Greetings Henry

[Guest guest]

Hi there,

My name is Bert, my friends usually call me Lion but I answer to

most any name heh. I wanted to say hi and introduce myself to you

since I have started hanging out here since you parted.

I started in PAI about 2 years ago now I believe. Here is a verbose

yet greatly reduced version of my " story " :

November of 1999 out of nowhere and with no prior history at all I

had a sudden intense onset of pain while at work that in a matter of

15 minutes had me nearly incapcitated. I got home then to the ER and

was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis caused by gallstones. The GI

suggested I not have my gallbladder out yet. I recovered fully and

follow up tests were showing me as normal. I had an ERCP to confirm

things were going well, they were, and the ERCP was a breeze. (but

all subsequent ERCPs would be nightmares)

Feb. of 2000 I had a carbon-copy attack of acute pancreatitis. US

showed a gallstone blocking the pancreatitic duct which then passed

a few hours later. I then had my gallbladder removed.

My recovery was kind of steady but then hit a wall. I had moderate

pain that lingered in the solar plexus and RUQ. I had many tests

without anything conclusive so I was told to have an ERCP. The

doctor admitted to having a rough time making the manuever and sure

enough a day later I had another attack of acute pancreatitis as a

result.

At this point I begin to have acute pancreatitis about every 6

weeks. I bounce around from GI to GI until I finally get directed to

the UC Pancreatitic Disease Center. Dr. does an

ERCP/Manometry, diagnosis obvious SOD and treats it with a temp

stent and sphicnterotomy. This causes a period of almost 8 months

free of attacks!

Then Dec. 2002 I have another attack of pancreatitis. It is believed

I may have some kind of cellular issue now. I start having attacks

every 3-4 weeks each requiring hospitalization. In March I start the

process to have a Total Pancreatectomy/Islet Cell Autotrasplant. I

have two more attacks while doing the evaluation for the surgery. I

experienced 15 hospitalizations for acute pancreatitis.

May 15 I underwent a total pancreatectom/islet cell transplant

performed by Dr. Syed Ahmad at the University of Cincinnati Medical

Center. I am released 9 days later, moderately diabetic and

otherwise pretty much kicking tail and taking names, recovering at

fast rate.

So here I am 7 months post-op and overall I have extremely well. My

diabetes is fairly well managed and the only problems with it are

because of my newbieness, not sticking strictly to my dosing

schedules and eating too much bad food because I can again!

However, I started this month to have a different kind of RUQ pain

and different kind of nausea and other symptoms. These are being

investigated and appear to be caused by slightly elevated liver

enzymes. It may be that I have a blockage where they reattached my

liver ducts to my intestine. This is a risk, more common in a

whipple, but overall not all that common. There is hope it will self

resolve, but more tests are being done in case this is not the case.

But I should have options to fix the problem. A TP is a big surgery

and sometimes you have some setbacks. This is one.

So that is me in a nutshell regarding pancreatitis. I am an example

of the frequent recurrent acute variety and my trip will hopefully

resolve positively so that I can be one of the lucky, and more and

more are, that are returned to a near normal life via a total

pancreatectomy/islet cell transplant.

Sorry to be so verbose. Hope your day has been bright and free of

pain.

thanks,

Bert