during mt first visit and i was very truthful with

him.suprisingly,he told me my pancreatitis may not have been brought

on by alcohol,beacause(his words) it usually takes 10 or more years

of " heavy " drinking to have damage to your pancreas as bad as mine.i

started showing signs of pancreatitis in 95,not bad enough to see a

dr. but in 95 i was 26 years old and would have to had started

drinking haevily at age 16 .other than " experimenting " in my teen

years i did'nt even drink socially till around 22 or 23.then ,between

94-97 alot of very stressful things happened,my husband lost his

job,because of financial trouble we lost our home had to move in with

my mom ect...in march of 96 my brother passed away in an auto

accident,and my drinking really picked up then.in 97 we lost

everything in a flood that hit our town.our whole house went under

water.i continued to drink more than i should have.and having stomach

pains that i honestly thought was an ulcer because of all the stress

i was under.then when i had that acute attack that sent me to the er

in jan.98 that was the only time a dr has been shi**y to me about

drinking. i had'nt had a drink since new years eve,he acted like he

did'nt beleive me.so just from that one bad experience,i understand

what it is like to explain over and over and not be beleived.after

that i cut down considerably,but stiil drank occasional sat nights

parties ect..then in march 04 while at a party stupid me decided to

join everyone else in downing shots of whiskey something i never do

and after 6 years of feelin fine had another acute attack.all of last

year i kept feelig worse and worse, like i never recovered from that

attack and was told in march i had chronic cp.well, i drank some beer

one time in april,(for some dumb reason i didn't beleive the dr.) and

just them few beers i was sick for 2 weeks.i haven't touched alcohol

since.i have no desire to be that sick again ,if i can help it.and i

agree with robert,if my dr. did'nt beleive me and hounded me

everytime,i would have a good talk with him about it and if he

contiued, find another dr.having this disease is bad enough,to me we

need to have a dr. thats compassionate,not judgemental,about our past

drinking problems.

anyway,enough of my life story.hope i did'nt bore

ya'll to bad!!have a good day everyone.

Cindy

October 31, 2005

Thank you Cindy. Its nice to know that you at least understand what it is I am

trying to say. Yes it is a struggle but my doctor keeps on the same subject

each time I go in. Lets see what happens after my surgery. At least I have a

surgeon who is compassionate and caring, non judgemental. I have been through

similar experiences during my 20 year marriage so I know exactaly what you are

saying. We too lived with my folks, and have been homeless on and off for a

bout 7 years. Lived in 3 different family shelters, been back and forth across

this country more times than the average retiree. Had 3 houses yanked out from

under me by my mother. Pretty sad when you are first starting out in life.

Well thanks for the reply and will fill you all in when I return from surg.

callen91385 wrote: