Re: I'M NEW TO THIS

[Guest guest]

Welcome Joe,

Now that you've suffered through your first acute pancreatitis attack, your

goal should be to care for yourself so that you don't suffer another. There

are many occasions where a person has an acute attack, no damage is

found, and they recover and never again have any problems. My hope is that

you are one of the people who fall into that category. Since your attack

seems to be idiopathic (of unknown cause), but very well may be related to

the medication you were taking, there's every possibility that as long as you

avoid that medication, you may never have any more problems.

There's also a high percentage of people who have that first attack, then

another, and then they find that their condition has become chronic. You

should know within a few months if this is happening to you. You would have

an increase in periodic pain, have difficulty with diarrhea or constipation,

nausea and then chronic, annoying pain in the abdomen.

For anyone suffering an acute attack, the treatment that's usually

recommended is a low fat diet and abstainance from alcohol. Sometimes

pain medication is necessary until the pancreas has completely recovered

from any inflamation from the attack.

Please feel free to ask any questions that are of concern for you. Since you

didn't speak of any lingering pain or problems after your hospital stay, I am

presuming that you're feeling okay, just shaken by the confusing experience

of that unexpected acute attack. I hope this is true, and that you WON'T have

to get to know us too well. (smile)

With hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina

SC & SE Regional Rep.

PAI, Intl.

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

not be

should be substituted for a professional medical consultation.

> Hi, my name is Joe and I live in Whittier, CA. I recently was hopitalized

with acute pancreatitis. My doctors don't know what caused since I had no

gall stones, scirrosis, or high triglycerides. The only thing that can

identify as

the culprit was that I was taking prenivil for high blood pressure and that and

that there is a very remote chance that a side effect is pancreatitis.

[Guest guest]

Joe,

where in CA is whittier (my geography is absolutely horrid). I'm the

California State Representative and I live in Vallejo, near the San

Francisco Bay Area. Anytime you need anything, let me know if I can help

and I will do my best. I try to check my mail once a day, usually in the

early AM, but sometimes later, though once in a while I'll miss a day

here or there (like this weekend). Also, you can reach me by phone if

you ever want to talk. home: and cell: . If I

'm not there, leave a message and I'll call you soon as I am available.

Also, if you have any of these three Instant Messangers, let me know and

I'll send you my screen names so you can IM me anytime I'm online: MSN,

Yahoo and AOL.

I wanted to welcome you to the group and feel free to ask any question.

Unfortunately, about 30% of all cases of pancreatitis are idiopathic

(ie. they haven no idea what caused it - or, as one physician said: they

are idiots as far as why you had pancreatitis). A good website for

finding information on pancreatitis is the Hopkins GI website. It

has information on acute pancreatitis and chronic pancreatitis.

Acute Pancreatitis

http://www.hopkins-gi.org/pages/latin/templates/index.cfm?pg=disease1 & organ=4 & di\

sease=22 & lang_id=1

Chronic Pancreatitis:

http://www.hopkins-gi.org/pages/latin/templates/index.cfm?pg=disease1 & organ=4 & di\

sease=24 & lang_id=1

If either of the two links don't work, just copy and paste the whole

text string, including any of the text that has wrapped to the next

line, into your web browser.

Two things you should always remember with pancreatitis: (1) Absolutely

no alcohol. even though it may not be the cause, once you've had one

case of pancreatitis, you become more likely to have another due to ANY

of the cause of pancreatitis and alcohol is supposed the most common

cause of pancreatitis and (2) Low fat to no fat diet. Most of us try to

stay between 20-30 grams of fat per day.

Look forward to hearing more from you.

Kimber

--

Kimber

Vallejo, CA

hominid2@...

Note: All advice given is personal opinion, not equal to that of a licensed

physician or health care professional.