Re: Hen to Chrissy

[Guest guest]

Dear Chrissy,

Don't worry, enough time has passed that I don't mind discussing her

death so much anymore. It's still very sad and tragic, but time has a way of

healing. I did not have a chance to ask her mother, or husband what the

actual cause of death was, so what I heard was third person from her best

friend. She told me that (I'll call her Helen), to repsect her family's

right to privacy, that Helen died from multiple organ failure after a

vessel near her liver and pancreas where she had had multiple surgeries,

(not Dr. ), ruptured due to repeated surgical incisions, near that site

and the vascular damage from prior times when pancreatic enzymes had eaten

away at the vascular structures. Helen's pancreatitis came on after

childbirth and gallstones. In the earlier days of her illness she didn't go

to MUSC, so she didn't have the benefit of the pancreas team then.

Near the end, she had bowel complications, and had a portion of her

small bowel removed so nutrition was a problem, and she looked like an

anorexic, the last few times that I saw her. I was also told that her liver

was damaged by years of high doses of narcotics and God knows what else they

had her on. She was one of those, I understand it to be, rare cases where

's law applied. Complication on top of complication, each compounding

the other. She was not surprisingly diabetic. She had been ill for 13 years

at the time of her tragic passing, and she had fought the good fight all the

way. I remember how she would sometimes get down, and her daughter would

show up, and she would perk up. It was touching. She was the first person

that I knew who died as a result of complications of Chronic Pancreatitis.

I don't know what the mortality rate is for pancreatitis Chrissy. I just

know that a few people I've known through the hospital and support group

passed away. The other two were elderly and frail. I guess the best thing to

do is to ask Dr. , or any other pancreatic specialist you my know over

there if they think it is life threatening to postpone treatment during an

accute attack. I think there is some info about the physiology of an attack

at the MUSC website. Also, s Hopkins probably still has their excellent

website though I haven't checked it in several years and don't know the www

address. Try the google search engine and see if you can't find J.H. that

way. Try to smile! :-)

Your Lowcountry Pancreas pal,

Hen

> The poems are lovely and she is a talented young lady. I am sorry

> to ask and not trying to open old wounds, but what complications did

> your friend have that would have caused her death. I am not trying

> to be morbid but sometimes when I have really bad spells, I wont go

> to the hospital, am I endangering my life. I have never gone to the

> ER except once, after an ercp, because I think it is a practice in

> futility. Tonight was very bad, and I thought about going in but

> knew they would do little. Theres no way on earth I could have

> driven any way. I do wonder sometimes if I am risking my life, what

> is the mobidity of CP? Or does anybody even know what the morbidity

> is. I wonder what the actual physiology of an attack is. With each

> attack does it eat a way a little more of the healthy panc tissue?

> Are there vascular changes that occur? Does any body really know.

> I guess these are really rhetorical questions but if you or anybody

> have an idea I would be interested to know. Sorry to be such a

> gloomey gus, but maybe the sun will come out tomorrow and I'll feel

> better. It feels good to get things off my chest and voice my

> fears; besides I have denial issues that Im trying to work

> through...*s*. I hope your day has gone well and your feeling ok

> Thanks for sharing the poems and lending an ear.

> Chrissy

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