Re: husband with panreatitis - to

[Guest guest]

,

We're glad you found us, too. Your husband's been through a mystifying and

frightening experience so far, and I'm glad that you're reaching out and trying

to find some answers about his situation.

While I'm not prepared or experienced enough to answer all of your

questions, I may be able to speculate on a few, and I'm sure that some of our

other members will have some valuable imput as well.

The doctors are probably going to suggest an ERCP to look more closely at

his ducts to find out what the problem is. This procedure is the gold standard

for this type of problem. I'll type in a web address at the end of my post to

tell

you where you can read about this procedure. While the ERCP is an

excellent diagnostic tool for looking at the ducts, one needs to be aware and

advised of it's potential to cause another pancreatitis attack. The ERCP is the

7th cause of pancreatitis. Even with this drawback, it's often the only

solution

available to look inside the abdomen.

I would imagine that they won't be ready to release him until all his levels are

normal and stabilized, all signs of inflamation have ceased, and they know

what brought on this attack to start with. It sounds as though his high

triglycerides may have been an instigator, but they'll probably want more

confirmation that this was the cause.

As far as how long it will take for him to recover, and what his status will be

once he has recovered, that's such an individual process that I can't begin to

give you an answer. Hospitalization takes a heavy toll on one's system, and

specifically hospitalization where a person's been in Intensive Care and

undergone several diagnostic procedures while there. The general rule of

thumb says that for every day a person is hospitalized, add a week of

recovery, and I can say, in my personal experiences, that's been quite

accurate. For my hospitalization when I was in intensive care and on the floor

a total of 5 days, it took 5 weeks before I was really feeling normal again.

The last time was an attack with a hospitalization of 4 days, which took me 6

weeks to fully recover. But, I'm 52 and haven't been in the best of health

because of the toll of my CP. Your husband is very young and I imagine was

very active, so I'd presume that his recovery time would be much quicker.

This is a situation that you really just have to take day by day. Make sure

that

you have good specialists that you have total confidence in and that are

aggressively pursuing the cause of his attack. I must admit that I'm

astounded at the amount of damage that was found. Didn't your husband

have any warning signs or symptoms of digestive problems? Has he had

problems with eating or pain or fatigue before this happened? It's bizarre that

this much necrosis and damage could have taken place without some

warning signs beforehand.

I hope my reply helps you in some form. I know I wasn't able to completely

answer your questions, but you need to understand that each case is very

individual and it's hard for anyone to be precise with their answers in this

regard. I know this must be a very frightening experience for both of you, and

that you must have a million questions. Please don't hesitate to ask any of

them, and ask the doctors, as well. We'll do our best to help you put your

fears at rest and try to find answers that will help you through this with some

degree of understanding and knowledge.

I have over 50 folders of medical articles and information about pancreatitis

and all it's related topics, surgery, pseudocysts, necrosis, diets, medicines,

antioxidants, treatments, etc. Feel free to write to me offline if there is

anything that you might specifically like to look at. If you give me the

go-ahead, I can send a few more specific ones that relate directly to your

husband's problems.

Go to this website and click on the subject titled " Procedures " , it should tell

you everything about ERCP's. It's also excellent for answers to many other

questions about pancreatitis and its related subjects.

www.top5plus5.com/

With hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina

SC & SE Regional Rep.

PAI, Intl.

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

should never be substituted for consultation with a medical

professional.

[Guest guest]

Thank you so much to everyone for your insights on this disease.

My husband is actually going to be released from the hospital soon,

one of the surgoens said he might even go home today! They have to

take his staples out, and 2 of his reamaining drainage tubes, he

originally had 4. He will still have to meet with a diabetes nurse

to control his insulin once at home, since his pancreas hasn't

completely woken up yet. The only other thing, aside from his

triglcyerides, that the dr's could come up with is that he might

have had a congential defect of one of the ducts in the pancreas,

but those tests came back negative. I would be ecstatic if he came

home today, but I am not holding my breath on it either. He

definitely had age on his side throughout this entire ordeal, and I

am sure he wouldn't be coming home so soon if he were a little bit

older. He has been eating and up and walking around the hospital

for a few days now and he just wants to come home, and he wants to

see his kids. Again thank you to everyone for your insights,

knowledges and help throughout this ordeal. I will continue to

check out this board, as I am sure I will need help once he does

come home, because we have no clue what we are in for. I forget who

asked, but my husband is at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago. They

were actually trying to get him into University of Chicago but they

didn't have any beds available in ICU at the time, and there were 6

people ahead of him. The dr at the hospital in town decided to try

other hospitals because they wanted to get him somewhere as soon as

possible, while he was stable, that could handle this problem.