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[Guest guest]

Hello ,

You asked about CP sufferers and work. (I realise that you may not

have CP although you have your suspicions?) My relatively short

experience (9 months) of being in touch with people who have

pancreatitis is that there is no consistent pattern. Some people

simply have too much pain and other unpleasant symptoms to be able

to work. Others seem to get by with much less disruption to their

lives. The disease goes through different stages too. Mine is

hereditary pancreatitis. I had my first attack at the age of five

and am now 58 (next Tuesday!) As a child I appeared totally healthy

apart from one or two vicious attacks each year, each one lasting

6/7 days. Nobody made any connection with pancreatitis even when my

mother became ill with the disease in her 30's. My pattern continued

with little change until I was about forty. I lived a totally normal

life, eating and drinking just what I wanted, had two children and a

demanding job as a teacher and head of department in a large

secondary school. Then I began to get different symptoms with my

attacks....awful steatorrhoea and prolonged attacks of upper AND

lower abdominal pain as well as weight loss. In the end I nearly

resigned. In 1988 an ERCP and CT scan were inconclusive and finally

a diagnosis of coeliac disease was made, probably incorrectly. It

looks now as though the improvement which followed that diagnosis

may well have been less the elimination of gluten in my diet

(coeliac diet) than the fact that pastry, bread, cakes, sauces etc.

which contain gluten also tended to have a high fat content. I also

eliminated lactose as some coeliacs have difficulty in digesting it.

Of course that automatically eliminated cheese, my favourite food,

which cut down fat as well. Throughout the 1990's I was much better,

although never completely free of problems. I went on even to get a

promotion to deputy head. I could not have dreamt of that in the

1980's. Then in 2000 my attacks of upper abdominal pain returned,

coming very frequently and without any particular pattern. My

diagnosis finally came last May following another CT scan, this time

showing very extensive damage to the pancreas. Last October I again

thought of resignation and had to leave school one day as the pain

was unbearable. Since then I have had a pretty good spell with a lot

of pain-free days and fewer painful ones and the pain seems less

severe. I have been putting this down to Creon (enzymes). However,

this could just be a fluke as I have had good spells in the past.

This week has not been good, in fact. At my age now, I could easily

retire if I wished but I would prefer to do one more year as I had

always planned. I love my job. However, if I do retire there will be

obvious advantages. I know I am going to be diabetic very soon, for

one thing. For another, I would not have to worry, if retired, about

those bad days when I find it hard to concentrate on my work. We are

fortunate as teachers in that we are allowed up to six months on

full pay if we are ill and then another six on half pay. Schools

have insurance to cover the cost of supply teachers although you

wouldn't be able to get a supply deputy head! I am particularly

lucky in having a superb head who would put me under no pressure

either to resign on grounds of ill health (in which case I would not

be allowed to work in schools again) or to come into school if ill.

On the other hand, I would not leave him in a position where he was

unable to advertise my post for months and months so I would not

take my full entitlement of sick leave. I would simply take early

retirement. Then, if I wished and was well enough, I could do a

whole range of jobs afterwards in education, whether in schools or

consultancy work etc.

So, all in all, I can say that, despite the horrors of 1986-88 and

the very bad year 2002-2003, I have been very lucky in being able to

lead a " normal " life. Others find that things work out very

differently. I'm afraid a lot of people are " robbed " of their normal

routines, jobs they love and/or need and are very restricted indeed

in their daily lives. Some people I know have less pain than I do.

I'm only saying all this to show that patterns do vary.

I hope, , that you will be one of those able to return to work.

Hopefully, you will recover from this attack and have long pain-free

times ahead. It certainly seemed from your blood tests that they

were exploring the possibility of acute pancreatitis.

With very good wishes,

Fliss