Old member with a very recent attack

[Guest guest]

Tom,

I have had my GB removed and still had several attacks. I also have SOD

and since I do have Chronic Pancreatitis my A & L levels do not always

rise during an attack. That can happen when you go Chronic.

Are you feeling better besides the nausea? I do not find that my SOD

attacks have anything to do with my CP attacks. But everyone with this

disease experiences differently. If you experience more pain that you

can handle, PLEASE return to the ER with the explanation that just

because liver and A & L levels are normal DOES NOT mean that you ARE NOT

experiencing an Pancreatic attack.

Sandy in Ca

teaton99 wrote:

>HI Everyone, Last night I had another attack. It began at 6:30pm with

>abrupt nausea and pain. I went to the ER immediately and was there

>until 5:00am. They gave me plenty of medicine and treated it as a

>pancreatic attack. However, most of my labs came back negative...no

>rise in amylase or lipase and all liver functions were normal. Has

>this happened to anyone else? Is it possible that I caught it fast

>enough that when I first got there I was not showing systemic signs of

>an attack other than pain and nausea?

> The question becomes what is the next step as I have already had my

>gallbladder out. Which may have caused my previous attacks. Has

>anyone had an ercp to see if this is due to sphincter stenosis of the

>sphincter of odi->perhaps causing another gallstone to appear in the

>common bile duct->pancreatitis? Sorry if this email is slightly

>confusing but I am still in pain and have nausea still. thanks-tom

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Tom,

I have had so many attacks with normal labs that they are too numerous to count.

Thankfully, my GI doc and internal med doc realize that when pancreatitis

advances, you can no longer rely on the labs to determine if I'm having a flare

up of pancreatitis. Unfortunately, getting most ER docs to believe that is next

to impossible. When I have an attack that I think warrants me being admitted to

the hospital, I just insist that the ER doctor call my doctor. They typically

leave it up to me to decide if I need to be admitted.

My amylase has not elevated (to my knowledge) since around Oct 2002. For a

while, my lipase would elevate and the amylase remained normal. Now, my lipase

doesn't elevate either. The last time it elevated was Christmas night 2003. My

GI and internal med doc say that is because I have enough damage to my pancreas

that it doesn't even produce the normal amount of enzymes needed to help my food

digest - so it surely cannot produce elevated enzymes. My attacks returned with

a vengance in Jul 2002 after about a year reprieve. It was in June 2003 that I

switched to my current GI and he immediately diagnosed me with chronic panc vs

just recurring acute panc.

I'm sorry to say that an attack without elevated enzymes might indicate your

progression to cp, but maybe not.

take care,

W

alabama

[Guest guest]

Tom,

Hi, I had my gallbladder out too, and that's when I started with the

Sphincter of oddi attacks, which in turn caused pancreatitis and

whole mess of other problems. My sphincter was so tight that they

couldn't even get in with a guide wire. Therefor they had to

perform a pre-cut papillotomy (access cut). Then they proceeded

with the regular sphincterotomy. I was fine for 5 months and then

the attacks started again. Some of my MRCP's show a small stone in

the bile duct and sometimes the enzymes were elevated and sometimes

they weren't. I used to go right to the ER as soon as one would

start. Now I just take pain meds at home and don't bother with the

ER anymore. They were always confused with what to do with me

anyway. I have also had to have my pancreatic side cut too because

of extremely high pressure. I had a temporary stent too. It seemed

to help alittle for about a month or so. Now I live with the SOD

and CP. I believe that the Cp was caused by my misdiagnoses of SOD

for almost 6 years!! Anyway, hope some of this helps.

Kris in TN